L I B RARY OF THE UN IVLRSITY Of ILLI NOIS SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER PRETORIA, 22nd March, 1903. Mr. Johnston, Your Excellency, and Gentlemen, — There are some things which do not grow easier by practice. One of them is to reply and to acknowledge adequately a reception such as you have just accorded me. Another is to reply without an appearance of egotism to a toast of this character. I hate* speaking about myself, but I am afraid that to-night it is more or less unavoidable. It is very painful to have to bid you good-bye. I know that that remark may sound insincere, because anyone might say to me : " If you are so sorry to go, why do you refuse to stay ? Are you not going of your own motion?" Well, the exact truth is, however inconsistent it may appear, that I am going on my own initiative, and yet that I am going with deep regret. And the explanation is that I have, during the last year or two, had repeated warnings — warnings increas- ingly frequent and increasingly urgent — that my physical strength — and I have never professed to be a Hercules— was not equal to carrying the burden of my present work for an indefinite time. Not. at least, without impaired efficiency. But I hold that it is a man's duty not to go on doing work which he is no longer able to do with unimpaired vigour. It is not fair to the work, nor to those with whom he is associated. If he can no longer row his weight in the boat, he ought to get out of it. He has no business to go on working until he breaks 2 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. down. The break-down itself may matter only to him- self; but the gradual decline in energy, in judgment, in temper, which precedes it, are a nuisance to his neighbours, and may be of fatal injury to the State. No doubt there are two exceptions to the rule that a man is in duty bound not to go on working till he drops. The first is this : In a moment of supreme crisis, you must just stick to your job at all hazards. I have never doubted about that. I regard a man in my position as a civilian soldier of the State, and he must take a soldier's chances. And there have been such moments, several of them, during my day in South Africa. But the present time is not such a moment. Many things are anxious, many things are critical : they will be so for years. But the state of the weather is not such that you cannot change the commander without endangering the ship. And now for my second exception. A man may feel that he ought to stick to his post, even though con- scious of failing powers, if he believes that he cannot be adequately replaced. But that, again, is not the case here. Great Britain is not so poor in men that she cannot find another High Commissioner for South Africa. As a matter of fact, as you see, she has found one : a man of the highest character, of proved ability, a man who has already served his Sovereign with con- spicuous success in one of the highest offices of the State at home, and who, I venture to say, when you come to know him, will be both respected and beloved throughout this country. If there is one thing more than another which could soften for me the blow of having to give up work into which I have put my whole heart and soul, it is the absolute confidence with which I hand it over to so competent a successor. Now there is only one other personal remark which I have to make, and it will be a very frank one. I am glad to feel, as I cannot fail to feel after your reception of me to-night, that I shall leave this country at peace with Pretoria. In the past a few people have repre- sented me, and I think at times more people have PRETORIA, 22nd MARCH 1905. 3 believed me, to be not too well disposed to Pretoria — for no reason that I have ever been able to discover, except that I happen to live at Johannesburg. But, gentlemen, whatever my sins, I can see a little further than my own doorstep, and my conscience absolutely acquits me of ever having taken sides in what I will not call the quarrel, but what it would not perhaps be too strong to call the chronic bickering, between Johannes- burg and Pretoria, or, indeed, in any of the numerous similar differences between town and town and between Colony and Colony. From the bottom of my heart I deplore these local jealousies. To one who has steadily striven to serve South Africa as a whole, they have been the cause of frequent distress and embarrassment. The root of the trouble in this particular instance is, I believe, the idea — not, I admit, confined to Pretoria — that Johannesburg wants, to use a common expres- sion, to '* boss " the whole of the Transvaal, not to say the whole of South Africa. Now, I will nol^ deny that there is sometimes a rather domineering tone about some of my friends at Johannesburg, which may lend colour to such a notion. But in the main it is an un- fair suspicion, and certainly a wholly groundless fear. No doubt, Johannesburg is very populous, very wealthy, very influential. Even the people who most abuse it are sfcill always scrambling for a share of its custom. But however strong and influential Johannesburg may be, it is yet not strong enough to dictate to the rest of the Colony. Any attempt to do so would at once unite everybody against it. Besides, it has got no policy to dictate. In that large population, which is such a bogey to smaller places, there are infinite diversities of opinion. To those who know Johannesburg as I do, the conception of it as a united, unanimous community, dominated by one set of principles, and capable of being organised with a view of imposing these principles upon its neighbours, is positively comic. There is no doubt one issue on which Johannesburg — and, indeed, the whole of the Rand — could be united. That is the question of the Flag, and all that it implies : 4 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. the question of keeping this country a British Colony, not only in name but in fact. Even about that the people of the Eand would be slow to move. Absorbed in their own affairs, their internal jealousies and antagonisms, they would be the last to scent danger. But if it ever became evident to them that there was danger, then certainly differences would be forgotten, minorities would be submerged, and they would stand before tlie world a united community and a great political power. But then in that contingency their strength would not be a menace to you here in Pretoria. On the contrary, they would be your indispensable allies. And not only yours. Throughout the whole country thousands of men who to-day look upon that great centre of population and industry with jealousy and fear would be looking to it for salvation. But as I have said, a united Johannesburg, much more a united Witwatersrand, is only conceivable at a real crisis and on a single issue. About all local questions — questions, many of them, of the greatest importance — the people of the Eand are not less but more divided than people elsewhere. And they have a plethora of leaders. Time was when there was something like an attempt to get up an agitation for transferring the Capital from Pretoria to Johannesburg. But that agi- tation never was very formidable, and it is now as dead as the dodo. There are plenty of people in Johannes- burg who are opposed to it, as I think with excellent reason. My own belief is that, as a serious question, you will never hear of it again. But that question being out of the way, I myself can think of nothing — nothing, that is, but prejudice and parochialism — which can continue to cause bad feeling between Pretoria and Johannesburg, or prevent the best men of both places, who would be invaluable to one another, from working together with the utmost cordiality for the advance- ment of the country. Now, if I am right in thinking that Pretoria is for good and all the administrative centre of the Transvaal, a few words about the administration of this Colony PRETORIA, 22nd MARCH, 1905. 