COVER LITHOGRAPHED BY
HECTORS LIMITED, JOHANNESBURG,
FROM THE DESIGN AND PLATES
SUPPLIED BY
THE GOVERNMENT LITHOGRAPHER,
SALISBURY.

(From the Portrait by Sir H. Herkomer in the Kimberley Club)

Sir Henry Birchenough, Bart., G.C.M.G. (President).
Baron Emile Beaumont d'Erlanger.
Dougal O. Malcolm, Esq.
His Grace the Duke of Abercorn, K.G., K.P.
Sir Edmund Davis, J.P.
C. Hely-Hutchinson, Esq.
A.E. Hadley, Esq., C.B.E.
The Right Hon. Lord Lloyd of Dolobran, P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., D.S.O.,
Lieut.-Colonel T. Ellis Robins, D.S.O.
Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, M.P.

(From the Portrait by P. de Laszlo, M.V.O.)

A HISTORY of the Rhodesias must be for the greater part the story of the British South Africa Company, known all over the world for upwards of forty-five years as the "Chartered Company." The story, contained in the following pages, of the great countries which, nursed from their infancy by the Company, have grown into flourishing colonies, in the work of an independent and impartial author of long residence in Rhodesia, who has no connection with the British South Africa Company.

Image right: A "hut tax" imposition made on Africans by the British South African Company (in the Balson Holdings Family Trust collection).

   It will bring to the mind of the reader an appreciation of the miracle which occurred between the years 1888 and 1893, and of the genius and ideals of the men who brought it about.
   What was this miracle? Briefly it was this - the addition to the British Empire of a vast new province without the loss of a single soldier of the British Regular Army or the expenditure of a shilling of the British taxpayers' money.
   What were the ideals of the man whose name lives for ever in the name of Rhodesia? The object which Cecil Rhodes had set before himself was threefold: To establish British ascendancy in South Central Africa, to develop the potential wealth of that part of the world, and to raise the lot of its native inhabitants. Subsequent history has shown the extent to which this purpose has been achieved. To-day the figures of population, Black and White, of mineral production, of road and railway mileage and of trade speak for themselves.
   It has been my privilege for thirty-one years to play a part, and I hope a not ineffectual part, in this stirring history of the birth and adolescence of the Rhodesias. In bearing a share of the labours involved and in maintaining the ideals of our Founders and of his early associates, Alfred Beit and Doctor Jameson, I have come to feel a personal interest in and warm affection for Rhodesia and its people. I am proud to have been associated for so great a part of my life with the noble work which Cecil Rhodes initiated; and most proud if I have earned the right to be considered a friend by the people of Southern and Northern Rhodesia, whose lives and interests it has ever been my ambition to share.

IN the 'eighties of the last century the Great Powers of Europe suddenly woke up to the fact that, while every other part of the habitable globe had been pre-empted by one or another, there still remained a vast region in the centre and south of Africa which could only be vaguely described by map-makers as "under native chiefs." Apart from Cape Colony, Natal and the two Boer Republics at the south and south-east of the continent and some languishing Portuguese garrisons on the coast and the Lower Zambesi, Africa, from the Congo southwards, was "under native chiefs." An astute monarch, Leopold, King of the Belgians, first drew attention to the possibility of tropical colonies as a source of profit, and called an International Congress which led to the foundation of the Congo Free State in 1878. From that time on attention was more and more directed to the continent, although it was still generally regarded as "Darkest Africa," and quite unfit for European settlement.
   Explorers, like Livingstone and Stanley, it is true, had lifted the veil over some parts of the mysterious interior, and missionaries, undeterred by months of arduous travel and the hardship of life among savages, had penetrated from the Cape northwards to the countries of the Matabele and Barotse, and from the East Coast to Lake Nyasa, where they founded a civilized community. Baines, an indefatigable traveller and artist in the 'sixties, had brought back pictures of the Zambesi and of the plateau that lies between it and the Limpopo which were not at all like the jungle of popular imagination. Moreover, in 1866, the hunter, Hartley, took to Matabeleland and Mashonaland a young geologist, Carl Mauch, who declared that there were miles of goldfields only waiting to be exploited to realize wealth for thousands of miners. Attempts made to reach the Eldorado, where, however, foiled by lack of transport and by the opposition of the Matabele King, Lobengula, to any "digging" in his domains. Hunting he had no objection to. Incoming hunters paid tribute to him and were told where to go - "given the road" - and his spies kept an eye on them to see they did not "dig," or collect ore.
   One part of men he allowed to "dig" in the Tati region, possibly because it suited him to have white men settled on his boundary with the Bamangwato. Sir John Swinburne's company was the first to obtain a mineral and trading concession, which remains intact to this day though it passed to different hands.
   It must be imagined that the expression "under native chiefs" implied a peaceful idyllic condition unspoilt by the complicated questions of civilized life. The native chiefs themselves were perpetually at war with each other; the subjugated people (such as survived) were reduced to domestic slavery, and over the region north of the Zambesi lay an even more terrible menace in the shape of Arab slave raiders. The law of the jungle ran from one end to another, and in this welter there had emerged a few strong rulers, whose fate it was to find themselves pitted against a superior civilization. Their names were Khama, of the Bamangwato, Paramount Chief in Bechuanaland, Lobengula, Chief of the Matabele, whose country (by right of conquest) lay between the Limpopo and the Zambesi, and Lewanika, of the Barotse, Paramount Chief of some

thirty tribes living within the great semi-circle of the northern Zambesi. One cannot include Gungunyanha, of Gazaland, in this category, for although he became an important pawn in diplomatic negotiations, he was merely the degenerate descendant of a fighting race and wielded no real power.
   Although South Central Africa looked to the diplomatists of Europe like a blank space with a few explorers' tracks across it, and even the best maps could only be regarded as approximately correct where those tracks had gone, there was a considerable number of people in Africa - hunters, traders and missionaries - who had personal knowledge of the interior, having trekked with wagons in the leisurely South African way over many parts of it.
   It was in these circumstances that a young Englishman, Cecil John Rhodes, who at twenty-nine years of age had already laid the foundation of an immense fortune and had sent himself to Oxford in the midst of his business life, took his seat in the Cape Parliament in 1881. He had conceived the idea of spreading British domination northward to the Zambesi, and beyond, north again, till it joined up with Egypt. The vastness and the apparent impossibility of this can only be realized by a look at the map. It meant filling in a space between the Orange River and the Nile, from Cape Colony to Egypt, and this at a time when the British Government of the day, which had just ceded the Transvaal, was particularly averse to any extension of its responsibility, more especially in Africa. A few years before it had refused the support which would have enabled Mackinnon to take up a concession of the whole of the Zanzibar Coast, offered to him by the Sultan. German traders were more fortunate in obtaining the support of their government, and Tanganyka became part of the German "sphere" while the Imperial East Africa Company only got its charter in time to secure Kenya.
   In Southern Bechuanaland disorders which cost the lives of British subjects led to a small expedition in 1878, but despite the success which attended this and the appointment of a Resident in the person of the well-known missionary, Dr. John Mackenzie, the British Government would not, and the Cape Government could not, follow this up with any real protectorate. The country lapsed into a disorder of which freebooters in the Boer Republics took advantage, and a fresh expedition under Sir Charles Warren had to be sent in 1884 to restore order, reinstate the natives and establish boundaries. This cost the Imperial Government one and a half million pounds and helped to increase its dislike for African adventure, but it led to the establishment of a British Protectorate over Southern Bechuanaland, which was first annexed to the Crown and was later transformed to the Cape Government. Germany's appearance at Angra Pequena, on the west coast (where she used a concession gained by Luderitz as a base for her claim to a wide sphere of influence in the hinterland) stimulated this action of the Imperial Government, which, in 1877, pre-empted on behalf of Cape Colony the one good harbour on the west coast of Walfish Bay, but had not thought it necessary to trouble about the hinterland, although representation on the subject were made by the Cape Government. Now it seemed that Germany on the west and the Boer Republic on the east of Bechuanaland might join hands and encircle Cape Colony. The Protectorate over Southern Bechuanaland prevented this and was followed by a treaty with Khama, made at his own request, which placed the whole of Bechuanaland up to the Matabele borders under British protection in 1885. The "Road North" was saved, but the "North" itself was still a Tom Tiddler's ground.
   The Transvaal Republic, with the characteristic urge for expansion of the Boer peoples, was in the field both with diplomatic attempts to secure Lobengula's friendship and with schemes for incursions into and settlement in his country. The Portuguese, incited by the promoters of the Mozambique Company, which was largely financed in

England, were asserting historic claims through diplomatic channels, which the British Government could not altogether swallow but was prepared to discuss. In these circumstances Lobengula accepted the advice of Mr. J. S. Moffat, Assistant Commissioner in Bechuanaland, who was sent on Rhodes's initiative to interview him, that he should execute an agreement not to alienate any part of his country without the knowledge and consent of the High Commissioner in South Africa, in exchange for protection from Boer or Portuguese aggression (July, 1887).
   These bare facts as to the extension of the British sphere give no idea of the cross-currents which at times threatened to wreck the policy of northward expansion, nor of the part played in it by Rhodes. From now onwards he dominated the whole position. He had been convinced by many rebuffs that no decisive action could be expected from the British Government, and the Cape Government was too poor and too divided in its sympathies to be of much help. The alternative of a chartered company was the only one, and in the 'eighties three other companies obtained charters - a form of expansion which had been in abeyance for a considerable period. The British North Borneo Company not only got a charter but took over a derelict Crown Colony in Labuan, and Mackinnon, as already stated, got his belated charter for the Imperial East African Company, in 1888, while the Royal Niger Company, another of those trading ventures which pioneered the way for British Government, obtained its charter in 1886.
   For a chartered company, however, some more definite jumping-off place was needed than a vague mandate to a still undefined territory, for though diplomatic agreements were now proceeding in the Chancelleries of Europe which, by 1890, would complete the partition of Africa, there was still considerable latitude about boundaries in Central Africa. Rhodes set out to get as much as he could for the British Flag in the teeth not only of commercial opposition and strong disapproval in a circle which distrusted either colonial or commercial control of native territory, but of a supine attitude in the Foreign Office which not even the High Commissioner in South Africa, as the man on the spot, could sufficiently disturb. Sir Hercules Robinson, in the sincere conviction that he was acting in the best interests both of his country and the natives, did what he could to help Rhodes, but the difficulties were so numerous and the action of the Imperial Government so incalculable that the task would have proved impossible but for two factors - Rhodes's own driving force and the wealth he could command through friends like Alfred Beit, who shared his ambitions. It was only in January 1890, that he was able to put the coping stone on his first great enterprise, the amalgamation of interests in the Diamond Fields. Until that was accomplished, and regulation of output was ensured, there was no financial security in that industry. In the trust deeds for the formation of the De Beers Company Rhodes insisted that territorial expansion and development of any kind should come within its legitimate operations. He had previously, in conjunction with his partner, Rudd, in 1886, secured another source of wealth by the founding of the Consolidated Gold Fields. He could now, for the first time, rely on substantial financial backing for his political schemes.
   Matabeleland was, for several reasons, the key to the position. In the first place it was the only country which, by the reputation of the goldfields, was likely to attract sufficient private capital for the sort of enterprise Rhodes had in mind, and since Government finance was not possible, private finance was indispensable. The country, as Rhodes used to say, was "mineralized from end to end," according to Carl Mauch and others, and the lure of gold was to be the ostensible reason for an enterprise which (in truth) did not stop at Matabeleland. Also, in Lobengula, there was a monarch who really could carry his country with him and Lobengula was therefore the first, if by no means the only, preoccupation of Rhodes in the years 1887 to 1889.

