SOUTH AFRICA.—OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 18 March 1878)

§ MR. O'DONNELL,

who had on the Paper a Notice to call attention to the method of warfare pursued by Her Majesty's troops and others acting under the Imperial authority in South Africa and Northern India, and to move— That such proceedings, if unchecked, are calculated to discredit the Government amongst civilized nations, especially in the present crisis; said, that he did not wish, on this occasion to refer to the military, operations in Northern India, as that was a subject which should be treated by itself at a future time, and therefore he would confine his observations to the military and other proceedings in South Africa. Recent events had, in his opinion, justified the view which he held last year respecting the policy of the Government towards the Natives. He had then argued that their resentful feelings were largely due to rumours of a confederation of Whites against them, and he had quoted from a despatch of Sir Henry Barkly, stating that such rumours were being spread and were having that effect. Since making that statement, he had been assured by a number of persons well acquainted with South African affairs that the confederation scheme had really very much to do with the spread of disaffection among the Native tribes. He had also been informed that the manner in which Mr. Froude had pictured the Native danger, painting it in the gloomiest colours, and his heated speeches translated in an exaggerated form into the Native dialects, led the various tribes to believe that the scheme of confederation meant a scheme of extermination. Of course he was aware that the Colonial Office was not responsible for such exaggeration; 1512 but great care should have been exercised in the choice of our emissary, and in the manner of impressing the plan of the Government upon the Colonial mind. The first bloodshed in connection with the war occurred at a wedding, when a dispute arose, and a Fingoe killed a Galeka. The latter tribe had an old grudge with us, while the former were our protégés. He was afraid that the manner in which we had suppressed the original rising was the whole cause of the present extension of the war. In dealing with such antagonistic tribes, we ought to have taken steps to convey to them the idea that we should be impartially just; but he was afraid we did nothing of the kind. It seemed as if Mr. Froude had left behind him some traditions of the policy which he had been so fond of recommending, not only with reference to Irish but other affairs—that of stamping out discontent in the bloodiest and most cruel and merciless manner. The troops, acting under the authority of our Government had, he alleged, perpetrated such deeds against the Galekas as were severely and justly censured when committed by Bashi-Bazouks in Turkey. In support of his assertion, he might refer to the reports sent by our Commander in the field to Sir Bartle Frere. Those reports showed that the huts of Kaffir villages had been burnt to serve as beacon fires to our columns who were moving in the neighbourhood. One body of our troops returned with 500 sheep and a number of Galeka women and children whom they had captured. The track of our forces was marked by the destruction of Native villages. A letter which had appeared in The Times from a person who had been in one of those engagements stated that on our side there were 3,000 men, including 2,800 Fingoes; that the Galekas were estimated at 1,500; that the enemy was driven helter-skelter, about 50-being killed and many more wounded; that hundreds of huts were burnt for miles round, and that nothing but ruin was to be seen in the Galeka country. It was not difficult to judge what treatment was received by the captured Galeka women and children when they fell into the hands of the Fingoe savages whom we took into our pay. Having rendered the whole of the Galeka country a wilderness, we congratulated ourselves on having 1513 brought the outbreak to an end; but that triumph was only the beginning of the devastation now spreading over South Africa. After killing many of the people and capturing their cattle, we next confiscated their land, and the fugitive and terror-stricken Galekas flew in all directions, telling the awful story of our doings to the Gaikas and other tribes. The result of the attempted suppression was, that the whole of Kaffraria was rising in arms, and tribe after tribe was being added to the number of our enemies. Considering the massacres on one side and the massacres on the other, the hut-burning, the farm-burning, and-all the fearful retribution now going on, the probability was that the Colonial Office, in attempting to stamp out the Galekas, had laid the foundation of half-a-century's tyranny—granting that the tyranny might be necessary—and resulting discontent among the Natives of South Africa. He wished for some explanation of the position in which the Colonial Office now stood to the late Transvaal Republic and Cetewayo, the well-known Zulu Chief. He said last year that an overwhelming majority of. the people of the Transvaal were opposed to confederation, that the stories told in that House of any great body of people in the Transvaal being in favour of annexation were untrue, and that the time would come—it had come very quickly—when we should have to meet the difficulties which an annexation of the Transvaal would cause. So far from the President and the Attorney General of the Transvaal Republic being' satisfied with their treatment by the Colonial Office, he found that immediately on their arriving in the Transvaal territory, they summoned a meeting of the Transvaal Republican Party. At that meeting there were present 600 mounted Transvaal Republicans, some hundreds of them bearing rifles. The misrepresentations made in that House, to the effect that the Transvaal Republicans were satisfied with annexation, were condemned most strongly. A large number of threats of insurrection were made at the meeting, and a Petition to the Colonial Office was agreed to, in which the Petitioners expressed their opinion that it was not the wish of England to rule over a people who were opposed to such rule. The Petitioners entreated the Colonial Office to restore to 1514 them their county, for which they had always been, and were now, prepared to sacrifice their lives. That was the state of things after a forcible annexation of the Transvaal Republic. He stated last year that Cetewayo was in alliance with Sir Theophilus Shopstone with reference to the annexation of the Transvaal. He found lately that mention was made in The Fortnightly Review of a translation by Bishop Colenso of a document by an envoy of Cetewayo, to the effect that the foundation of the present disturbed relations between Cetewayo and the British Government was solely this—that Cetewayo believed he was defrauded of the fee he had reason to expect from Her Majesty's Government for his services towards overawing the Transvaal State. He (Mr. O'Donnell) wished to know whether some stops would be taken immediately for the purpose of keeping down the savage passions of our Fingoe Auxiliaries? and he hoped that as early as possible all necessary documents would be laid before the House for the purpose of satisfying it that steps were being taken to remedy the evils complained of.