6 may not be out of place here this evening. That Administration, I have no hesitation in saying, deserves your confidence. More than that, I beheve it enjoys in a great and growing measure the confidence of the public — at any rate, of that portion of the public who think for themselves. But certainly no stranger coming into the Colony and ignorant of the conditions, if he formed his judgment of the Administration from the tone in which it is the fashion to speak about it, or to write about it, could possibly come to any such con- clusion. That, gentlemen, I thiuk is a pity. Serious injury, in my opinion, is done to the best interests of the Transvaal by this trick — and very often it is nothing more than a trick — of perpetual fault-finding, this steady drip, drip of depreciation, only diversified by occasional outbursts of hysterical abuse. I perfectly understand, and I am not now referring to, the abuse of people who attack the present Government merely because they hate all that it represents. That is simply political business — disagreeable perhaps, but natural and to be expected. But I should have thought that the mere fact that the present Government was inevit- ably a target for the attacks of this section would have induced a little more moderation in the strictures of those who are, or at least ought to be, its friends. And there is another thing to be thought of. Is this really the way to improve matters ? He is a bad master who is always finding fault with his servants, and he ends by being, not batter, but worse served. And what, after all, are these much-abused officials but the servants of the community ? People are not exactly tumbling over one another just now to enter the Public Service of the Transvaal — at least, not the sort of people who will be any credit to it. And no wonder. Might not a little more generosity of judgment be useful in retaining and in obtaining the stamp of men we require ? Now, when I say this, do not let anyone suppose that I have the slightest personal grievance in the matter. On the contrary, setting one thing against another, it has been my fortune in life to get, on the balance, quite as 6 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. much eulogy as is good for any man, and no doubt more than I deserve. Indeed, this carping at the Adminis- tration to which I refer is quite frequently accompanied by apologies and even compliments to myself. It is not not my fault that everything is wrong, but the fault of my subordinates. Now that is a position which I absolutely refuse to accept. For the general policy, at any rate, I am in the main responsible, while as to its execution I say with perfect sincerity that I have been most loyally and most ably served. I merit no com- mendation, and I desire none, to the exclusion, much less at the expense of, my fellow-workers. Before the tribunal of posterity, as in the struggles of to-day, we w^ill stand or fall together. And 1 for one have no fear whatever of the verdict which any impartial chronicler will pronounce on our work as a whole. Mistakes have been made — no doubt, not a few. I myself could point out more mistakes than any of the cavillers. But it has been truly said that the man who never made a mistake never made anything, and we have made a great deal. What strikes me about the band of workers, of whom I have had the inestimable privilege of being the Chief, as I look back on the years of restless constructive activity since the restoration of peace, is the enormous mass of their achievement, and considering the fearful pressure under which it had to be done, the general solidity of the work. It is rough work, no doubt, a great deal of it. There has been no time for trimming or polishing. But if rough and showing many traces of haste, it is solid and bears few signs of scamping. Much of it has been costly work, but then one has always to pay extra for extra pace, and we have been going full steam ahead the whole time. The one thing essential, the one thing imperative, when we took over this country, a total WTCck, with half its population in exile, with no administrative machinery whatever, and, as far as the plant of government was concerned, with the scantiest equipment of any civilised country in the world, was to make it a going concern again as soon as possible. PEETORIA, 22nd MARCH, 1905. 7 We could not stand fiddling over small economies while people starved. We could not pause to think out the precise form and size of our future permanent establishments. We had to re-start everything at once — to get the indispensable material at any price, to employ as many hands as were necessary at the time and the best we could get — there was no possibility for elaborate selection — and to leave the drilling, the grading, the weeding out, for a period of greater leisure. I say the work has been rough, and the work has been costly. But after all the great feature of it, the fact that will stand out in history, and which has in our day at any rate no parallel, is the colossal amount which has been done in the time. It is just because it is so enormous in extent that it presents so many points to criticism. If I were to attempt to tell you all about it, I should keep you here all night. It is not a matter of half an hour this, not of an after-dinner speech, .or of any speech, but of a volume or volumes. But what help, I may ask, what encouragement, what instruction, have we got in our Herculean task from the people, who know our business so much better than we do, including some who were asked to assist us and would not ? And here let me just say one word — though it may be a digression — one word of thanks and acknowledgment to those members of the public who, whether they have criticised the work of the Government or not, have at any rate done something more than criticise, and have lent a powerful helping hand to get things right. I must not leave you under the impression that in speaking of my fellow-workers I was thinking only of the official class. It has been one of the characteristics of this Administration, attacked as it is, among so many other things, for being autocratic in its spirit and out of sympathy with the people, that it has constantly invoked the interest and assistance of the public. And it has been richly rewarded. For it has succeeded in obtaining an amount of assistance from outside its ranks, such as no really autocratic Government has 8 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. ever had — volunteer assistance of the most valuable kind, and generally from very busy men who have, nevertheless, spent their time and energy lavishly in the public service. These men, like the merest officials, have not escaped from the general atmosphere of captiousness and cavilling. But to return to my point. What benefit have we derived from that atmosphere ? Is it possible to sum up its lessons ? Oh, yes. First of all, directly after the war there was a fierce demand that everything should be done at once. It was no use saying that even this rich country had not unlimited resources, that everybody was already being worked to death, that there were some things which could not be done well, or done at all, without a large amount of previous study and investigation. All these were the miserable excuses of an idle, unenterprising, unsympathic, bureaucracy, which knew nothing about South Africa. But presently there was a slump. And, good heavens ! what a slump that was, according to our great and wise and farseeing instructors. Never in the history of the world had there been anything so dreadful. Deficit was not the word for it. There were going to be at least half a dozen deficits. We were rushing helter-skelter into bankruptcy. And it was all due to the reckless ex- travagance of the Administration, to its rashness, to its optimism, to the bad way in which officials had been engaged, and enterprises started without previous in- vestigation. It was no use saying that reactions of this kind had occurred before, that they were the common experience of all countries and Governments, that the right thing was, while taking in sail, to keep steadily on our course. Such arguments were the devices of dis- credited gamblers trying to conceal the extent of their over-speculations. But once again times have begun to change. Things generally are not mending very fast, but they are decidedly mending. The revenue of the State once more begins to show signs of elasticity. And so, with the return of the old conditions, up pops again the old piece. Our sins of commission are being PRETORIA, 22nd MARCH, 1905. 