8

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

   On 30th September, 1888, Rhodes obtained, through the agency of Charles D. Rudd, his business partner in early Kimberley days and in the goldfields, Rochford Maguire, an Oxford friend, and F. R. Thompson ("Matabele Thompson") as interpreter, a concession from Lobengula of the charge over all the minerals in his territory and the right to do whatsoever was necessary to win and procure them. In return Lobengula obtained a payment of £100 per month, 3,000 Martini-Henri rifles and ammunition, and a gunboat on the Zambesi. The guns were delivered and the money accepted, but the boat, which was an idea of Rhodes taken from the African Lakes Corporation's boat on Lake Nyasa, never materialized. The concession was witnessed by the missionary, C. D. Helm, who certified that he had explained it to the King and that the constitutional procedure of the Matabele nation had been followed. The circumstances in which this concession was obtained and the hardships and dangers undergone by the three agents have been frequently told and need no repetition here. They were considerably helped by a visit to Lobengula from Sir Sidney Shippard, Commissioner in Bechuanaland, who reassured Lobengula as to their standing. No sooner had they left, however, than rival concession hunters, of whom there were legions in Matabeleland, persuaded the King to hedge, and Mr. E. A. Maund, representing the Exploring Company, whose chairman was Mr. George Cawston, induced Lobengula to send a mission of two indunas under his (Maund's) care to Queen Victoria. Their ostensible purpose was to "see if there really was a Queen," as rumours to the contrary effect had reached them, but the real purpose was to discredit the Rudd concession, and so well did this succeed that the Foreign Office sent back a despatch advising Lobengula not to part with his whole country. As the Imperial Government's High Commissioner had previously sponsored Rhodes and the proposed charter, the confusion of tongues among his British advisers did not allay Lobengula's suspicions and nearly wrecked the whole enterprise.
   Jameson, one of Rhodes's most intimate Kimberley friends, spent four months, October, 1889-January, 1890, at Lobengula's kraals (he was always moving about) placating the obese and capricious monarch. Life was not pleasant among the Matabele, who, accustomed to see their chief wooed by white men, had become almost unbearably insolent to them. An armed incursion of Portuguese from the Zambesi, organized by Colonel Paiva d'Andrada of the Mozambique Company, who was bent on establishing Portuguese claims by some form of occupation, annoyed Lobengula and led him to ratify his previous undertaking that a British party might safely come up to his country to dig for gold under the concession given, which covered all his territory except the Tati district. He even promised to help to make a road. He was favourably influenced by a second despatch from the Colonial Secretary in England, approving of the Rudd-Rhodes concession, and brought up by a most imposing delegation of two officers and one non-commissioned officer of the Royal Horse Guards, whose appearance in full uniform was much admired by the Matabele. This was in January, 1890.
   Before Jameson went up to keep Lobengula in a good temper Rhodes was assured of his charter, but between June, when the first application went in, and 29th October, 1889, when the charter was gazetted, he had a herculean task in merging the interests of the more important concessionaires and buying out the smaller ones. Cawston's company had been merged before Maund and his mischief-making delegation got back to Bulawayo and Lord Gifford, the chairman of the Exploring Company, signed the first petition for the charter. Other companies which merged their interests were the Austral Company, the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, a syndicate under Baron d'Erlanger, and another which included Lord Rothschild and Mr. Alfred Beit. The private owners or alleged concessions were legion. Rhodes compared

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

9

them to locusts. He bought them out rather than incur delay or obstructions, and in one case, the long-dormant Baines concession of 1871, he bought, but did not prevent obstruction and a certain amount of trouble later on.
   For the purpose of obtaining the charter, the Central Search Association was formed, in which several companies pooled their interests and thus presented a united front in approaching the Foreign Office. At the same time Rhodes acquired the interests of the African Lakes Corporation, the pioneer Trading and Transport Company started by the Moir brothers on Lake Nyasa, which had got into financial difficulties because the slave-raiding in that region interrupted all normal trade. This company and other trades and missionaries had established so flourishing a community on the west of Lake Nyasa that a British Consul had been appointed there in 1883, but the slave raids were becoming a serious menace, and in addition Portuguese claims on the whole of the Zambesi region were reaching a climax in preventing the Nyasa settlement from importing arms for their protection, and in exorbitant, and in exorbitant customs charges.
   The situation came to a head in September, 1889. The recently-appointed British Consul at Mozambique, H. H. Johnston, heard that a Portuguese force was on its way towards Nyasa from the Zambesi, and taking advantage of a newly-discovered route along the Chindé River, he succeeded in forestalling them in the gunboat Stork, and warned the leader, the Portuguese explorer, Major Serpa Pinto, of the fact that Great Britain had taken this bit of country under her wing, a statement which he proceeded to substantiate on his own responsibility by causing a British Protectorate to be proclaimed. Serpa Pinto went back for instructions, but his second-in-command apparently thought he could call Johnston's bluff and marched on, coming into conflict with the natives and declaring his intention to proclaim the whole country Portuguese.
   Unfortunately for his patriotic design, this Nyasa settlement had a strong sentimental claim on the British public because of its original connection with Livingstone and its missionary enterprise, and great public indignation was caused by the attack on natives under British protection and the threat to the mission community. The foreign Office despatched quite a stern ultimatum and the Portuguese Government withdrew their forces and apologized for the too great zeal of their forces. Negotiations for the delimitation of Portuguese and British spheres were then recommenced, but as the Imperial Government were not at all inclined to commit themselves to colony-building in the Lake Country - that little-known and slave-raided region between Tanganyika on the north, Nyasa on the east and Lakes Bangweolo and Mweru on the west - they were quite ready to agree that this should be part of the Chartered Company's responsibilities, provided that an Imperial Officer was to be at the head of things, on the principle "you pay and we call the tune" which they adopted more than once in their dealings with the Chartered Company. Johnston went to Blantyre as Commissioner, and the Company put up £10,000 a year towards expenses. Nothing could be done in the way of development until the slave trade was suppressed, and it is estimated that this alone cost the Company £75,000 in the next few years, a fact which might have been put to their credit by some of their critics. It was not till 1894 that the Imperial Government took sole responsibility for the regions adjoining the Shiré and Lake Nyasa, which were transferred from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office as the Central African Protectorate and later became Nyasaland.
   Lewanika and the Barotse lay north-west of the Lake Country. The gap to the north had to be filled in by Rhodes, who sent Lochner and others as agents to secure concessions from the numerous local chiefs. The inaccessibility and unhealthiness of this region, in which Livingstone spent two of the last years of his life cut off from all communication with the outer world, until Stanley relieved him, and where he ultimately died, made the work of these pioneer agents extremely difficult. Alfred Sharpe, who was in the country merely on a hunting expedition when Johnston secured his services, and Lochner, nearly lost their lives, while Wilston, another of the Chartered Company's agents, died at Blantyre as the result of his efforts. That Northern Rhodesia is cut in two by Belgian territory is due to the fact that after two unsuccessful attempts by Alfred Sharpe and Joseph Thomson to secure a concession on behalf of the Chartered Company, the Katanga Company, internationally financed, was unsuccessful, in an expedition led by a British officer, Lieut. Cameron, in which the chief was killed and the country annexed for the Congo. On the directorate of the Katanga Company were several strong upholds of British prestige, including Sir W. Mackinnon - a fact which illustrates another side of Rhodes's many-sided problems in securing Central Africa for the British Flag in the teeth of commercial opposition.
   Lewanika, Paramount Chief of the Barotse, had asked in September, 1889, to be taken under the British wing, largely because he understood that Lobengula's next raid would be in his direction but also influenced by the heroic French missionary, Coillard, who, with his Scottish wife, had carried on a single-handed fight against barbarism since 1880, and who advised Lewanika to follow Khama's example. The British Government had no enthusiasm for a protectorate over Lewanika's country and gladly passed him on to Rhodes, who had the greatest difficulty in persuading Lewanika that, despite anything he might hear to the contrary, the Chartered Company and the British Government were one and the same thing.
   Lewanika had already granted a mineral and trading concession to Mr. H. Ware, and this Rhodes had acquired, but it was necessary when the Chartered Company was in a position to begin work in Barotseland (which was not till 1897) to enter into a fresh agreement with the Paramount Chief of the Barotse, and under this the people have obtained the benefit of settled government and financial stability while retaining their national rights.
   One final touch to the picture of the African stage as set out for the Chartered Company. From the north of Lake Nyasa to the south of Lake Tanganyika ran a road made by the firms interested in Blantyre and the missions, and called the Stevenson Road. A question as to the boundary between the British and German spheres was pending in 1890, and it looked as if the Stevenson Road would go to the latter. Rhodes had a couple of "Forts" run up on the road and christened them "Fife" and "Abercorn," saying "They'll never cede places called after relatives of the royal family." And, apparently, he was right.

AT the time that the fate of the Charter was in the balance, the scale was tipped in its favour by a despatch from Lord Knutsford, at the Colonial Office, which, as an illustration of the Colonial policy of the period, and as a measure of the services which the Company was to render, must be reproduced in full.
   "In consenting to consider this scheme in more detail, Lord Knutsford has been influenced by the consideration that if such a Company is incorporated by Royal Charter, its constitution, objects and operations will become more directly subject to control by Her Majesty's Government than if it were left to these gentlemen to incorporate themselves under the Joint Stock Companies Act as they are entitled to do. The example of the Imperial East Africa Company shows that such a body may, to some considerable extent, relieve Her Majesty's Government from diplomatic difficulties and heavy expenditure."

