Native Life in South Africa Part 24

Chapter XVII The London Press and the Natives' Land Act

Slaves cannot breathe in England: if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall.

Cowper.

The native deputation (thanks to Mr. H. Cornish, secretary of the Inst.i.tute of Journalists) can truthfully a.s.sure their people, at the present critical state of their position, of the sympathy of the London Press. It is hardly necessary to mention that religious papers, to which the object of the deputation was made known, published some very encouraging articles on the same, and bespoke the deputation a cordial reception and a sympathetic hearing throughout the United Kingdom; but the mission might have been somewhat monotonous had we friends only and no enemies in the London Press.

And a weekly paper with a yellow cover, called 'South Africa', did its best to fill the role of an enemy.

It abused the Brotherhood Movement and the Aborigines Protection Society for taking up the cause of the deputation. The General Press Cutting a.s.sociation, however, through whom we learnt of the attacks of 'South Africa', did not tell us whether this journal also abused our other friends represented by the London Press. Such has been our good fortune in this respect that friends frequently congratulated us on the unanimity of the Press in our favour. In this we think they were right, as a cause with only one enemy could very well be depended on to take care of itself.

On one occasion some of our friends heard that the author was going to interview the fine-fingered editor of the 'Westminster Gazette'

by appointment, and they strongly advised us against doing so.

"Why not?" we asked. "Oh," said our friends, "he edits the leading Government organ, and he is going to pump you of all information in order to use it against your cause and in favour of the Government."

But we went -- firstly, because we refused to believe that the editor of that great organ of British thought was capable of taking such a mean advantage of us; and secondly, because we were confident of being able to take care of ourselves against any kind of pump; and we can now say with satisfaction that, on the part of the British public, there was such a demand for back numbers of the two editions of the 'Westminster Gazette'

which contained a report of our interview and a photograph of the deputation that in a fortnight both issues were sold out of print. Further, it is safe to say that from the wide area from which inquirers wrote to us mentioning the 'Daily News', it would seem that either that journal has a very big circulation or its readers are mainly interested in South African Affairs. And what, may be asked, are the qualifications of the newspaper 'South Africa' which attempted to run counter to this overwhelming opinion in our favour?

Unlike some of its contemporaries, 'South Africa' has not a single native contributor to its columns. Some London newspapers are in regular receipt of exchange copies from native newspapers published in South Africa, London papers which never claimed a monopoly over South African thought; yet here is a paper, South African in t.i.tle and in pretensions, which cannot even boast of a South African native paper on its exchange list! What information, then, can the editors of such an exclusive London paper possess about an Act specifically enacted to operate against Natives?

Logically, they would know absolutely less than next to nothing about such a law or its fell work. That alone should dispose of the qualifications of this enemy of the deputation, and his authority to speak on the subject of its mission.

The 'African World' is an Anglo-African weekly which has native newspaper exchanges and several African correspondents both white and black. Its editor-in-chief was born in South Africa and was a journalist there before he came to reside in England; and it must be admitted that a paper with such connexions is in a better position to discuss the subject from both points of view.

And so the 'African World' says:

== THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIVE DEPUTATION

It must be admitted that the South African Native Deputation now in this country have gone about their business with decorum.

They have not pressed themselves forward unduly, and, so far, the publicity given to them has been moderate in its tone, and the expressions by the members of the deputation have been equally moderate.

Of course, their best friends discountenanced this visit, as we have noted from the South African Press, but it seems to be the general opinion that even though no appeal lies under the Union Const.i.tution to the British Crown as regards native rights, an extraordinary anomaly seems to exist in this: That the Natives of South Africa within the Union appear to have fewer rights than those outside the Union, especially so far as an appeal to London on various matters affecting their interests is concerned. We are aware that Mr. Harcourt treated the deputation with the utmost discretion when he received them. We also know that Mr. Harcourt and General Botha are on very friendly personal relations, and under these circ.u.mstances, without wis.h.i.+ng to dictate any action in the matter to the powers that be on both sides of the water, we would like to join our contemporary 'The Globe'.

And what did 'The Globe' say?

== THE NATIVE APPEAL

The complaint of the South African Natives who have laid their grievances before certain members of Parliament amounts in effect to a complaint that Parliament is not Imperial. Their grievances are real and pressing, as anybody can discover who troubles to look up the recent proceedings of the Union Parliament, but they have no const.i.tutional means of ventilating them. No native franchise exists in South Africa, and although certain members of the Union Senate are presumed to keep an eye on native questions their influence has proved ineffective.

No appeal exists under the Union Const.i.tution to the Crown as regards Native rights, for although this omission was pointed out at the time the Act of Union was debated in the Imperial Parliament and was adversely commented on, no steps were taken by the Colonial Office to rectify the const.i.tution in this respect. We are, therefore, brought up against the extraordinary anomaly that Natives of South Africa within the Union have fewer rights than those outside -- for the Basutos, who remain under direct Imperial control, have successfully appealed to London on various matters affecting their interests -- or even than the Natives of Crown Colonies elsewhere, as the appeal of native landowners on the Gold Coast against recent legislation in that territory attests.