9 allowed to sink into the background, and the stage is being cleared for another good sound rampage over our sins of omission. It is no longer our extravagance and our restlessness, which are the subject of the burlesque ; it is once again our parsimony and our sloth. Shame- ful, indeed, and calculated to bring a blush to the face of every Briton, is the spectacle of an Administration, which, in its enormously long life of two years and three-quarters, has failed to endow this vast raw country, which it took over devoid of everything, with conditions in every respect similar to those of old civilised countries, which have accumulated their stock for centuries. " And so we go round the gooseberry bush." It may be said that this froth is only on the surface, that the extravagant and inconsistent criticism of a few people, who make all the noise, are far from repre- senting the real attitude of the sober, silent majority of the community. Gentlemen, I know that, but I know, too, that, if they are simply ignored, if we are too contemptuous to take any notice of them, they will end by falsifying history as they have already created a wrong impression on the minds of hundreds of people, who are too busy to study official records. What I want is, that the great majority of quiet, steady-going people should not take their opinions ready-made, but should find a little time to examine things for them- selves. They would, I think, be astonished to realise how far we have travelled in a short time. People take many things as a matter of course, which, nevertheless, are only the result of the most constant watchfulness, of the most strenuous labour — the profound peace which reigns throughout a country so lately the scene of a devastating struggle, the Statute Book no longer an unintelligible jumble, but reduced to reasonable proportions and an orderly form, the steady, incorruptible administration of justice under a Supreme Court which has no superior in any British Colony, the return of our principal industry to its old prosperity, the new life which is being infused into 10 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. agriculture, the starting of experimeDtal farms, the intro- duction of high-class stock, the planting of forests, the municipal institutions, as liberal as any in the world, which have now been created throughout the whole of the Colony, the free schools containing twice as many children as at any previous period, the new provisions for higher technical training, the ensuring of an adequate water supply for your greatest centre of population, the careful scientific study now for the first time being devoted to the great problem of irrigation in all its branches. I say these things are treated as a matter of course. I do not complain of the fact. It is the highest possible compliment. But I would just ask you, as the many deficiencies of our Public Works are a favourite theme of comment, to look at some of the work which has been accomplished in that single line. We have completed 275 miles of new railways — I am speaking now of both Colonies — 311 miles are in course of construction, and 488 miles are arranged for. In addition to this we have spent two and a half millions on our existing railways, which were left in a terrible condition after the war, and which are now in a better state than they ever were. Or to turn to the Transvaal only, nearly j£300,000 has been spent on the renewal and improvement of telegraphs and telephones. Partly, no doubt, as a result of that expenditure, the Services under the Postmaster-General will in this year, for the first time, show a surplus. £420,000 has been spent on schools, orphanages, and teachers' quarters, including half a dozen very large town schools, between twenty and thirty town schools of average size, and no less than 152 farm schools. The Lunatic Asylum, which was a disgrace, is being replaced by one of exceptional excellence. Several new hospitals have been built, several existing hospitals greatly improved, and a large further sum has been allotted for hospital construction. New prisons have been built, and existing prisons have been enlarged, though the construction of the big central prison, an urgent necessity, has proceeded slowly, mainly owing to the failure of a contractor. PRETORIA, 22nd MARCH, 1905. 11 Immense sums have been spent on the improvement of roads in the country districts, which were never good, and at the end of the war were in a really shocking condition, more than 1,300 miles of road having under- gone a certain amount of repair. Twenty-two solid permanent bridges have been constructed. Add to this the innumerable minor works which are going on in every part of the country, the police barracks, the Government Offices, the Magistrates' houses, and so on, and you will not be surprised that in three years we have spent on these objects £1,100,000 out of the Loan and £1,035,000 out of Ee venue, while we are committed to a furfcher expenditure of at least half a million. I know that what has been done is only a fraction of what is required, but it is no small matter in a short time, and it has taxed the energies of the available staff and the available labour to the utmost. Even if we had had more money, I do not believe that we could, have done much more with the hands at our disposal. I have gone into these matters at perhaps too great length, but this is the last occasion on which I may be able to address a Transvaal audience on purely local questions. In the one speech, which is yet before me, I may have to devote myself to matters affecting all South Africa. If I may sum up the matter in a few words, it is this : The time is near at hand when the people of this country will have to take a far greater direct share than hitherto in the control of the ad- ministration. The time is probably not far distant when they will control it altogether. When that time comes, there is nothing more important than that there should be good relations, zeal and devotion on the one hand, a reasonable amount of consideration on the other, between the Public Service and the great body of citizens who will be its masters. Keep your public servants up to the mark by all means, but remember that appreciation is just as potent in keeping people up to the mark ; yes, and in the case of the best people even far more potent than censure. In that case I have no fear that you will be loyally served in the future 12 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. as you have been in the past, and that the good work, which has akeady been done, and which is admittedly only a beginning, will go on, mainly, I hope, on the same lines, but with constantly improving methods, improving as experience grows and pressure diminishes, till the Colony has achieved the high place for which Nature has undoubtedly destined her among the great self-governing communities of the British Empire. JOHANNESBURG, 31st March, 1905- Mr. Goch, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, — I thank you sincerely for this cordial and most impressive welcome. It would be affectation on my part to pretend not to be touched by it, especially in view of the character of the gathering, the largest of its kind and the most representative of all parts of the country, that I can ever recollect seeing during the eight years of my stay in South Africa. But, sir, as I listened to the kind and eulogistic terms in which you referred to my achievements I experienced a feeling of singular embarrassment. It is often the case at these moments of retrospect, that while a man's friends are indulgently reviewing his performances the anan himself is thinking all the time of the things he wished to do- perhaps tried to do — but did not succeed in doing. That is my case on this occasion. Browning's words about ''the petty done ; the undone vast," weigh heavily upon my soul to-night. But I have no time for more of these personal reflections. This is my last chance of addressing, at any length, a South African audience. It is impossible to give you any idea of the number of thoughts crowding into my mind. I cannot deal with more than a very small proportion of them, and