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

11

   "The advantage of expanding the Empire at private expense," remarks Sir Lewis Michell in his Life of Rhodes, "was perhaps never formulated as a policy with franker cynicism."
   The British South Africa Company was incorporated by Royal Chapter on 29th October, 1889. The names of the Duke of Abercorn and Fife and of Mr. Albert (afterwards Lord) Grey had been added to those of the original promoters at the instance of the Colonial Office and these became Life Directors. Other Directors were Lord Gifford and Mr. George Cawston, formerly of rival Companies. The authorized capital was £1,000,000, of which £300,000 was called up at first, and when one remembers the projects on foot, and that the Warren Expedition, which only covered a small part of Bechuanaland, cost £1,500,000, one cannot but be surprised at the modesty of the figures. Briefly summarized, the charter recapitulated the objects of the promoters, defined the principal sphere of their operations, leaving it open for this to be extended by future concessions, confirmed them in the rights conferred by the existing concessions, and conferred on them other rights of administration which had not been expressly granted by any existing concession. The charter was to run for twenty-five years as a first period, and after that for ten-years terms, always subject to the right of the Crown to revoke it at any time should the Company fail to carry out the provisions or to satisfy the Secretary of State that they were promoting the objects for which the Company was formed. Special provisions for safeguarding native interests were included, and the High Commissioner for South Africa and Secretary of State were to be arbiters of native policy.
   An interesting constitutional point was raised by the powers of administration given to the Company, which included not merely the making of laws and their enforcement by police but the levying of taxes, customs dues and other revenue. As Lobengula, a few months before, had been formerly acknowledged as an independent sovereign, in the despatch sent to him with the two indunas, it is clear that there was no authority for these powers. For the time being, however, the terms of the Rudd Concession, which gave the right to "do all things that are necessary to win and procure" the minerals and to prevent the incursion of other parties either with regard to minerals or land, seemed to be enough to cover the steps which had to be taken to secure order in the new settlement.
   That this was accomplished without difficulty was fortunate, for the Code of Law which had been drawn up by Sir Sidney Shippard and forwarded to London for approval was held up by the discovery of the Government that a fresh agreement must be made with Lobengula as to laws. A magistrate, appointed with Her Majesty's Commission and duly attested police, found themselves for some time without and laws to enforce except the mining laws, which had been drawn up independently. These points are now of academic interest only, but they are of some importance in the history of the Company as illustrating one of the reasons given by Lord Knutsford in recommending the Charter to the Foreign Office. The situation created could not fail to lead, before long, to a clash of authority but the Imperial Government was not to be responsible.
   From March to September, first at Kimberley, which was Rhodes's headquarters, and then at the base camp at Macloutsie, preparations went on for the great adventure on which so much was staked, and while every young man in South Africa (and many others) longed to take part, there were grim forebodings among older people. It was not expected that the expedition would arrive without a clash with the Matabele, whose armies were reckoned by thousands where the column counted in hundreds. Rhodes had hoped to send up a purely civilian force of "diggers" with some help from the Bechuanaland Police, but as the chance of Boer or Portuguese opposition was added to the Matabele menace the plans grew, till a military force of 500 mounted police was added to the original 200 pioneers, whose job it was to construct the road, and who were free to start prospecting as soon as they arrived at the end of the journey, with the gift of free claims and rights to a pioneer farm of 3,000 acres.
   The cost of such an expedition at first seemed prohibitive - estimates ran into hundreds of thousands - but eventually a young contractor, Frank Johnson, undertook the work for £89,285 10s., including £500 for a naval searchlight which proved of the greatest value on the march up, striking terror into the hearts of the savages who saw the beams of the great white eye stabbing through the darkness.
   The route also had to be changed. Selous, the famous hunter, came across tracks of Portuguese incursions just south of the Zambesi in January, 1890, and hurried down to the Cape to tell Rhodes that no time should be lost and to suggest that in order to avoid collision with the Matabele, the column could be guided by him to the high plateau of Mashonaland on a route well to the east of Lobengula's own country. It was to this plan and his own skill as guide that success was chiefly due. He took the column over 400 miles of unexplored country close to the spot he had already marked for a settlement and named after a great Englishman - Mount Hampden.
   More than one message from Lobengula and more than one alarm of hostile Matabele were received on the march, but despite the straggling line of convoy the column moved rapidly, and to this Selous attributed the fact that they never came in touch with the Matabele. Lobengula had difficulty in holding his regiments back, but did so effectually enough, and as soon as prospecting began he asked that claims should be staked out for him. Leaving the base camp at Tuli on July 11th, the column arrived at Fort Salisbury on September 12th, 1890, without a single casualty, and on September 13th, 1890, the British Flag was hoisted in approximately the same spot where it now flies to-day in the heart of a modern city.
   The British South Africa Company's Police, 500 strong, were commanded by Lieut.-Col. Pennefather, of the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoon Guards, Major P. W. Forbes, of the same regiment, being second-in-command, and the Pioneers by Major Frank Johnson. Colonel Pennefather was in supreme command of the column, and as Acting Administrator sent the welcome news of arrival to Rhodes and the Board. Archibald Colquhoun, who was second from the Indian Civil Service to act as first Administrator in Mashonaland, left the column with Selous on reaching the plateau, and set off to the east to obtain a concession from Umtasa, the chief of Manicaland.
   Owing to the uncertainty as to the delimination of the boundary between Portuguese and British spheres, this native country, Manica, was of importance. It lay outside Lobengula's jurisdiction and was believed to be independent, but the Portuguese claimed that it was a vassal of Gungunyanha, who was stated to have ceded all his possessions to them. At the time the greatest importance was attached to the securing of "concessions," and the officers of the B.S.A. Company's Police were provided with blank forms on which it was their job to get as many concessions as possible from local chiefs in case Lobengula's overlordship was questioned. Rhodes had already sent agents to Gungunyanha, who had expressed a desire to come under British protection, which, in view of Portuguese claims, the British Government did not feel able to grant.
   Colquhoun and Selous reached Umtasa's and obtained his undeserved adherence to the Company's régime in a treaty dated September 14th, 1890, and as he appeared to be in considerable awe of one of the Portuguese agents, a Goanese known as Gou- veia, who was in the habit of paying "visits of persuasion" for the collection of taxes or tribute, accompanied by large bands of armed followers, it was arranged to leave a small police post with Umtasa. The chief declared he had executed no previous treaty, but the Mozambique Company had a trading post twelve miles away, at Macequece, and their manager, Baron de Rezende, received the news of the Company's agreement with protest. It was only in the early 'eighties that a small military post had been established at the mouth of the Pungwe and christened Beira, but here the Portuguese Government had transferred from Sofala the civil government of the province which, they claimed, included Manica. There were already some British and American prospectors at work with licences from the Mozambique Company in the valley below Umtasa's kraal, and a French engineer was said to be surveying for a railway.
   In the events that followed the Chartered Company and the Mozambique Company were, in reality parties in dispute over boundaries which they conducted on the spot, which was finally settled in diplomatic circles in Europe. Manica was the focus of the struggle to establish, either by concession or occupation, or both, a prior right, and the Chartered Company was much gratified to think it had got in first, the more so that, in August, while the Pioneer Column was on the march, Lord Salisbury and Portuguese Minister had signed an agreement as to boundaries which presented Manica to the Portuguese. This, however, did not go far enough for Portuguese chauvinists, and the Convention was not ratified by the Cortés, which dissolved in October, forcing the Ministry to resign. It appeared reasonable to Rhodes and the Board that, as the Portuguese had refused this offer, the whole question could be considered as open and they were free to go as far as they could - certainly as far as Umtasa's concession would carry them.
    On November 13th the British and Portuguese Governments executed an agreement to maintain a modus vivendi, whereby neither should seek any advantage or commit any act of sovereignty in the disputed region until a boundary had been settled. This was certainly a blow aimed at the Chartered Company which, alone was in a position to attempt such action, having just taken an armed force to Mashonaland. The day after the signature of the modus vivendi a force of seventeen B.S.A. Police under Major Forbes intercepted Gouveia in a visit to Umtasa, in which he was accompanied by Baron de Rezende, Colonel Paiva d'Andrada and 200 armed followers. The object of the visit was most certainly to force Umtasa to repudiate his treaty with the Chartered Company. Forbes arrested the Portuguese, disarmed the native troops and, having released Baron de Rezende, sent d'Andrada and Gouveia to Colquhoun, who despatched them to Tuli en route for Rhodes. D'Andrada had powerful connections in Portugal and the strongest protests were addressed to Britain. The Company took up the position that their officers had not violated the modus vivendi (although they had not yet heard of it on November 14th) since their arrangement with Umtasa constituted Britain the "man in possession" as from September 14th, and it was therefore the Portuguese who had committed "an act of sovereignty or aggression" by coming with armed forces into the British sphere. The Company presumed that the coast had been clear on 14th September, but this the Foreign Office refused to allow, holding that even though the Portuguese refused to ratify the convention of August, it held good until the Cortés finally broke up, without ratifying it on October 30th. This generous interpretation, of course, cut the ground from under the Company's feet in Manica, but the British South Africa Company's Police had vindicated British prestige in Umtasa's eyes and those of the other local chiefs. They stayed in Mafambo-Basukos (Umtasa's village) and in Macequece to await developments, having been peremptorily warned from home not to venture any nearer the coast.

14

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

   The subsequent development of a rather Gilbertian situation must be rapidly summarized. In the indignation roused in Beira and Portugal by d'Andrada's account of the Umtasa incident the Portuguese went too far even for the British Foreign Office. They closed the Pungwe and Zambesi, which by the modus vivendi were to be open for international traffic, and they even fired on and then confiscated lighters bearing goods for the Chartered Company, which they had the legitimate right to take up the river toFontesvilla, whence they could be transported to Mashonaland. Three warships were despatched from Simonstown to Beira and a British consul appointed there, but while this was happening a Portuguese volunteer force, recruited to avenge the "insult" at Umtasa's, was on its way up country. Decimated by malaria, it was reinforced with native troops and advanced towards Umtali, having occupied Macequece, whose small police post had fallen back to Umtali. With a force chiefly made up of about forty civilian citizens Captain Heymann, of the B.S.A.P., was able to disperse the Portuguese, whose native levies fled, and Macequece was hastily evacuated, a wounded Portuguese officer who had tried in vain to rally his troops being left behind.
   This engagement caused consternation in Beira and Portugal, not only because they feared the Company might follow up its victory, but because the British Foreign Office could hardly overlook so flagrant a violation of the modus vivendi and the fact that native troops had been used against the small handful of Europeans in a native territory. The British Government, however, did not press the advantage, and a small body of police which had actually penetrated some distance towards Beira was turned back by order of the High Commissioner. Lord Salisbury now made an offer of a boundary which, though less favourable than that of the previous convention, the Portuguese Cortés immediately accepted. This line cuts Manica in two, but gives Umtali and a region south of it and east of the Sabi valley to Britain, while compensating Portugal with an area of the Zambesi. While it is not to be supposed that either party in the dispute was satisfied, this boundary ceased to be a matter of contention, and the two Companies and the two European races have since then lived in amity and have tried to co-operate in the development of their adjoining territories.
   The story of the Anglo-Portuguese frontier is of academic interest only to-day, but it needs to be understood by those who wish to appraise what the Chartered Company did to gain a colony for the Empire in this part of Africa.