In the latter case the appeal to the Colonial Office was successful in modifying the offending enactments; in the far more serious grievances of the South African Natives the Colonial Office has no const.i.tutional t.i.tle whatever.

Nevertheless the relations between Mr. Harcourt and General Botha in other respects are notoriously so close and confidential that we may hope the Colonial Secretary will take the present occasion by the hand and urge upon the head of the South African Government the wisdom of dealing with native discontents in his own proper sphere before he prosecutes his claim for the inclusion of the Basutos and Rhodesia in the Union -- a claim which both the black Natives and the white colonists have repudiated with all the emphasis at their command.

General Botha could scarcely fail to give heed to private advice from the Colonial Office. In the case of the Natal Indians, whose grievances he recently redressed, he proved himself a man capable of taking a broad and generous view of a difficult question. There is no reason to antic.i.p.ate until the contrary is proved, that he will fall below his own level in the present not less difficult or dangerous case.

== VIEWS OF THE 'DAILY NEWS'

"The South African National Congress, after resorting to every const.i.tutional means of pressing their case against the Land Act on the Union Government, have sent five of their number to London in the firm conviction that the King of England, to whom they look as their natural defender and vindicator, will turn no deaf ear to their pleas. Two of the five -- the Rev. J. L. Dube and Mr. Saul Msane -- are Zulus; Dr. Rubusana is a Xosa; Mr. Mapikela, a Fingo; and Mr. Plaatje, the secretary of the National Congress, a Bechuana.

All of them are men of obvious culture and with a striking command of the English language."

"Having failed to make any impression on the Union Government ('If we had votes,' Dr. Rubusana observed, 'we could fight our own battles') the deputation has come to England in the hope of influencing the Imperial Government through the Colonial Secretary.

"What they ask for is:

"First, a suspension of the operation of the Act pending the report of the Delimitation Commission:

"Second, an inquiry into native grievances under the Act; and,

"Thirdly, an a.s.surance that the Home Government will express its concurrence with certain promises made recently on behalf of General Botha, but obviously depending for their value on the continuance of his personal political supremacy.

Four Blacks to One White

"In carving out estates for themselves in Africa the white races have shown little regard for the claims of the black man," says the 'Daily News'.

"They have appropriated his land, and in appropriating his land have taken away his economic freedom, and have left him in a worse case than they found him. How the Native has been dispossessed may be ill.u.s.trated by the facts in regard to the Union of South Africa. Here the blacks, as compared with the whites, are in the proportion of four to one; but they are in legal occupation of only one-fifteenth of the soil.

"Under the Natives' Land Act, which has brought the matter to a crisis, even the poor fragment of rights in the soil that remains seems doomed.

For under the Act the Native is denied the right -- except with the quite illusory 'approval of the Governor-General' to purchase, hire, or acquire any rights in land from a person other than a Native.

Under this provision, the Native whose tenancy expires, or who is evicted from a farm, is legally denied any career except that of a labourer.

He cannot own, he cannot hire, he cannot live a free man.

A Legal Serf

"In the language of Mr. Dower, the Secretary for Native Affairs, he must 'sell his stock and go into service.' He must accept any conditions the white farmer chooses or the mine-owner gives, and an ingenious clause encourages the white farmer to exact unpaid service from the native tenants.

In a word, the Native is a legal serf in his own land.

"As British subjects, the deputation of Natives now in England have appealed to the Imperial Government for protection.

They asked for its help to secure the suspension of the Act until the Land Commission report is before Parliament, and for machinery to inquire into and redress their grievances.

They have got no satisfaction on these points.

"It is time that Parliament gave some attention to its obligations in regard to the South African Native. He has no vote and no friends -- only his labour, which the white man wants on the cheapest terms.

And the white man has got this by taking his land and imposing on him taxes that he cannot pay. In fact, the black man is 'rounded up'

on every side, and if, as the deputation suggest may be the case, he is forced to acts of violence, it will not be possible to say that he has not had abundant provocation.

Rights to the Soil

"There is only one principle that can be applied for his protection.

It is the principle that he has rights in his native soil.

Perhaps segregation is the only remedy now, but if so the reservations allocated to him in the Union area ought to have some relation to his needs. We cannot do much for him there, but we should do what we can."

Mr. Advocate F. A. Silva wrote to the 'Daily News': --

== AN APPEAL FOR JUSTICE

Sir, -- Will you please allow me s.p.a.ce, while appreciating your editorial of this date, to bring to the kind notice of your readers the distinction between "British justice as supposed to be"

and "British justice as it is" with regard to the subject races, especially the black men?