only that, if you will kindly put up with the driest and concisest of summaries unadorned by any attempt at phrase-making or rhetor- ical flourishes, in which respect I am a very poor performer in any case. It is a source of great com- fort to me in leaving this country to feel that, as regards its material prosperity, the outlook is so much brighter than it has been for some time. The great industry, on which the welfare of this Colony, and, to a large extent, of all South Africa, still mainly depends, is bound, humanely speaking, to attain in the present year the 14 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. highest rate of production ever yet known. That circumstance will presently make its influence felt in almost every direction. I have not the least wish to use unduly optimistic language or to say anything which might be twisted into what is known in the slang of the market as a bull point. I have never pretended to know anything a])out markets. My concern is with the fundamental economic factors, which, on the average and in the long run, but only in the long run, determine the course of markets. I am not thinking of next week, or of next month, nor am I thinking of any- thing ephemeral, when I say that it appears to me that we are inevitably approaching, though it may not come to-morrow or next day, a fresh period of expansion and development. I trust I am not mistaken in this respect, for so much depends upon it, so much more than mere increase of wealth. For such expansion and development, most desirable in any case, are peculiarly desirable to-day — and I am thinking more especially of the Transvaal — in view of the imminence of constitutional change. Prosperity would be invaluable to the new system in its first beginnings. For it is not the case that what is known as self-government, either in its partial or its complete form, will of itself bring every blessing in its train. If any one believes that popular elections and a party system are the panacea which is going to put right whatever is defective in your system of govern- ment, I fear he is doomed to singular disappointment. To be quite frank, my own opinion is that they will not improve your administration or your finances any more, if as much, as these would be improved in any case by influences already at work. The new machinery, even under the present system, is getting into better order every month, men are getting more used to their w^ork, and, as I have said, the country generally is recovering from the effects of war and from other causes which have retarded its progress. None of these good tendencies wall be quickened — I trust none of them may be retarded — by the advent of party politics. JOHANNESBURG, 31st MARCH, 1905. 15 The reasons for the introduction of self-government are of a different character. The great reason is that men, quite naturally, prefer to manage their own affairs, or to think that they are managing them, and govern- ment is such an imperfect business at the best that it is, as a general rule, more important to have a system v^hich people like than to have a possibly better system which they like less. Moreover, if things go wrong in a self-governing Colony, as they will at times go wrong anywhere, the blame does not fall on the Imperial Government or its representatives. There is no excuse for hammering poor old Downing Street. The good relations between the Mother Country and the Colony are not affected, and these are really of far greater moment than any slight loss, if there should prove to be a loss, in the efficiency of your local Administration. These considerations are so plain that I am puzzled to understand why people should think that the Imperial Government needs any pushing in the matter. Obviously the interest of the Mother Country must ^he to grant self-government as soon and as completely as possible. Obviously the bias of every Secretary of State for the Colonies must be strongly in that direction. Just imagine the relief to him, when he is badgered about some trumpery incident at Paulpotgietersfontein, to be able to say, " This is a matter for the responsible government of the Colony." Imagine the immense advantage to Imperial interests, even more than to those of the Colony, of being able to stop the mischievous game of dragging local Colonial business, for home party purposes, about the floor of the House of Commons. And what the Minister at home is bound to feel on the subject, his advisers out here must assuredly feel just as strongly. The temptation both to him and to them is to go too fast rather than too slowly in trans- ferring the responsibility from their own shoulders to those of the people of the Colony. And if, nevertheless, they move rather less rapidly, rather more circumspectly, than some men think desirable, is it not reasonable to suppose that they have good grounds for acting in a 16 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. manner so contrary to their personal interest and inclination ? These reflections are not out of place at the present time. A new constitution is about to be given to this Colony. Without pretending to know all its details, I know enough to say that it will be a very liberal consti- tution, and a great stride, the greatest single stride in the whole march, in the direction of complete self- government. Its provisions have not been decided upon in a hurry or without regard to public opinion here. Ample time has been allowed for the expression and the careful consideration of the various views held on the subject in the Colony itself. Of course it is not to be expected that the result will please everybody ; perhaps it will not entirely please anybody. But no one will be able to dispute the care and thoroughness with which the work has been done, or the spirit of good will towards, and trust in, the people of the Colony which has inspired it. That being the case, I say with- out hesitation that it is the duty of all good citizens to accept it heartily and to work it with a good will. No course could be more unwise, especially for those who may have wished that His Majesty's Government had gone even further, than to try to make the new constitution a failure with the view of hastening the grant of something else. That might be the way to win concessions from an unwilling donor ; it is not the way to get more out of a willing one. If you want a man who has your welfare at heart to entrust you with ten talents, the way to do it is to make the best use of the five talents with which he has already entrusted you, not to hide them away in a napkin and sulk because they are not ten to begin with. But there are higher motives than those of mere policy from which, as it seems to me, the people of this country should meet the Home Government half way, and meet it in a generous spirit, over this business. The present advisers of the Crown, and I say this no longer as an ofiicial, which I shall so soon cease to be, but as a private citizen, have shown themselves the JOHANNESBURG, 31st MARCH, 1905. 