THE unusually heavy wet season 1890-1891, combined with the difficulties raised by the Portuguese as to transport into the country through Beira, increased the estimated expenses of the early occupation, and the possibility of an incursion of Boers with the determination to settle and form their own government also involved an increase of the police force. The Boer invasion was turned back, with the help of the High Commissioner and the concurrence of President Kruger, but these events, and more particularly the severe sufferings of the settlers, who were practically marooned in the country between December and March without any supplies from the south, which (added to the difficulties of mining) caused an exodus of disappointed men, led to the disparagement of the country in the British Press. Rhodes said of this period: "The condemnation of the Home papers could only be equalled by their previous undue sanguineness. Subsequently we were removed from their criticism as they thought the country too bad to say anything about it." Shares fell heavily, though after a speech from Rhodes they generally took an upward turn and the number of shareholders rose from 5,000 to 8,000. To read Rhodes's speeches at the meetings held at the Cannon Street Hotel at intervals during these years is to re-live those days of hope, too often deferred but never dimmed, of anxiety, of triumph, of disappointment and of great achievement, in which, time after time, he carried his audience along on a tide of marvellous figures, of shrewd and homely comment and of inspired forecast, to the point where they cheered his great ides to the echo.
   In his first speech and in several subsequent ones, he explained one of the most criticized policies of the Company which was his own pet scheme, whereby the Company became a 50 per cent. participator in the flotation of any mining venture by the retention of that amount of vendor's scrip. It was his conviction that this involved no hardship to the prospector or developing company and no deterrent to the investor, but prospectors and investors did not agree with him and the result did not justify his views. The subject was for years a serious bone of contention between the Company and the mining community. In his first annual speech, December, 1891, Rhodes also adumbrated his great scheme for a transcontinental telegraph, of which the first link to the Zambesi was already well on its way and earning a dividend.
   A year later (1893) the Chairman had to announce that the clash with the Matabele, which was inevitable as soon as a civilized government had been set up in the midst of barbarism, had actually occurred. The Company's forces, chiefly composed of volunteers from the ranks of the settlers, defeated Lobengula in two pitched battles and many skirmishes, and with the assistance of the Bechuanaland Police, detailed by the High Commissioner, occupied Bulawayo and sent out a patrol to pursue the fugitive king. Lobengula evaded this body, of which part got separated from the main column and was killed to a man. The heroism of Allan Wilson and his comrades of the Sangani patrol (who included Borrow, a most popular member of the firm of Johnson, Heany & Borrow (made a deep impression on the Matabele, since the little band fought to the end and made no attempt to escape, which would have meant abandoning their wounded. With the exception of this casualty the campaign had been short, inexpensive and successful. Lobengula died near the Shangani River; his indunas made peace, and Matabeleland was added to the Company's territory.
   The destruction of this native kingdom was made the occasion for attacks on the Company's native policy from many quarters, which practically never ceased during the whole period of its administrative career. But while opinions might differ as to the actual steps taken to bring the Matabele menace to a head, there can be no question that the Matabele themselves gave great provocation, and that nothing short of conquest would have induced them to permit the civilization of their country. Lobengula, around whom a kind of glamour has been spread by the reports of some who knew him in his prime, certainly had some of the attractive attributes of the unspoilt savage, but in his career as a ruler, while jealous of his own authority, there is not a sign that he ever tried to benefit his people or protect them, as did Khama and Lewanika, from the impact with European civilization of which he was quite clever enough to appreciate the dangers. It may be said that he could not do so because of the nature of his Matabele followers, whose whole life was centred in military organization and warlike raids upon their weaker neighbours. This is probably true but it is no reason for the perpetuation or condonation of a bloodstained tyranny which had for years locked up this beautiful territory. Bishop Knight-Bruce, who traversed the whole country on foot in the years 1888 and 1889, records that it was possible to go for a whole week without seeing a living human being or a kraal which had not been burnt. Other travellers like Selous speak of a country once thickly cultivated now laid waste.
    In the administration of its native policy the Chartered Company adopted as a guiding principle that the native population should have an adequate share of the land as their unalienable possession, and if any exception is taken to the word "adequate," its answer is that both the Company and its successors in Government did not constitute themselves the judges, but accepted the findings of Commissions with independent members. From the beginning every encouragement was given to missionary effort and both financial help, large tracts of land and valuable trading rights were granted to every missionary society which applied. In 1926, the area of land occupied by missions amounted to 300,000 acres. As to other native policy, it has always been subject to veto and control of the Imperial Government, nor has there been any occasion of serious disagreement by the High Commissioner with any action taken. Except for the events of 1896, which will be dealt with later, the record of native relations in Rhodesia compares very favourable with that of any other part of Africa.
   It has been expected that administrative revenue and expenditure would balance at the end of 1893, especially as Dr. Jameson, who succeeded A. R. Colquhoun as Administrator in September, 1891, had introduced many economies, including the disbandment of most of the Police, who were replaced by a volunteer force; but the financing of the Matabele War upset these calculations, and the third general meeting (December, 1891) saw an increase of capital met by the issue of debentures, which were taken up by those already financially interested. At this meeting one gets the first mention of a subject which was to play such a great part in the Company's history, the ownership of the land and minerals. Rhodes had several times asserted that the minerals would be the dividend-earning asset of the Company, and Mr. Hawksley, the Company's solicitor, repeated this, but in answer to a question added: "Of course, the Chartered Company owns the whole of Matabeleland and Mashonaland under concessions from Lobengula, just as it owns the minerals." It did not seem to occur to anyone at that date that the death of Lobengula created a fresh and undefined situation, but it was not long before this idea began to grow in the country itself.
   Even if Rhodes had not been the great protagonist of improved communications the situation in the newly-acquired territories would have made railways the first concern of the Company, for until the transport of machinery was possible the development of the thousands of mining propositions which had now been pegged, and which, from the date of the occupation of Bulawayo, began to be even more thickly pegged in Matabeleland, was an impossibility. One of the undertakings given by the Company was for the extension of the railway and telegraph line from the Cape towards the Zambesi, and on the day the charter was gazetted, Rhodes, who left England as soon as the grant of the charter was assured, entered into an agreement on behalf of the Company with the Cape Government for the extension of the colonial line from Kimberly, then the terminus, to Vryburg, whence the Company engaged to carry it on to Mafeking. The Imperial Government gave a grant of 6,000 square miles in British Bechuanaland with all mineral rights, in aid of this construction, which was the Cape Colony's quid pro quo to the extent of 4,000 square miles. The balance, with a further Government grant, went towards the section of Mafeking, the Chartered Company retaining a 25 per cent. interest in the land in the Mafeking section. By March, 1894, the railway from the south had reached Vryburg, and seventy-five miles had been built towards Umtali from Fontesvilla, on the Pungwe. Mafeking was reached in October, 1894, Palapye (263 miles) in May, 1897, and Bulawayo in October, 1897. Fontesvilla to Beira, a line terribly handicapped by climatic conditions, was through in 1896, and Umtali was connected with Beira by February, 1898, the narrow gauge line at first laid being replaced by 3 ft. 6 in. gauge in August, 1900. The connection between Umtali-Salisbury was made in 1899, and Salisbury was connected with Bulawayo during the South African War years of 1900-1902. The Victoria Falls Bridge and a portion of Rhodes's "Cape to Cairo" line as far as Kalomo were completed in April, 1904. The line to Broken Hill

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

17

was finished in 1906. Branch lines to Shamva, West Nicholson, Selukwe and the connection between Gwelo and Fort Victoria were all constructed before 1912, with finance for which Rhodes was largely responsible. After his death, assistance was given by the trustees of Mr. Beit's will, by which a sum of about £2,000,000 was left for communications and education in the two Rhodesias. In his speech of 1899, Rhodes described how, failing to obtain a guarantee from the Imperial Government which would have enabled him to raise the money at a low rate of interest, he was still successful in seven weeks in providing something like eight millions for railway development, and that under the shadow of the imminent war in South Africa. On another occasion he told how Lord Rothschild, to whom he had gone for help with money for the Beira line, have him £25,000, with the remark that he might as well throw it into the sea!
   This railway construction was undertaken by the Chartered Company through subsidiary companies in which it had a controlling share, and with money principally raised by debentures which the Company guaranteed at a time when the country was still undeveloped. Eventually the financing of these companies was simplified by the creation of the Railways Trust, its capital represented by the shares of the subsidiary companies and the debt owed by them to the Chartered Company. Through this Trust the Company is the virtual owner of the railways from Vryburg to Sakania, and from Bulawayo to Umtali, Gwelo to Fort Victoria, and the Shamva, West Nicholson and Shabani lines, and of extensions, Roan Antelope-Ndola, in Lomagundi and in the Umvukwes. The Umtali-Beira section will eventually revert to the Portuguese. The total mileage of the Rhodesian Railways (including the Beira line) is 2,708, of which 1,356 are in Southern Rhodesia.
   No feature of the Chartered Company's policy has been more criticized on the financial side than that connected with railways, and it is argued that the method by which they were financed has proved an expensive one for the users. But given the exceptional conditions under which they were built, through an undeveloped country, it must be owned that they were a highly speculative undertaking, and the rapidity with which they were pushed on was a real tour de force. Without this rapid growth of communications Rhodesia, a remote inland country, would never have attracted population or capital. Finally, as employers of white labour and also in providing for the comfort of the travelling public, the railways have set a high standard.
   Telegraphic communication was imperative even before railways could be begun, and through the Transcontinental Telegraph Company Rhodes started the line which he intended to be the first link between north and south at so early a date that by August, 1891, it had reached Fort Victoria, and was in Salisbury the following February. It was pushed on to the south of Lake Tanganyika by 1899, and here international complications called a halt. After the Great War the Transcontinental Telegraph Company was wound up with a debt of £40,000 to the Chartered Company, which had to be written off, but, as the pioneer of communication in the heart of Africa, it had served a great purpose.
   The elimination of the sovereignty of Lobengula at the end of the Matabele War necessitated fresh arrangements for the administration, but in making these the Imperial Government seems to have thought only of details and not at all of the obvious change in the constitutional position which afterwards rendered the controversy as to the ownership of the land and minerals so acute. A Council of nominated members was to assist the administration, and a Land Commission was appointed to consider the delimination of land for native occupation, the reserve thus created being vested in the High Commissioner.
   The year 1895 opened with bright prospects. Considerable sums were invested (though not always on sufficient information) by mining and other companies, in pro