§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH

said, he did not think he should be justified in detaining the House by a reference to all the topics which had been brought under their notice by the hon. Member. He did not think it necessary to discuss on that occasion the policy of the annexation of the Transvaal Republic, or the confederation of South Africa. The annexation of the Transvaal was a matter of the past, and the confederation of South Africa was, he hoped, a matter of the future. Neither of these questions had in any degree been raised by the Notice of Motion placed on the Paper. He might, however, state that such a Memorial as the hon. Member had spoken of was, he believed, being signed by some of the inhabitants of the Transvaal; but he might remind him that it had never been pretended that all the inhabitants of the Transvaal had unanimously agreed to annexation. There had always been a portion of the people who objected to it; but he did not believe that these views were shared by a majority, much less by the whole, of the people. When the Memorial of which the hon. Member had spoken reached the Colonial Office, it would be attentively considered. 1515 There must, of course, be every wish on our part not to interfere unnecessarily with either the local feelings or prejudices of the Transvaal inhabitants. The hon. Member proposed to call attention to the method of warfare pursued by Her Majesty's troops and others acting under the Imperial authority in South Africa. He had in some way coupled that system of warfare with the subject of the confederation of our South African Colonies, and suggested that the original Kaffir outbreak was due to the confederation scheme, and that it had spread in consequence of the mode in which the first outbreak was suppressed. But surely nothing had more commended the scheme for the confederation of South Africa to the Parliament which adopted it than the knowledge that it was the foundation of a Native policy which should be identical in all the South African Colonies, with the object of securing good government and civilization to the Native tribes of South Africa. The hon. Member had used very hard terms with reference to the conduct of our troops and Colonial Allies in the suppression of the outbreak. He spoke of it as bloody and cruel—"merciless atrocity" was one of the phrases he used—and he compared it with the most terrible horrors perpetrated by Bashi-Bazouks. Now, he had listened with the greatest possible attention to hear any statement of facts by which such language could be justified. He had read with great care all the despatches on this matter, which were now in the hands of Members, and which recounted fully the history of the outbreak up to the end of last year, and he had failed to discover anything in them to warrant the language which the hon. Member had employed. The hon. Member never referred to these despatches, which he could scarcely have read; but he quoted certain letters which appeared in The Times, and all he gathered from them to justify the terms he had employed was that some huts had been burnt and some women and children captured. If they had not been captured, most probably they would have been starved. But he challenged the hon. Member to produce any instance of cruel or improper treatment of either the women or children who were captured. No doubt there was the burning of the Native kraals, but that was a necessary, though a regrettable, incident 1516 to such warfare; and any hon. Member who had read the despatches would see that such an occurrence had only taken place when absolutely necessary for the suppression of the rebellion. The hon. Member had talked, without proving his words, of the excesses perpetrated by our Native Allies. It was not likely that these auxiliaries could be subjected in all respects to the strict discipline to which our own soldiers were accustomed. But nothing could show more thoroughly how ardently Sir Bartle Frere desired complete discipline than the decided action he had taken in order to secure that all the forces should be subject to the General Commanding-in-Chief. If there had been any excess in the past it had been due to the system, against which Sir Bartle Frere had strongly objected, of separating the command of the Imperial, Colonial, and Native troops. But, to the best of his knowledge, the charges brought forward by the hon. Member, whether against European or Native Forces, were entirely without foundation; and he most strongly protested against such accusations being made—without far better grounds than the hon. Member had adduced—against men at a distance from their native land who were endeavouring, amid the greatest possible difficulties, to do their duty.