17 friends of this Colony. They have not hesitated to risk defeat in the defence of unpopular measures which they considered necessary for the restoration of your pros- perity. They have refused, in spite of jibes and sneers, to use the power which they undoubtedly possess to saddle this country with a war contribution at a time of difficulty, and have preferred to leave the question to be settled by the people of the Colony themselves, and to trust entirely to their sense of honour. I say such generosity and confidence deserves recognition, and the best way you can recognise them is by making a success of the constitution which the Imperial Government has framed for this Colony solely with an eye to what it considers to be the best and safest for the Colony itself. But some men say, ^' Oh ! but unless you grant complete autonomy at once, the Boers will have nothing to do with your system. They have told you so, and, unless they come in under it, where shall we be ? " Well, in the first place, I do not for a moment believe that they will not come in. I decline to believe that the Boers as a body are going to put themselves so completely in the wrong, as they would do, by refusing to co-operate with their British fellow-citizens on terms of perfect equality, merely because a certain stereotyped resolution has been passed at a number of meetings. And even if they did, though I should regret it, though I should feel that the progress of the country had been thereby greatly retarded, I should still not think that the end of the world had come. If one section of the people absolutely refused to play the game unless the rules were made exactly to suit them- selves, the natural answer would seem to be, ^^Yery well, then, sit out. We can play without you, and you can always join in when you are tired of sitting." To my mind it is a dangerous principle, that it is not the judgment of impartial statesmen, who have proved that they have the best interests of the Colony at heart, but the demands of a Boer junta, which are to determine what is to be done. 18 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. The policy, which I would venture to commend to those who may be responsible for the Government not of this Colony only, but of any South African Colony, is a somewhat different one. By all means continue to treat Dutch and British with absolute equality. We have done for good and all with the system of having two classes of white men in this country, a privileged and an unprivileged class. I say treat all equally ; Id deed, try to forget as far as possible the differences of origin. Show the same solicitude, the same zeal, for the interests of every class, of every neighbourhood, regardless whether this or that section predominates in it. But having done that, await with patience the gradual approximation, which equality of treatment and community of interests will slowly but surely produce. You can do nothing more to hurry it. Perhaps, while on this subject, I may say without offence that we British are apt to be rather too fussy about the attitude of the Dutch. It may be dis- appointing that, whatever we do, the other party, or, at least, a large number of them, still maintain an attitude of aloofness, if not of sullenness. But it is, after all, no more than might have been expected. How little are tbree years in the life of a people ! It is a mistake to keep girding at them for not showing more friendliness than they are as yet able to feel. But it is no less a mistake to try to coax them by offering something more than they are entitled to, and something which in our hearts we know we ought not to give up. Courtesy and consideration for their feeliugs, always. Compro- mise on questions of principle, the suppression of our natural and legitimate sentiments, never. There is a want of good sense, and worse still, of self-respect, about that sort of kowtowing which makes it the worst way in the world to impress or to win over a strong, a shrewd, and an eminently self-respecting people. Mutual understanding, sympathy, a common ideal, can only be the growth of years. But, in the mean- time, there is much to be done in working together for the material development of the country. That is the JOHANNESBURG, 31st MARCH, 1905. 19 safest meeting-ground. Politics, pure and simple, may, for a long time to come, tend rather to maintain, than to obliterate, racial differences. But the extension of railways, the development of agriculture, irrigation, and works of public improvement generally, are all so many bonds of union. Aud there is so much to be done to make this country, favoured as it is in many respects by nature, a fitting home for civilised men, to make it yield them anything like what it is capable of either in wealth or attractiveness and comfort. This is a text on which I have preached so often that I will not weary you with a fresh homily to-uight. All I will say to you is this : If you recognise, as you all must, the immense extent of your requirements, be very careful to guard against insidious attacks upon the means of satisfying them. In other words, do not throw away Ee venue. It is quite likely that the next few years will be years of surpluses. But no sooner does Eevenue raise its head than there is a scream for the remission of taxation. Gentlemen, there is a great deal too much that you urgently need to provide out of public money, alike in town and country, for you to be in. a hurry to give away that money. We have had to work hard enough in all conscience to make both ends meet, and if they a little more than meet, there is plenty to do with the balance. Take, for example, this clamour for the reduction of railway rates. No doubt in certain instances the case for immediate reduction is strong. But you should think twice before agreeing to an all-round reduction on imported articles. You will be told that this is the way to reduce the cost of living. I have said before, and I repeat it, that you can do a great deal more, in the first instance, to reduce the cost of living by completing your railway system, and bringing naturally rich districts, which are at present wastes from lack of communica- tion, into touch with the centre, than you will ever do by any reduction of rates that it is at present possible to make. It is not as if you could, under existiug conditions, make a reduction which would bring down 20 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER rates from being high to being low or even moderate. High they are, and high they will continue for some time to come, mainly for reasons over which no Govern- ment has any control. What you can do is to throw away, say, half a million a year in making reductions of rates, which will all go into a few pockets, and which the general public will not feel at all, while that half million, wisely applied, would facilitate a great increase of supplies and expansion of business, all tending to induce a state of thiugs in which a really substantial reduction of rates will be possible later on. It is the same story in other cases. Among the things which will clearly have to be fought for is that share in the known mineral wealth of the country, which belongs, not to private individuals, but to the State. I am not now speaking of new discoveries. Every wise man must favour the most liberal recompense to the bona fide discoverer. I am speaking of the distribution of the Government's share in mineral wealth already discovered and delimited. Here again the so-called popular cause, which is really anti -popular, because it is dead against the interests of nineteen out of twenty men, women, and children in the country, might easily win the popular ear. Why, so runs the argument, not give the poor man a chance ? Why should the Govern- ment get all this money instead of its going to the people ? But what are the Government in this matter but the trustees of the people ? And how would the people get the money if it were just left to be scrambled for ? A few lucky individuals would get it. But the people as a whole would lose it. Yet it is they who urgently want it to supply themselves with the hundred and one things which a civilised country ought to have, but which this country has not got. This subject of development is one about which I could run on for hours. I shall live in the memories of men in this country, if I live at all, in connection with the struggle to keep it within the limits of the British Empire. And certainly I engaged in that struggle with all my might, being, from head to foot, one mass of JOHANNESBURG, 31st MARCH, 1905. 