   B

perties which were brought into Bulawayo with samples of ore by the dozens of prospectors and agents then at work. The sale of town stands in Bulawayo realized £153,000 that year, and Salisbury, which had been rather relegated to the background, £32,000. Receipts for licenses and other forms of public revenue went up by leaps and bounds, and after one of Rhodes's most characteristic speeches, to an audience so large that it could not get into the Cannon Street Hotel, the shares of the Company also took bound upwards. Even at a premium of £2 10s. 0d. the fresh issue was not the highwater mark. In a short time the shares were worth more than £9 and investors clamoured on them. The shareholders numbered 35,000, and it was suggested that the only suitable place for an annual meeting would be the Albert Hall.
   Up to this point the luck which had hitherto attended Rhodes had held good in the face of every risk. But now the tide was to turn. In December, 1895, Jameson, the Company's Administrator in Rhodesia, crossed into Transvaal territory with a body of the B.S.A. Police in an attempt to reach Johannesburg and to join up with a party there (known as the "Reform Party") which was dissatisfied with the Kruger régime. The invaders were ambushed, captured and imprisoned. The leaders of the Reform Party were sentenced to death, but were reprieved on payment of enormous ransoms. Jameson was sent to England, where he served a short sentence of imprisonment. Rhodes, who had tried to stop the raid, but was implicated in the intrigues which led up to it, lost his position in the Cape and many valued friendships. He was called home to face a Committee of Enquiry, and resigned his Directorship of the Chartered Company, as did the Duke of Fife, Lord Farquhar, Mr. Beit and Rhodes's alternate on the Board, Rochfort Maguire, then M.P. for Athlone.
   In fear of any further action by the desperadoes of Rhodesia an Imperial officer was sent to take charge of all arms and ammunition, and this officer became, later on, Field-Marshal Lord Plumer.
   The results of the Jameson Raid both on the fortunes of the Company and of the country were unfortunate as to their credit and prestige, and for years afterwards Rhodesians were regarded as dangerous animals or as black sheep in Colonial or Foreign Office circles. But all other troubles were put into the shade of March, 1896, when the Matabele, taking advantage of the lack of any adequate police force and also disturbed by some incidents in connection with the outbreak of rinderpest which was devastating the cattle of the country, broke into open rebellion, and murdered all settlers who could not reach one of the hastily improvised laagers. Their military organization had never been broken up and they possessed arms, while they were also joined by some of the armed native police by whom Jameson had supplemented the white troopers of the B.S.A.P. For some reason, possibly because they thought the white people would leave the country by that route, the Matabele left the road to the south open, and had they not done so the small force of settlers must have been annihilated, but as it was they could get supplies and even reinforcements. Rhodes, who had just reached Salisbury via the East Coast, urged the Bulawayo force by telephone, to carry the war into the enemy's camp, and this they were actually doing when Imperial troops under Colonel Plumer arrived. Sir Frederick Carrington was appointed to command all forces and had with him as his Chief of Staff the future Chief Scout, then Colonel R.S.S. Baden-Powell. These Imperial reinforcements reached Bulawayo two months after the outbreak of rebellion.
   In June the Mashona rebelled and even more murders were committed on defenceless groups of settlers and miners, whole families being wiped out. An Imperial force, hastily collected, of various units under Colonel Alderson, came up from the Cape and reached Salisbury via Beira in August. For some months the Imperial forces were engaged in subduing tribes which still remained hostile, and the process might have continued over the next rainy season had not Rhodes, getting into touch with the Matabele indunas, arranged peace with them in his famous series of "indabas" in the Matopos. The situation was critical, for the feeding of a large number of troops during the rainy season would have been an impossibility as well as a financial catastrophe for the Company. The natives were also faced with starvation and the Company provided £40,000 worth of mealies for food and seed.
   While the service of the Imperial troops were essential for the final pacification of the country, it should not be forgotten that both in Salisbury and Bulawayo the burnt of the rebellion was borne by the settler volunteer forces, and that in both places they had to hold out for two months before help could reach them. The cost of the Imperial troops had, of course, to be borne by the Company, and in December, 1896, they were withdrawn, the police force being augmented to continue the warfare in Mashonaland.
   The loss of life during this period was estimated at over 600 among the civil population, and among the settlers were many who had lost everything they possessed. Moreover, the country could not be considered safe for isolated occupation for some time, and the result was that many had to leave. The Company had to meet expenses of something like 2½ millions for military operations and also paid compensation to the extent of £360,000. Rhodes, out of his private purse, is said to have distributed £40,000 to help the survivors among the settlers to get a fresh start, but the setback to the country was not to be discounted, especially in the mining community. Moreover, Rhodesia now passed under a cloud in public estimation which was intensified by a campaign of abuse directed towards the native policy by the Aborigines Protection Society, and by Labouchere in his paper, Truth. A Commissioner, Sir Richard Martin, was sent out to investigate, and in his report could find nothing more serious than errors of judgment in dealing with the cattle question and the fact that native commissioners were in the habit of calling upon native chiefs to find labour for such work as roads or mining, which was paid for at the current rate of wages. This system was in accordance with native custom, but after this date (1896) it was no longer restored to in Southern Rhodesia. Forced labour of a much more onerous kind has been levied in other parts of Africa up to a recent period.
   As a result of the events of 1896, the Southern Rhodesia Order in Council, 1898, established a closer control of Administration. The new form of government was like that of a Crown Colony, with its nominated Council and two elected members for each province, the Company keeping control of finances through its nominated majority. The Administrator, Judges, and Native Commissioners, though paid by the Company, had to be confirmed in office by the High Commissioner and could be removed at his recommendation, but not without it. With some modifications this system remained until the termination of the Company's administration, and the fact that no serious friction ever occurred between them and the Imperial Government during this period of dual control speaks well for both sides, but more particularly for the tact and sympathy of the High Commissioners through whom the Imperial control was exercised. Finally, two officers, appointed and paid by the Crown, were stationed in Rhodesia, one as Commandant of the armed forces, and the other as Resident Commissioner, to keep the High Commissioner fully in touch with events. The Commandant was paid by the Company but his appointment was subject to Imperial sanction.
   While these constitutional changes were taking place south of the Zambesi nothing had been done to implement the agreement with Lewanika, who was getting impatient that no signs of British protection were visible. In 1897, Robert Coryndon, one of the band of young men especially selected by Rhodes and known as the "Apostles," was sent to Barotseland as Commissioner, and with a small staff set about framing an administrative service. Lewanika executed another and a more comprehensive treaty with the Company in 1900, and from that time till post-War days, the history of North-Western Rhodesia is devoid of any outstanding incident. Development was slow as compared with the south.
   North-Eastern Rhodesia, which was administered from Blantyre by an Imperial officer until 1894, began its independent administration under the Company in 1895 with Major Patrick Forbes as Deputy Administrator, but before civil government could function, the slave trade had finally to be suppressed, and this was not accomplished until September, 1897. A small white settlement was formed in an area held by a Company known as the North Chartered Exploration Company, in which the Chartered Company held shares, and in January, 1898, the headquarters of this settlement was threatened by a rebellion of the Angoni tribe. A military expedition from the Nyasaland Protectorate, where there was a regiment of the British Central African Rifles and a Sikh detachment, was sent by Colonel Manning, the Acting Commissioner, and in a series of engagements defeated the Angoni and restored order throughout the territory, which has enjoyed a peaceful existence since that time. Robert Codrington came up as Administrator, the telegraph line reached Lake Tanganyika - or rather a point south of it - and courts of justice and administrative machinery were set up, but this region remained very much cut off from the rest of the world. In 1911, the two provinces were united for administrative purposes, and until the development of road communication made motoring possible the Administrator and officials going from North-Western to North-Eastern Rhodesia travelled via Southern Rhodesia and Beira to Blantyre, and thence to Fort Jameson. In these circumstances white settlement was not to be expected.
   From the date of its inception in 1889 to 1898, when a fresh régime began, the Chartered Company had been almost too much in the public eye. The Pioneer expedition, the clash with the Portuguese, the Matabele War, the Jameson Raid and the Rebellions - all had contributed to make it front-page news, and the attacks of Labouchere and the Aborigines Protection Society on native policy had given it notoriety, if years the Company passed, so far as public interest was concerned, into an obscurity which was only lifted for a moment in 1902 by the death of Cecil Rhodes, and his burial in the Matopos. It is impossible to find in history any other private citizen whose loss was felt so personally and acutely as that of Rhodes in the country which bears his name, nor one whose memory is more vividly preserved by a whole community of whom only a small proportion to-day knew him personally.
   There was, however, a section of the British public, the Chartered shareholders, whose interest was of a practical kind and who assembled every year to listen, apparently with very mixed feelings, to the glowing report of their assets, existing and potential, and a familiar formula to the effect that the enterprise was "just entering" the stage when they might expect some return on their investment. Some of these meetings were by no means peaceful, and one, at all events, broke up in disorder after it had refused to ratify arrangements which the Board desired to make for underwriting a fresh capital issue of one million. As a result, since the funds could not be obtained from the ordinary investor, they had to be raised by a second debenture issue. Without Rhodes's magic touch, it was becoming more and more difficult to finance the country, whose taxable capacity was not increasing in proportion to its needs. The South Africa War ended with a period of severe depression, which affected Rhodesia, and grants-in- aid, such as those which went to help the new colonies of the Transvaal and Orange River, were not available for chartered territory. It was at this lowest ebb of its fortunes that the writer first saw Southern Rhodesia, and, as was said by visiting Director of this period, when one talks about "depression" it does not mean that the Rhodesians themselves showed any sign of it. It was at this very date that they boldly demanded full self-government for the first time.
   Three questions of the greatest importance to the Company and the country were agitating public opinions. First was the question of responsibility for those administrative deficits which were an annual feature of the Budget. There was a provision in the Charter for a distinction between administrative and commercial revenue and expenditure, as the former was to be submitted annually to the Secretary of State, but the difficulty of dividing them at this stage was really insuperable. The whole of the expenditure for the first period might be regarded as administrative, since the Company had no direct commercial interest at the time, or, on the contrary, it might be held to be commercial expenditure on the acquisition and development of the Company's interest in land and minerals. It was not clear what view the Imperial Government would take. A scheme put forward on behalf of the Company by its Commissioner, Sir George Goldie, in 1904, brought matters to a head with the settlers by the proposal that this administrative deficit, then estimated at 7½ millions, should become a public debt secured on future revenue. This was hotly contested and the proposal was dropped. A fresh Order in Council, at the instance of the Company (1903), had increased the settlers' representation in the Legislative Council to seven, with an equal number of nominated members, this giving them a real voice in their government, though financial legislation was reserved. The Council thus formed remained the same principle until the date of Responsible Government, though the number of elected members was gradually increased until they formed a majority. It was a valuable training ground for Parliament Government, and from 1907 onwards the Administration had the useful experience of learning to balance revenue and expenditure, but the moot point of the nature of and responsibility for the deficits prior to 1907 remained to be settled finally in 1922. In point of fact it was never really decided, except by implication.
   The second bone of contention was that of the ownership of the land, which the Company held under a concession granted originally in 1891 to Renny-Tailyeur on behalf of E. H. Lippert, a German financier, and sold to Rhodes. This concession was contrary to the provisions of the Rudd concession and might have been contested, but Rhodes did not oppose it, as it was understood that he would be able to secure it, and the Company had been confirmed in this, as in all other concessions acquired under the Charter. The settlers, now substantially represented in the Council, with Charles Coghan as the leader of the elected members, questioned the interpretation put by the Company on this concession. The matter was finally, and by consent of the Company, referred for decision to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, but for various reasons judgment was deferred over a period of four years, and it was only in 1918 that the Court decided that the land had been acquired by conquest, and as a subject cannot hold land by conquest, it belonged to the Imperial Government, for whom the Company had acted as agent. Titles given by them were valid, but moneys received for sales or quit rent were to be regarded as administrative, and not (as hitherto) as commercial revenue. The subsequent history of this question does not affect the Chartered Company, but it may be said here that by the final agreement between the Imperial Government and the self-governing Administration which took over in 1923, Crown lands were transferred to the Southern Rhodesian Government as part of a general settlement and on payment by it to the Imperial exchequer of £2,000,000.