21 glowing conviction of the rightness of our cause. But, however inevitable, however just, a destructive conflict of that kind is a sad business to look back upon. What I should prefer to be remembered by is the tremendous effort subsequent to the wa.r, not only to repair its ravages, but to restart these Colonies on a higher plane of civilisation than they had ever previously attained. To that task I have devoted myself with at least equal energy, and certainly with far more sympathy with my work. ^nd in that connection, I should like to say one final word to those — perhaps they are not very many — who are good enough to place confidence in me ; I do not mean merely confidence in my good intentions, or in the main drift of my policy, but in the general sound- ness of my judgment. To them T would say : '^ If you believe in me, defend my works when I am gone. Defend, more especially, those which are more especially mine. I care for that much more than I do for eulogy, or, indeed, for any personal reward." Many of the things which I have been instrumental in starting since the war must have been started equally by any man in my position. I may have laid the foundations more or less well, pushed on the build- ing more or less energetically. But any other man would have had to do these things, and once done, being both necessary and fashioned after a common pattern, they are now generally accepted and perfectly safe from subsequent attack. But there are other enterprises which owe their origin mainly to my per- sonal initiative and insistence. And these are all more or less in danger. They were necessarily unpopular to begin with, just because they were original. As people always begin by disliking a new fashion, so do they always begin by disliking new institutions, or a new policy, something they are not use to, something for which there is no precedent. As has been truly said, there is no pain like the pain of a new idea. And being thus unpopular to begin with, they have not had time enough to wear down unpopularity by their fruits, 22 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. because they are slow growing. They are all under the curse of that congenital vice of their author, an incurable tendency to look far ahead. Take, for instance, the policy of La.nd Settlement. It is, I have always contended, and still contend, a vital and essential part of our constructive work. It was not adopted, as some critics have said, with a view of ousting the old country population or out-numbering them — I never had such a crazy idea — but rather of quickening that population with a new leaven, of strengthening the progressive element among the farmers, which greatly needs strengthening, and of forming a link between town and country and between British and Dutch. And all this, the much-abused experiment is actually doing to-day, though certainly not to the extent which I should wish. But that is due to the inherent difficulty of the enterprise (and I never had any allusion that it was easy), to the fact that we were hustled into starting it before we were ready, and to a rather exceptional amount of bad luck in the early stages. But all that is over now. The work is progressing in both the new Colonies, slowly, unsensationally, but in a very sound fashion. The only thing needed is just to go on with it, and, instead of perpetually raking up, magnifying, and gloating over the mistakes of the first beginnings, to make up as much lee-way as possible now that those mistakes have been rectified. But the experiment has plenty of enemies, and, unless I can enlist for it some active friends, I foresee that it will have a troubled future. Or take, again, afforestation. That is another of Milner's fads. I am as sure as that I stand here that Nature intended wide tracts of South Africa to be forest country. If you were to spend c£100,000 a year in the two Colonies for the next thirty or forty years in planting forests, you would find yourselves, at the end of that time, in possession of an undreamed of source of wealth, which would come in very handy as your mines were exhausted, especially as, unlike the mines, it would itself be inexhaustible. Yet last year JOHANNESBURG, 31st MARCH, 1905. 23 the Legislative Council of the Transvaal cut down the paltry vote which was proposed for afforestation, and it is, humanly speaking, certain that, unless people can be awakened to their vital permanent interests, the first responsible Ministry which has a difficulty in squaring the Budget will starve the whole thing to death. And a similar danger threatens our arrangements for the scientific promotion of agriculture, using that word to cover all production from the land, whether stock or crops, and the scientific study of irrigation. The work of experts in both these branches will take years to make itself fully felt. It is much of it negative work, in checking disease, in preventing the waste arising from ill-digested schemes, in eliminating quackery. The positive results will be slow, and yet, if the policy is persisted in, they will be enormous. Bat without more public support, I will not answer for its fate at the hands of politicians. Last, but not least, there is the amalgamation of the railways of the two Colonies, and that object of so much ill-considered criticism, the Inter-Colonial Council. I have actually seen it described as a cloak for extravagance. Yet it is absolutely demonstrable that it has contributed greatly to both efficiency and economy in the services under its control. I venture to assert that those services have been better and more closely looked after by a body specially constituted for that purpose than they would have been if they had been left to take their chance in the miscellaneous mass of work with which the two Legislatures are already fully, and more than fully, occupied. It is rather the fashion to decry the South African Constabulary, especially among people who know least about it. In the country districts, where the work of the Constabulary lies, I am in the habit of hearing a very different tale. The truth, I believe, is that the South African Constabulary, which, like anything else, did not spring into life in a state of complete perfection, has now become one of the most efficient forces of its kind in the British Empire, and one which discharges 24 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. without fuss an immense amount of useful work. And, as a defensive force, it suffers from its own efficiency. So complete has been its success in preventing trouble that people, who do not know what I know, have quite forgotten the ever-present sources of possible trouble in a country peopled as this is. But after all the most important, and probably the most permanent, of the duties of the Council is the control of the railways, and in that respect its record is a brilliant one. It was not the fault of the Council that the railways were in such a terrible state after the war, but it is directly due to the influence of the Council and to the hard work of the Eailway Committee, which is its organ, that the efficiency of the railways has been restored, their equipment immensely aug- mented, the accounts reformed, and their revenue greatly increased by the reduction of working expendi- ture. If the Council were to come to an end to-morrow it would have fully justified its existence. But it will not come to an end yet awhile, for it is as important as ever that the railways of the two Colonies should be worked as one system, with an eye to their efficiency as a whole, and to the greatest good of the ■greatest number on both sides of the Vaal, not as two competitive systems, developed wastefully, because independently, antagonistically, and for ever fighting with one another over division of traffic and division of rates. "We are never, I hope, going backward to separate ownership of the railways of the two Colonies. Indeed, I am comforted to think that it is a practical impossibility. Much rather should our eyes be turned in the exactly opposite direction, to the amalgamation, which might even precede political union, of all the railways of South Africa, and to placing them under a permanent Commission, representative of the several States, but outside political influences, which would work them on business lines, and put an end to the present chaos of rates and the clash of interests between one railway system and another. That, I am convinced, would be the greatest practical boon to the JOHANNESBURG, 31st MARCH, 1905. 25 whole sub-continent. When that day comes the Inter- Colonial Council will have done its work. And now, at the risk of wearying you to death, there are just two more subjects which I must refer to, subjects both of the deepest importance, but of a quite impersonal character. The first of these is the Native Question- or, rather, I should say the Colour Question. You know I am, in the opinion of the vast majority of men in this room, a heretic about that, and I am an impenitent heretic. I believe as strongly as ever that we got off the right lines when we threw over Mr. Ehodes's principle of " equal rights for every civilised man." At the same time I am prepared to rely, for a return of what I believe to be the true path, upon a gradual change in opinion in this country itself. It is a South African question, and nothing could be worse in principle or more unfortunate in its results than to attempt to influence the solution of it, even in a right direction, by external pressure. I hate referring to a question of this magnitude in a sentence or two at the end of a long speech. It is so very unworthy a treatment of it. But the alternative was worse, namely, that I should appear to forget its importance, which must be ever present to us, or to be afraid to stick to an unpopular opinion. And here let me say that, whatever may be my anxieties about the Native Question, I feel that a great contribution has been made to a better understanding of it by the Report and evidence of the Native Affairs Commission. Their value will be more and more appreciated as time goes on. There are far too many people who think that they can dispose of the Native Question by a few slap-dash phrases or by a contemp- tuous reference to that long extinct bogey, Exeter Hall. To these I would say, read that Report and that evidence, and you will see how much more complicated the whole subject is than you imagine, how much more many-sided and, at the same time, how much less uniformly dark. Above all you may learn that the essence of wisdom in dealing with it is discrimination — 2G SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. not to throw all coloured people, from the highest to the lowest, into one indiscriminate heap, but to study closely the differences of race, of circumstances, of degrees of civilisation, and to adapt your policy intelli- gently and sympathetically to the several requirements of each. And with that. Gentlemen, I have arrived at the absolutely last point of my appalling list. And this I care most about of all, because it is over all and embracing all. What I pray for hardest is that those in South Africa with whom my words may carry weight should remain faithful, faithful above all in times of re-action, to the great idea of Imperial unity. The goal of all our hopes, the solution of all our difficulties, is there. Shall we ever see the fulfilment of that idea ? Whether we do or not, whether we succeed or fail, I for one shall alw^ays be steadfast in that faith, though I should prefer to work quietly and in the background, in the formation of opinion, rather than in the exercise of power. This question, as I see it — the future of the British Empire — is a race, a close race, between the numerous influences so manifestly making for disruption, and the growth of a great, but still very imperfectly realised, political conception. Shall we ever get ourselves understood in time ? The word Empire, the word Imperial are, in some respects, unfortunate. They suggest domination, ascendency, the rule of a superior State over vassal States. But as they are the only words available, all we can do is to make the best of them, and to raise them in the scale of language by a new significance. When we, who call ourselves Imperialists, talk of the British Empire, we think of a group of States, independent of one another in their local affairs, but bound together for the defence of their common interests and the development of a common civilisation, and so bound, not in an alliance — for alliances can be made and unmade, and are never more than merely nominally lasting — but in a permanent organic union. Of such a union, we fully admit, the JOHANNESBURG, 31st MARCH, 1905. 27 dominions of our Sovereign, as they exist to-day, are only the raw material. Our ideal is still distant, but we are firmly convinced that it is not visionary nor unattainable. And see how such a consummation would solve, and, indeed, can alone solve, the most difficult and most persistent of the problems of South Africa how it would unite its white races as nothing else can. The Dutch can never own a perfect allegiance merely to Great Britain. The British can never, without moral injury, accept allegiance to any body politic which excludes their Motherland. But British and Dutch alike could, without loss of dignity, without any sacrifice of their several traditions, unite in loyal devotion to an Empire- State, in which Great Britain and South Africa would be partners, and could work cordially together for the good of South Africa as a member of that great whole. And so you see the true Imperialist is also the best South African. The road is long, the obstacles are many. The goal may not be reached in my life-time, perhaps not in that of the youngest man in the room. You cannot hasten the slow growth of a great idea of that kind by any forcing process. But you can keep it steadily in view, lose no opportunity of working for it, resist, like grim death, any policy which draws you away from it. I know that to be faithful in this service requires the rarest of combinations, that of ceaseless effort with infinite patience. But then think of the greatness of the reward — the high privilege of having in any way contributed to the fulfilment of one of the noblest conceptions which have ever dawned on the political imagination of mankind. GERMISTON, 15th March, 1^03. Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, — In spite of the many occasions on which I have heard this toast proposed, and have felt myself under the painful necessity of replying to it, I cannot remember one occasion on which it has been proposed in more kindly terms and more graceful terms. Nor do I think that I have ever had a more cordial reception. I think, Mr. Mayor, that there was perhaps a tone of gentle rebuke in what you said about the lateness of my first official visit to Germiston. I only hope that it is a case of '' better late than never,'' and I can assure you, gentlemen, that although this is my first official visit, my private visits have not been infrequent, and that I am neither ignorant of nor indifferent to Germiston and its problems. These problems are practically the same as those which beset all the great towns, all the con- siderable towns along the reef. Here you have a large European population, accustomed to all the outfit of civilisation which characterises the most advanced communities, suddenly plumped down in the middle of what was virtually a barren wilderness. They all want innumerable things, which in elder communities have been gradually accumulated over the course of years, and they want them all at once — roads, sewers, schools, public halls, lighting, water, tramways, places of public recreation, hospitals, libraries. These are just a few of the things which are vehemently and rightly demanded by a busy and progressive community like this, and which cannot be provided in a hurry, no, not even with plenty of money. And the towns of the Eand, though no doubt rich in a sense, because they have great and growing property value, are nevertheless in some respects unfortunately placed with regard to their financial condition. They have not, like some towns and even villages of the country districts, a great public GERMISTON, 15th MARCH, 1905. 