22

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

   The ownership of the minerals was also a disputed point in the opinion of many settlers, who thought that all concessions were on the same footing, but this question was never an issue with the Imperial Government, and the recognition of the Company's mineral rights in Northern and Southern Rhodesia was part of the final agreement of 1923. In 1932, the Southern Rhodesian Government brought the mineral rights in its own territory for £2,000,000, a transaction which has proved satisfactory to both parties
   It has been necessary to anticipate events in dealing with these important political questions, which, it must be realized, were absorbing, during the early years, time, money and energy which might have been employed in development. The advantages of Company government, which many settlers appreciated, were an absence of Colonial Office red tape, and (especially in the initial period) a capacity to "get a move on" which does not always distinguish Colonial Office methods. But there were disadvantages too, as the Directors themselves realized, in the fog of uncertainty in which these questions of financial responsibility and ownership were wrapped, and an immediate difficulty was that the Imperial Government would not sanction the raising of loans for public works, which restricted road making and other necessary equipment of a modern State to what could be done out of revenue - a really desperate handicap to a progressive Government. Even a loan for purposes of land settlement was disallowed by the Secretary of State. It is, in fact, remarkable what was achieved under this handicap. Lord Shelborne left no record after a visit in 1909 that the country had the atmosphere of civilization of far older communities such as were found in the Cape or Natal.
   The tide of prosperity actually began to turn in 1906, and from then onwards there was a steady improvement in the financial position which enabled the Company to embark on commercial expansion. The necessity for immigration, particularly of the farming type, became an increasing pre-occupation of the Board. An office was opened in the Strand for publicity and the display of Rhodesian produce, and another in Glasgow, and a Land Settlement Department was started in Salisbury which, as the land was still regarded as a commercial asset, was not under the Administration. A Land Bank was also founded, to give advances for farming purposes on the security of first mortgages on land, and this institution, run on business lines, and having been relieved of a good many of its agricultural investments by the Southern Rhodesian Government Land Bank, continues to operate successfully to this day, probably because it has confined its operations since 1923 to urban property.
   As the result of these endeavours, and also of the impressions of the country gained by troops passing through it during the South African War, there began a steady, if not very large, stream of immigrants of a good type, many being experienced farmers. Could the next few years have been undisturbed and had the land question been settled this immigration would undoubtedly have reached far greater proportions.
   The Company itself now took up farming and ranching seriously, and the policy to be adopted was laid down after a visit of Mr. Birchenough (later Sir Henry) in 1907. Each farm was to be a business proposition, the land carefully selected for its suitability for some special purpose, and the undertaking on a scale large enough to justify the heavy overhead expenses inseparable from Company management and the provision of up-to-date and scientific equipment. On these lines, during the next ten years, ranches with pure-bred dairy of beef stock, citrus estates with large irrigation schemes, experimental tobacco estates with warehouses, and farms where mealies were the main crop, were acquired, stocked and equipped. The standard set was undoubtedly useful to the settlers community, as were the experiments made, and the fact that the Company itself was showing its faith in farming by this large investment would have been more useful still but for unforeseen events.
   Among the commercial enterprises started by the Company, at a somewhat later date, may be mentioned the first Creamery at Gwelo, the Bacon and Oil Factories, and the Milling Company, all of which were eventually passed on, either in part or altogether, to private or co-operative owners. The Leather Factory was the only one which can be written down as a failure, for causes over which the promoters had no control. In Northern Rhodesia an effort was made with Cotton and Rubber, and export began.
   It was due to this policy of putting back into the country the surpluses now accruing in Southern Rhodesia from "commercial revenue" (chiefly mining revenue) that no dividend was declared, greatly to the disappointment of some shareholders, and it must be owned that investment in agriculture and ranching has not proved as sound as it seemed in 1907, but looked at from the wider point of view, that of the development of the country and the attraction of fresh population to the land, even the less successful of these efforts cannot be considered as wasted. The one drawback was that the reiterated statement that the Chartered shareholders never got a dividend created an unfavourable idea of Southern Rhodesia in the minds of many people. It was, from 1907 onwards, a thriving if small community.
   The mining industry then, as now, was responsible for the increase of prosperity. Modifications of the 50 per cent. vendor's scrip provision of the mining law took place in 1904, and in 1907 this method was abandoned altogether in Southern Rhodesia in favour of a royal system on a sliding scale. Other reforms helped to put the industry on a sounder basis, and to stimulate the growth of the small worker, and as a result the figure of gold production began to rise steadily and by 1916 reached the figure of 930,336 oz., value £3,895,000, which is a record for quantity, though not, of course, for value. Copper, coal and chrome also came into the picture. The shareholders first heard Wankie in 1902. By 1914, the output of coal was worth £115,000 and that of chrome £107,000, and these figures were doubled in the next ten years.
   Other companies in which the Chartered Company had a considerable interest and which were now paying concerns, were the Victoria Falls Power Company, originally a concession to utilize the water to produce electricity for Rhodesia and the Rand. Eventually this Company decided to establish its power plant on the Rand itself. The Railways as a whole were also playing, and the greatest anxiety at this time was the shortage of native labour in Southern Rhodesia, which was so pressing that the Board seriously contemplated the importation of indentured Indian labour. The Native Labour Bureau, which began as a voluntary body, and passed through various phases until it became a business organization (although with a Government subsidy) arose out of the difficulty experienced by miners and farmers alike in getting workers. The indigenous native had not yet acquired either the habit or the need for regular labour, and down to the present day, although the number of labourers had greatly increased, the local natives are not by any means sufficient to meet the demand.
   In 1914 the first term of the Charter came to an end, and despite all the political agitation against the Company which had gone on during the whole period of its existence, the general election for seven members of the Legislative Council returned no fewer than six who approved the retention of that form of government for a second term of ten years. The Secretary of State added to the Supplemental Charter the provision that at any time during that period the Council had the right, by resolution of an absolute majority of the whole House, to raise the question again, and to pray the Crown for the establishment of Responsible Government.
   It was thus in an atmosphere of political respite and commercial development that the country and the Company faced the future at the time that the Great War burst upon the world, destroying so many well-laid plans and wrecking so many hopes.
   The Company's part in the war began almost at once, for in Northern Rhodesia they had a common frontier with the enemy. Attacks on frontier posts by German troops were beaten off by Northern Rhodesian forces of Rifles and Police, and afterwards with the help of Belgian troops and reinforcements from Southern Rhodesia. Owing to the activities of Von Lettow Vorbeck this frontier remained in the war zone during the whole period 1914-18, and it was the Abercorn that the German commander surrendered after the Armistice. A force of B.S.A. Police was also sent to the Caprivi strip to defend the line to the north and the Victoria Falls Bridge. A contingent of 500 picked men was offered to the Imperial Government, but was not at first accepted, and was sent to help the Union Government in West Africa. Later, a second contingent was raised and went to Europe, while a native regiment was recruited for service in East Africa, where a Rhodesian regiment also went. In addition, a large number of men left the country to join up on their own initiative, and more would have gone but that their services in the country could not be dispensed with. In all, it is estimated that 11 per cent. of the population, or 30 per cent. of the adult males, were on military duty during the war period. The loss of the pick of the country's manhood could never be made up, for although some returned, many did not, or even if they did, both they and the country had lost precious years of development which mean so much to a young community.
   A scheme of farms for ex-soldiers from overseas was set on foot by the Company as soon as peace was declared, and a small number of these were settled on the land, but unfortunately the period when this type of settlement was likely to be a success was drawing to a close. Agricultural development in Southern Rhodesia had overtaken the local demand, and in the next few years the problem of disposing of surplus products at a remunerative price became as acute in Rhodesia as in other parts of the world.
   In 1916, after a visit of Jameson to Rhodesia, the Company put forward a proposal for the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia under their administration. The population of Northern Rhodesia at this time did not include more than 2,000 whites, of whom a considerable proportion were civil servants, and there was not even an Advisory Council, thought this was granted in 1920. The settler community in Southern Rhodesia felt that to join their comparatively developed political system with that of the Northern State would mean an indefinite delay in gaining the responsible form of government for which they had so long been asking. The Northern Rhodesian Government had a deficit each year, and its native population would add to the difficulty already expected in persuading the Imperial Government to hand over a large native population to a small number of settlers. The proposal was passed in the Legislative Council, but in deference to public opinion in Southern Rhodesia, was never put into operation.
   With the termination of the War began the last phase of the Company's administrative régime, for it was evident that the settler community was determined to get its political freedom. The judgment of the Privy Council on the Land case had clearly the ground to some extent, but in deciding that the land did not belong to the Company, it added that, on relinquishing the administration, the Company would have the right to look to the Crown to see that, either from the proceeds of the land or from other sources, due reimbursement was made of "any outstanding balance of aggregate advances made for necessary and proper administration." The definition of "necessary Lord Cave was deputed to take evidence on this subject. The Company claimed £7,800,000. The Cave Commission cut it down to £4,400,000, with a proviso that the value of land alienated by the Company for considerations other than cash had to be deducted - a figure which would have required yet another commission to arrive at, since part of the inducement for capital investment in railways and mining had been given in the form of grants of land. There was also outstanding a contra claim for public buildings and movable assets which the new Government would have to pay, but of which the figure was disputed.
   In 1920, as the result of three years' campaign by an organized party for Responsible Government, a general election brought into Parliament twelve elected members out of thirteen pledged to support a Petition praying for Responsible Government, and this Petition was sent forward in June, but beyond an acknowledgment no definite answer came until January, 1921, and then it was a cold douche and a suggestion for delay and another election on the same issue. The Company was no more anxious for this than the Responsible Government Party and eventually the Imperial Government appointed a Commission under Lord Buxton (which met in March and reported in April, 1921) on the possibility of granting self-government at this stage. The Buxton Committee recommended that it should be done, laid down the lines and recommended the procedure to be followed, and a delegation under Sir Charles Coghlan, the leader of the Responsible Government Party, went to England to discuss the Constitution. A feature of the latter as agreed was a provision as to the land, to the sale of which (it had been assumed by the Privy Council) the Company must look for reimbursement of its accumulated deficits. By a provision of the Constitution, the land was to be under the supervision of an Imperial officer, with an Advisory Board composed of representatives of the High Commissioner, the Company and the Government. This proposal was agreeable neither to the Company nor to the Rhodesians, and in the circumstances, it being proposed to start the country off without control of either land or minerals, the way was open for an alternative which had never been quite absent - that of union with the South. The Company threw its weight into the scales in favour of Union, and a petition was signed in Southern Rhodesia asking that before Responsible Government was granted the terms of union should also be considered. In May, 1922, a delegation went to Cape Town to discuss the subject with General Smuts, both on behalf of the Company and of the people of Southern Rhodesia.
   In the statement issued to the Press by General Smuts on behalf of the Union Government at the conclusion of the Conference, he made it clear that the acquisition of the Railway and Crown Lands was absolutely necessary, and the acquisition of the mineral rights desirable, in the event of union. The terms at which he subsequently arrived with the Chartered Company were that, in return for the surrender of its rights and claims under the Privy Council judgment and the Cave award relating to the unalienated land, and for the surrender of the assets other than cash of the Rhodesia Railway Trust, the Company would receive in cash or its equivalent the sum of £6,836,000, and would further be indemnified against claims in respect of the Railway debenture interest which it had guaranteed. It was stipulated that the Crown should waive a claim for over two millions extraordinary war expenditure for the period 1914-18, which (amazingly) was being brought into account as part of a final settlement between Crown and Company. No terms had been arrived at by General Smuts as regards the minerals.

26

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

   The terms offered to Southern Rhodesia herself, through the Elected Members, need not be specified here. They proved unacceptable and after a very keen contest were rejected in a Referendum (October, 1922) by a vote of 8,774 against 5,989. In announcing this result to the shareholders, Mr. Rochford Maguire, who, nearly a quarter of a century after his fateful visit to Lobengula's kraal, had been elected President of the Company, made the following comments: "Deeply interested as we are in the result, I do not think it rests with us to appraise that vote by eulogy or by criticism. The voters were indeed voting on the disposition of their own lives, and we must give them credit for recognizing the responsibility of their decision ... The Referendum having taken place, the position of the Company towards the community seems very clear. We have the largest industrial and commercial interests in the country and we have our historic connection with it. There are none who are mote interested than we are in the growth and prosperity of the country, and it is our duty to do all we can to make the new order of things a success."
   This spirit has actuated the Company ever since, and, with the removal of contentious point between them and the settler population, relations which, so far as persons were concerned, were always friendly, have developed into close-operation in any matter which affects welfare of the country. Two ex-officials of the Company, Sir Francis Newton and Mr. (afterwards Sir) P. D. L. Fynn, became prominent members of the first Southern Rhodesian Government.
   There still remained the question of the amount of compensation due to the Company on relinquishing administration, and the method of reimbursement. The Company had filed a Petition of Right in protest against these provisions in the Constitution. Negotiations dragged on while the Legislative Council of Southern Rhodesia was in Session (May-July, 1923) waiting for the result before dissolution; the elected members contesting various items in the proposed financial settlement. At last, a few days only before the conclusion had to be embodied in the supplementary estimates of the Imperial Government, an offer was made by them that, on relinquishing the administration of both Northern and Southern Rhodesia, the Company should receive a cash payment of £3,750,000, in liquidation of all past deficits or other claims, and retain its mineral rights in Northern and Southern Rhodesia and a half-interest for forty years in the net proceeds of the sale or lease of land in North-Western Rhodesia. A considerable measure of protection for its Railway interest was provided for and the claim for the War Expenditure during 1914-18 was waived, while it was agreed that no future question would be raised as to land appropriated for commercial undertakings or granted to other parties.
   Northern Rhodesia became a territory of the Crown on April 1st, 1894 (it has not yet achieved any more definite constitutional position); Southern Rhodesia a Self-Governing Colony under the Constitution accepted by the people in October, 1923. The Southern Rhodesian Government (which was not yet in existence when the bargain was made) was to pay £2,000,000 to the Imperial Government, for which it would receive the Crown lands and public works, so that the actual cost of the whole of Northern and Southern Rhodesia to the Imperial exchequer was £1,750,000, plus the military expenditure of defending it during the Great War. No comparable portion of the British Empire can have acquired at so small a cost to the Imperial Government - a cost more than covered by the taxation paid to the Imperial exchequer by Rhodesian companies registered in London, so that it can be legitimately claimed that the Colony of Southern Rhodesia cost the British taxpayer nothing. Rhodes, who was some twenty years ahead of public or official opinion in this matter, succeeded, in spite of Govern-

CHARTER HOUSE, SALISBURY. The British South Africa Company's Principal Office in Southern Rhodesia, as it is in 1936.