29 asset. And then to turn to another matter, the develop- ment of a large centre of population in the midst of a great mining area must naturally lead to certain very special difficulties of its own. It is true that the town would not exist at all without the mines, but it is equally true that the necessities of the mines conflict in some cases with the convenience of the town, and then com- plicated questions arise with regard to the financial relations between them. Of course, no man of sense can deny that the vital and fundamental interests of the town and the mines are absolutely and indissolnbly linked together, and that anything but a spirit of give and take on both sides, anything but a spirit of the most cordial co-operation, is as short-sighted as it is necessarily impolitic. But, gentlemen, people are not always wise, even in their own interests. There is no country in the world in which small diferences about matters of business are more apt than they are in South Africa to obscure that community of interest which is of far higher importance, and to divide for somq. trumpery issues, men who ought to stand together for some great public good. 1 am glad to think that in this place a good feeling — I believe an exceptionally good feeling — exists between the directors of the great industry which has made the town and the representatives of its inhabitants. All I can say is, there is nothing of a purely local character which I can wish you more than that that good feeling should ever be strengthened and developed. There is plenty of work to be done in a place like this, and it is essential to its being done properly that the two great sections, the two great interests, of the com- munity should work cordially together. The more I think of the difficulties which beset the administrators of a place like Germiston, the more forcibly it is borne in upon me that the position of a Town Councillor, not to say a Mayor, in one of these growing and active- minded communities along the Rand must be something far from a bed of roses. If he turns a deaf ear to the demands with which he is constantly assailed on every 30 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. side for works of public improvement, he will be abused for imcompetence and lack of enterprise. If he listens to them he is equally, nay, he is more certain, to be abused for rashness and extravagance. Of the two horns of the dilemma I should personally prefer the latter. Of course, there is a golden mean in these matters, but if you have to err on one side or the other, I, for my part, should prefer to err on the side of progress and development. What I have just said about your local affairs, I should say with even greater confidence, because of my fuller knowledge, about this Colony as a whole. For my own part, as far as its material future at least is concerned, I have never been on the side of the croakers, and certainly it is far easier to-day than it would have been a year ago to take that hopeful view to which I am naturally inclined. At that time we seemed to be threatened with a general smash. That was the reason for which I returned to South Africa at a time when very strong pressure indeed was brought to bear upon me to remain at Home, and I have never regretted the decision. To-day, I have the satisfaction of feeling that, though things are certainly not as bright as we should like them to be, we are at any rate in perfectly safe water. It is true that you still hear a great deal of talk about the terrible state of the public purse, about the extravagance here and the extrava- gance there, and the absolute necessity of a radical change, in order to save the country from the terrible consequences of financial mismanagement. But gentlemen, whatever reasons there may be for a constitutional change — and I am the last to deny that there are strong reasons — there is at least one argument which no man who has examined the figures for him- self can honestly urge, and it is this ; that the finances of our Colony are disappearing, or that you are threatened with financial embarrassment. It is a very different thing from what we have experienced in the past. I am not prepared to contend that there never has been cause for financial anxiety. When we had to GERMISTON, 15th MARCH, 1905. 31 make that terrific effort to drag this country out of chaos, directly after the war, many things had to be done in a hurry, and many things had to be done in a manner frightfully costly, if only to avoid delays which would have been more costly still. But now, as we stand to-day, the finances of the country, including the finances of the railway, which have formed one of the most difficult jobs of all, are in absolute order, and are perfectly under control. The statements to the con- trary, which you may still sometimes hear — statements often made, no doubt, in ignorant bond fides, but often with directly malevolent intent — these statements are all absolutely unfounded. A year ago there may have been a difficulty in making both ends meet. To-day that difficulty no longer exists, and I shall leave this Colony in a few weeks hence, not indeed without many anxieties, but without a vestige of anxiety as to its ability to pay its way. No doubt financial problems will confront you in the future, problems of a delicate and difficult description ; but they are problems of an absolutely different character from what one might imagine, if one listened to the random talk which is still sometimes current about dwindling revenues and a depleted exchequer. There is money enough and to spare, gentlemen, for all the normal requirements of good government. The problems before you, if I may say so, are all questions of capital expenditure. It is a great question — how far you can afford to go in creating fresh lines for the purposes of development, which of the many works of public improvement — all urgently needed — which will compete for any fresh capital which you may be able to raise — which of these works are of relatively the greatest importance, and that question is further complicated by the consideration of the obligation — the obligation which may only be one of honour, but which for that very reason no statesman, no colonial statesman at least, with any regard for the public credit, could possibly ignore — the obligation of the Colony to contribute to some extent to the War 82 SPEECHES OF VISCOUNT MILNER. burden of the Mother Country. I do not doubt, having regard on the one hand to the steadily improving financial position of the Colony, and on the other to the great consideration which His Majesty's Ministers have always given to the difficulties of the Colony, that a solution of the problem will be found which, even if it does not satisfy everyone, will yet show due regard for the various conflicting interests and claims. Indeed, I am myself of opinion that the problem will appear less puzzling twelve or even six months hence than it does to-day, and it is evident that there will be plenty of scope in the management of the affairs of this Colony for the greatest financial ability. The budding Chancellors of the Exchequer, of whom we are fortunate in having so ample a supply, need have not the slightest fear of finding an opportunity for the exercise of their abilities ; but there is one respect in which they will not have to exercise it, and that is to pinch and screw in order to provide for the everyday needs of the Colony out of the everyday revenue. The task before them will be much more interesting in character. They will not have to find — to use the kindly metaphor of one of our critics — a coach stuck in the mud, but a coach bowling steadily along, and if not too fast, along a good road, and quite capable of carrying some additional weight. The only question will be how much and of what character. Gentlemen, I have intruded long enough upon your patience. It almost seems to me, comparing the length of my address with others on similar occasions, as if the shadow of retirement is beginning to fall upon me, and as if I am beginning to develop the garrulity of old age and the retrospection of the pensioner. But I felt that there were one or two things I was anxious to say before making my final bow, things mostly of a somewhat dry character. I had not the courage to inflict them all on one single audience, and I have taken the liberty of firing off the first pellet at you, and you have borne it with admirable fortitude. That circumstance adds a great deal to the pleasure GERMISTON, 15th MARCH, 1905. 33 which in any case I would have derived from this first visit to Germiston. Your kindness will be one of the most cherished memories of the closing weeks of my Governorship. You know that memories which are connected with the close of any big chapter in one's life are the most indelible. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the reception you have given me. 1 wish you progress and prosperity to the full extent of your reasonable hopes for this busy and grow- ing centre of industrial and commercial activity. I beg to conclude by proposing the toast of ^* Prosperity to Germiston," and I couple with it the name of the gentleman who has so admirably presided over our pro- ceedings to-day. Printed by Hu^h Rees, Ltd., 124, Pall Mall, S.JV. 1