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

27

ment opposition, in enshrining the principle of Empire preference in the earliest customs tariffs, and the "Rhodes clause," although it has certainly involved loss of revenue, has been maintained by successive Governments.

AT the time of relinquishing the administration, the commercial assets of the Company were: Firstly, mineral rights, of which it was recognized as the owner throughout Northern and Southern Rhodesia and over a considerable area in Nyasaland, as well as the holder of concessions in Bechuanaland; secondly, the ownership of 3,700,000 acres of land in Southern Rhodesia, which it had appropriated for its own purposes during the period of its administration, and which had a market value; thirdly, land or surface rights over land in Nyasa (2,800,000 acres), the Tanganyika Estate in North-Eastern Rhodesia (2,661,000 acres), and Bechuanaland (600,000 acres); fourthly, a half-interest for forty years in land sold or leased in North-Western Rhodesia; fifty (through its share in the Railway Trust) the Railway system between Vryburg and Sakania, Bulawayo and Umtali, with an interest in the Beira line and the Beira Port Works.
   Of these assets, undoubtedly, the most important was the mineral rights, and their development was the immediate care of the Board. Southern Rhodesia had already secured an energetic mining community and the development of basic minerals, particularly chrome, coal and asbestos, more than made up for the stationary output of gold during the years 1921-31. For a time, the demand for asbestos exceeded the supply, and the Rhodesian and General Asbestos Corporation was the most important supplier of high grade asbestos in the world.
   In Southern Rhodesia the Company had not only its "mineral rights," which implied the right to royalties collected on all minerals under legislation passed by the Government, but also interests in various companies engaged in mining and other work, for it had been the policy from the start to retain an interest in all companies operating in the territory.
   In Northern Rhodesia the "vendor's scrip" system had not been altogether abandoned, and mining there was the subject of agreement between the parties, but mining development had been slow. With the desire to stimulate prospecting, large blocks of land were granted with exclusive prospecting rights to companies undertaking to spend specified sums in systematic and scientific examination of reserved areas, and to this new policy were mainly due the discoveries of copper which even the sober reports of mining engineers characterize as "spectacular." Among those who contributed to this special mention must be made of Dr. Bancroft, a distinguished geologist, whose services as director of these operations the Company were able to obtain.
   About 40 per cent. of the world's copper supply in the first half of the nineteenth century came from the British Empire, but in the second half this had sunk to a negligible account, until discoveries in Canada and Northern Rhodesia redressed the balance and placed British copper once more in a dominant position. The growth of Northern Rhodesia in these circumstances was phenomenal, and in a few years the mining centres which sprang up became modern towns, with well-built houses, good streets, electricity, schools, hospitals and model quarters for native employees.
   The copper boom was reflected in railway returns, and the spending power of the Railway reacted on trade. Wankie, the only working coal mine in the territory, found it desirable to increase its plant and duplicated its power plant, and a fresh line was laid from Wankie to Livingstone to carry the heavy traffic of minerals to the North.

28

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

   Mineral development in Southern Rhodesia except in coal, chrome and asbestos, showed no great advance for some years, and two-thirds of the gold production came from seven mines, of which the majority already had a long life behind them. The Company would have liked to extend to Southern Rhodesia the policy of exclusive and intensive prospecting which had been productive in Northern Rhodesia, but political opposition prevented this, particularly on the gold belt, where the small workers felt their interests in open prospecting would be jeopardized. When a concession for exclusive prospecting was granted it covered a region which was not expected to give much result, and a proposal for another concession in a possibly rich area was abandoned in face of the opposition. The Company had undertaken not to exercise its rights in granting concessions without the consent of the Government, and this, in view of public feeling, was withheld.
   It was partly as a result of the agitation over prospecting concessions that the ownership of the mineral rights again became a political question in Southern Rhodesia, although not with the Government of the day. Proposals were made to test the validity of the Company's ownership in some court of law. Legal advice was taken as to how this could be done; the Company was asked if it would sell its rights (and refused), and the whole question, which one might have imagined had been laid to rest at the time of the 1923 settlement, was disturbing the political peace of the country. In addition, as the first decade of commercial development drew to an end, the world was entering that trough of trade depression from which it has not yet emerged, and Southern Rhodesia had in addition some serious trials of its own.
   The Company's landed estates in Southern Rhodesia consisted of ranches, citrus estates, experimental tobacco and general farms, and of these the first to cause anxiety were the ranches. Cattle fell in price after 1922, and the Union's embargo on beasts weighing less than 800lbs. was one of the first of many blows, which culminated in an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and the temporary locking-up of the entire country. The chilling and freezing works which the Imperial Cold Storage Company, by agreement with the Government for exclusive rights, opened at Bulawayo, provided some relief by absorbing a considerable amount of second-grade stock, but freezing for export did not come into operation for some years, and is still only possible with a Government bounty. The Company first decided to concentrate all its cattle at the Nuanetsi and Sangani Ranches. Having done this, it was able to sell the Rhodesdale Ranch, and in 1926 Nuanetsi and Sangani were also passed over to the Rhodesian Land, Cattle and Ranching Corporation, in which the Company retained something more than a one-third share interest.
   The closing down of its direct interest in cattle was, as events have proved, a prudent measure for the Chartered Company, but through its shares in other companies, it is still indirectly, but considerably, interested. The Citrus Estates remain as its principal share in the farming life of the Colony, but despite scientific management, the replacement of the Washington navel orange with more suitable varieties (Valencia Late and Premier-Jaffa) and every possible effort, the citrus industry has not yet proved remunerative. Foreign competition, heavily subsidized, has reduced the price of fruit below an economic standard, and although the Company still perseveres in its endeavour to establish a citrus industry this is one of the assets which has yet to prove its value as a source of revenue.
   Apart from a maize and cotton farm at Simoona and a mixed farm in the Sinoia district, the agricultural operations of the Company are now directed to citrus, and to the Imbeza Forestry Estate on the Eastern Border, which should prove of great value to

CHARTER HOUSE, NDOLA

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

29

the country in time. Between 1922 and 1927 was the peak for Rhodesian agriculture; maize, cotton and tobacco each in turn attracted the speculative grower, boomed, then slumped, but in Southern Rhodesia where one door shuts another opens. As the farmer, in common with his kind all over the world, fell deeper into the slough of low prices and sagging markets, the soaring price of gold increased the prosperity of the mining community.
   The Chartered Company did not, as the owner of the mineral rights, partake of this fresh draught of prosperity in Southern Rhodesia, because, as has already been stated, from April 1st, 1933, they ceased to be the owner of the mineral rights, which the Southern Rhodesian Government acquired for the sum of two millions. The conditions under which the Company exercised its rights in the southern colony were subject to limitation and restrictions, and apart from that, as the Chairman at the 1934 Annual Meeting said, against an uncertain income it acquired a lump sum which at the moment would be exceedingly useful. In the previous year there had been a fall of £1,000,000 in value of the minerals produced. Copper had dropped from £75 to £29 per ton between 1929 and 1933; despite severe economies the Railways could not meet their debenture interest. The heavy losses over cattle involved a loan to the Ranching Corporation to protect the Company's interest in it, and in this general tale of woe only two of the Company's direct undertakings showed signs of health. One was the Rhodesian Milling and Manufacturing Company, Limited in which the Company first became interested in July, 1920, which was reorganized in 1926, and was now showing a profit and reducing its debts. The other was the Land Bank, which in the worst times continued to pay a 3 per cent. dividend.
   For the first time since the date of settlement, the Charter shareholders got no dividend in 1932. They had received a return of capital of 5s. per share after the settlement in 1923, and substantial dividends every year since then, with an occasional bonus, but in 1932, the Chairman had again to recur to the formula of a previous period. The receipt of a lump sum of £2,000,000 enabled a dividend to be declared in 1933, and also a fresh extension of activity in Northern Rhodesia, where the agreement arrived at for a copper production limited to one-fifth of the charter of the three largest mines came to an end, and under a new agreement one of the most promising mines, Mufulira, which had been temporarily closed, was re-opened.
   Economy of working was a principal factor in the revival of the industry in Northern Rhodesia, and with the gradual resumption of activity throughout the world, this northern copperfield should bring a new era of prosperity in which agriculture will share.
   The railway situation also began to improve, and it was felt necessary that certain amendments to the existing legislation should be brought into effect in order to provide for the replenishment and maintenance of the Reserves which had been so heavily drawn upon during the years of depression. In 1926 an Agreement had been concluded between the Railway Companies operating in Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and the Bechuanaland Protectorate with the Government of those territories for the regulation of railway rates and fares by means of a special Railway Commission. That Agreement, however, contained no legislative authority for the replenishment and maintenance of the Statutory Reserve at a figure affording proper security for the debenture holders.
   A Conference of all the interested parties was held in May, 1934, at Cape Town, when an Agreement was arrived at covering this point, also providing for the establishment of a Rates Stabilization Account to avoid violent fluctuations of rates and fares, and calling upon the Railway Companies to effect within a period of five years a conversion of their existing debentures to new debentures carrying a lower rate of interest.

30

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

   The mineral development of Southern Rhodesia, coupled with the increasing activities of the copper mines in Northern Rhodesia and the revival of industry generally after the depression, are all strikingly reflected in the railway returns.
   Before leaving the subject of communications a few words must be said about the work done, owing to the initiative and support of the Chartered Company, at Beira. From the first endless difficulties had to be encountered on this part of the railway line, and interruptions lasting for days were a common feature of every wet season. Beira was originally nothing but a few corrugated iron huts run up on a sand spit at the mouth of the Pungwe as a military post, and dates from the 'eighties, when Mashonaland was just beginning to attract attention. It is now one of the busiest port on the East Coast, and in the last decade has been improved by harbour works, which, in the teeth of great engineering difficulties, have converted it into a modern port. Under the new conditions Beira itself has developed into a pleasant town, and the place which, in the last half of the nineteenth century was considered a sort of death-trap, has become a health resort for Rhodesians, who are proud of their flourishing port, will, I am sure, acknowledge that the British South Africa Company must be given credit for much of this happy transformation.
   Although not directly a part of the Company's activity, it would be impossible not to include in this sketch a mention of the work done by the Trustees of Alfred Beit's will. Mr. Beit, who was a Director, with a short interval, from its inception to his death in 1906, left his large fortune for education and communications in the two Rhodesias, and this enabled the construction of several branch railway lines in both colonies to be made at a time when railway construction was not an attractive investment. The Beit Bridge over the Limpopo, the Birchenough Bridge over the Sabi, and the Luanga River Bridge in Northern Rhodesia are notable engineering feats, and a series of bridges along the main road arteries of the two Rhodesias has helped to open up the country for motoring. Advantage was taken of this by the Railway Companies to institute feeder road motor service to the more remote districts, to the great benefit of the country inhabitants. There is hardly any part of Southern Rhodesia with white settlement which is now linked up to the railways by a weekly or bi-weekly service. Of the contributions made to education through scholarships and the erection of school halls, and to the health services of the country through assistance to hospitals and maternity homes, it is impossible to give details. No other colony has had such a fairy godmother as Alfred Beit has proved to be to the country which bears his friend's name.
   Finally, in this rapid historical survey much has been said of policies but little of the men who carried them through, and space will only permit of the mention of some of those at the head of affairs, who would be the first to recognize that the hardest work has often fallen on less distinguished shoulders. The Presidents of the Company have only been five in forty-seven years; the Duke of Abercorn from 1890-1913, when he died (his son is a member of the president Board); Sir Starr Jameson, 1913-1917, during which time he revisited Rhodesia twice; Mr. Rochfort Maguire, 1917-1926, being the last of the original Board; Mr. Lyttleton Gell, whose term was brief, and Mr. (now Sir Henry) Birchenough, who has been on the Board for a quarter of a century, and has paid many visits to the country. Space only permits mention of three others: Mr. Dougal Orme Malcolm, who was one of the first "all-time" Directors elected in 1914 to keep the Board in closer touch with the country, and who spent some time in Rhodesia as visiting Director; Sir Edmund Davis, whose inclusion on the Board was a recognition of his work in developing the base mineral resources of the two Rhodesias; and Sir

THE CHARTERED COMPANY IN RHODESIA

31

Ernest Oppenheimer, who, as Chairman of De Beers, carries on the traditional close association with the Chartered Company, and to whose courage and foresight it is due that the mineral interests of Northern Rhodesia, as to which many financial houses were at one time doubtful, remain so largely in British hands.
   Of the Company's administrative officers, Mr. A. R. Colquhound and Dr. L. S. Jameson were Administrators of Mashonaland, the latter being succeeded for two years (1896-1897) by Earl Grey, and then by Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Milton, who organized the Civil Service and remained in office doing invaluable work till 1913. Sir William Milton became Administrator of Southern Rhodesia when the Hon. A. Lawley, who was Administrator of Matabeleland, left for a governorship in Australia in 1902, and the two provinces were merged. The name "Rhodesia," it may be mentioned here, was first used tentatively by the Press of the Cape in 1891, and Rhodes writing to Stead in August of that year, mentions that "they are calling the country after me." The first newspaper printed in Mashonaland in October, 1892, used the title Rhodesia Herald, but it was not till 1895 that the name "Rhodesia" was "proclaimed" by the Company, and not till 1898 that it was officially recognized in the "Southern Rhodesia Order in Council of 1898."
   On Sir William Milton's retirement in 1913, he was succeeded by Sir Drummond Chaplin, a very able administrator, who remained in office till Responsible Government was established in 1923, and then acted as Resident Director in Africa for the Chartered Company until his death in 1933. With the separation of commercial and administrative affairs in 1907, a commercial manager was needed, and this post was filled till 1928 by Major Percy Inskipp (who was absent on active service during the Great War). Major Inskipp was a member of the Pioneer Column in 1890, and the only one of the rank and file who rose to be a Director on the Board, a post which he resigned for health reasons. He was succeeded as General Manager in 1928 by Lt.-Colonel T. Ellis Robins, who, on the death of Sir Drummond Chaplin in 1933, followed the latter as Resident Director in Africa.
   In the north three names are associated with the administration: Robert Coryndon, one of Rhodes's "Apostles," who went to North-Western Rhodesia (Barotseland) in 1897, and ended his too short career in Kenya, as Governor of that Colony; R. E. Codrington, who served first in North-Eastern and then in North-Western Rhodesia, until 1907; and L. A. Wallace (afterwards Sir Laurence Wallace), who served first in North-Eastern, then in North-Western, and subsequently (1911) became Administrator of the whole of Northern Rhodesia. He retired in 1921, for the remaining two years of the Company's administration Sir Drummond Chaplin acted in both North and South.
   In 1923, Lt.-Colonel Sir John Chancellor, G.C.M.G., D.S.O., first Governor of Southern Rhodesia, and a quite impartial judge of this question paid a tribute to the Chartered Company which brings this sketch to a close:-
   "I venture to say that no territory annexed to the British Empire in the last 100 years has come with more perfect title deeds or a more honourable record than Rhodesia."

May-June, 1936.

THE British South Africa Company desires to record its grateful thanks to many friends who have assisted in providing material for the Exhibit, the Catalogue of which appears in the following pages.
   Among these, special thanks are due to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Southern Rhodesia; the Witwatersrand University; Gubbins Museum of Africana; the Librarian of Parliament, Cape Town; Messrs. Strachan and Company of Salisbury; Mr. Percy M. Clark, Victoria Falls; Mr. J. S. Loosley, of Port Alfred; Mr. George Lamb, of Salisbury; and to Mr. V. W. Hiller, the Government Archivist, Southern Rhodesia, who organized and arranged the Exhibit and without whose help and advice this collection of Pictures could never have been made.

MZILIKAZI was an induna of Tjaka, the Zulu King, and left Zululand a fugitive in 1817, with his impis and their women. He fled into the Central Transvaal and, in 1825, settled temporarily at Modega, from where he was driven by the immigrant Boers in 1837 and, wasting and ravaging the country as he went, he fled across the Limpopo into what is now known as Southern Rhodesia, where he forced a wedge through the Makalanga, the southern branch of the Shona-speaking peoples. Although the infusion of new blood by the absorption of young boys and girls brought added strength to the tribe, the original Zulu section preserved its identity and remained the aristocracy of the Matabele nation. He first settled at Mhlahlandlela, close to the spot where the Rhodes Matopo Dam now is. Thence he travelled to Inyati, where he built his royal kraal. It was there that Moffat visited him in 1854 and again in 1859. Mzilikazi died in 1868.
   Lobengula, after some tribal dissensions, succeeded his father, Mzilikazi, as King of the Matabele, in 1870. In the same year he moved his capital to a site on the north-east border of Sauerdale, two miles from the former capital, Mhlahlandlela. This town was named Bulawayo. It was subsequently moved to the site occupied by the present town. It is sufficient here to note that he died in January, 1894, on the banks of the Shangani River. Lobengula, though corpulent, was tall and kingly in his appearance, and dignified in his demeanour. He ruled his own people on the despotic traditional lines of his father, and never ceased to harass the surrounding tribes, but he was usually courteous to the white people who visited him and protected them from undue molestation. The termination of his régime was rendered inevitable by the approach of a civilization with which it was incompatible.

   1. Mzilikazi. - From Wild Sports of Southern Africa, by Captain Sir William Cornwallis Harris, who visited Mzilikazi at Kaplan in 1837.

   2. War Dance. - As witnessed by Sir Andrew Smith in Marico, 1835, when he was on a scientific expedition. A feature is the rhythmical stamping of thousands of warriors. From a drawing by C. D. Bell, Surveyor-General at the Cape, 1847-72, who accompanied Sir Andrew Smith on his scientific expedition, 1835.

- Witwatersrand University.

   3. Departure from Mosega. - Cornwallis Harris leaving Mosega. From his Wild Sports in Southern Africa, 1837.

   4. Matabele Warrior. - From Wild Sports in Southern Africa, Cornwallis Harris, 1837.

   5. Moffat with Mzilikazi. - Sir Andrew Smith, leader of the scientific expedition (1835) to the interior, being introduced by Reverend Robert Moffat. From an original drawing by C. D. Bell.

- Witwatersrand University.

c

   6. Tribute Bearers. - A train of tribute bearers being conducted with supplies to Mzilikazi (1835). From an original drawing by C. D. Bell.

- Witwatersrand University.

   7. Presentation to Mzilikazi. - Head, paws and tail of lioness and two Zulu boys reputed to have killed her in defence of their cattle, being presented to Mzilikazi (1835). From an original drawing by C. D. Bell.

- Witwatersrand University.

   8. Chief Wanki and Baines. - From a water-colour sketch by Thomas Baines of his interview with Wanki, Chief of the Sapatane tribe on the Zambesi, 1863.

- Gubbins Museum of Africana, Johannesburg.

   9. First Fruits Dance, 1880. - From a painting by Fr. Croonenbergh, an early Jesuit missionary in Matabeleland. Lobengula is seen in the centre surrounded by a small group of missionaries. The dance was an important religious ceremony with the Matabele.

- Gubbins Museum of Africana, Johannesburg.

   10. Matabele in War-Dress. - From an engraving in To the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, by E. Mohr, an explorer who visited the Victoria Falls in the 'seventies.

   11. Mzilikazi's Grave. - The Matabele King died on 5th September, 1868, and his remains, together with his personal effects, were placed on two wagons and taken for some miles from his kraal in the Matopos to Entumbane. The remains and personal effects were placed in a large cave, the wagons after being taken to pieces were then placed in another cave, and both burial places were closed with stones.

   12. Lobengula, King of the Matabele, 1870-93. - From a sketch by E. A. Maund (1889), worked up by Ralph Peacock, the portrait painter.

   13. Certificate. - Signed by E. A. Maund, supporting the above sketch of Lobengula.

  14. Lobengula's Kraal. - This was his first royal kraal at old Bulawayo, a couple of miles south of the Criterion Mine and on a commanding position now known as Sauerdale. Only a few traces remain of it. In 1887, it was moved to the site occupied by the present town. From a sketch by A. A. Anderson, author of Twenty-five Years in a Wagon in the Gold Regions of Africa, 1887.

- Bulawayo Public Library.

   15. Visitors to Lobengula. - Sir Sidney Shippard (in white topee) with Major Goold-Adams (seen on his left) visited Lobengula in 1888 at the time Rhodes's agents were endeavouring to get to Lobengula to sign the Rudd-Rhodes Concession. They were met by the Revs. D. Carnegie and C. D. Helm and J. S. Moffat (British representative with Lobengula), and, as a result of this mission, the Chief's consent to the Concession was obtained.

   16. Draft Agreement. - Draft form of a concession in favour of Lord Grifford, representing the Bechuanaland Exploration Company. It covenants to give Lobengula £100 for a concession over all the minerals in his territories.

- Witwatersrand University.

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   17. Rudd-Rhodes Concession. - The foundation-stone of the Chartered Company and of the British occupation of Mashonaland. Signed on 30th October, 1888, Lobengula making his mark, the signatories being C. D. Rudd, J. Rochfort Maguire, and F. R. Thompson. The Rev. C. D. Helm and H. J. Dreyer witnessed it, the former furnishing a certificate to the effect that he had explained its contents to the King. Rudd left at once with the document, and on his return through Bechuanaland missed his way and lost touch with his companion Dreyer, and might have perished of thirst but for the timely help of some passing natives. Later, Lobengula showed signs of repudiating the Concession. Dr. Jameson then visited him and permission was secured by him for the occupation of Mashonaland. The quid pro quo for the Concession was the payment of £100 per month, delivered to Lobengula of 1,000 Martini-Henri rifles and 100,000 rounds of ammunition and a steamboat on the Zambesi. The rifles and ammunition were accepted and the monthly payments made to Lobengula until within three or four months of his departure from Bulawayo.

   18. C. D. Rudd. - Rhodes's colleague in his early activities on the Diamond Fields, and also on a later date on the Gold Fields of the Witwatersrand.

   18a. J. Rochfort Maguire. - An Oxford friend of Rhodes. Later he became a Director of the Chartered Company, and its President from 1923 until his death in 1925.

   18b. F. R. Thompson. - He accompanied the Concession party as interpreter Known as "Matabele Thompson."

- Lent by Mrs. Thos. Stewart.

   18c. Rev. C. D. Helm. - One of the London Missionary Society missionaries stationed at Hope Fountains, Matabeleland, since 1875. He was much trusted and respected by Lobengula for his integrity.