were Gen. Smuts and Sir Thos. Smartt, declined to subscribe
to the resolution which declared that it was desirable that " the
rights to citizenship " of Indians lawfully domiciled in other
parts of the Empire " should be recognized." They regretted
" their inability to accept this resolution in view of the excep-
tional circumstances of the greater part of the Union." Direct
negotiations between the Governments of India and of S.A.
to reach a more satisfactory position were not precluded. That
the Union delegates rightly interpreted the feeling of most
white South Africans was shown by an ordinance passed at
this time by the Natal provincial council to prevent any Indians
in the province acquiring in future the municipal franchise.
This ordinance was disallowed by the Union Government. At
the Cape at the same time an Indian, Dr. Abdurrahman, a well-
known member of the Cape Town municipality, was also a
member of the provincial council.
The first step taken by the Union Government in regard to the relations between the white and native races was the de- cision that the control of all regulations made by The Na- local authorities affecting natives should be exercised Ih^White not by the provincial councils but by the Govern- Races. ment through the Native Affairs Department, a de- cision tending towards a much-needed uniformity of policy. While the Government were considering what principles should guide their action public attention in 1911-2 was chiefly focussed on one aspect of the question, assaults by Kaffirs on white women. On the Rand in the first half of 1911 three Kaffirs were shot by white women whom they had attempted to assault. This shooting followed the commutation, in Jan. 1911, by the High Commissioner (Lord Gladstone) of a death sentence on a Rho- desian native convicted of an attempt to assault a white woman. This action roused much indignation against the High Commis- sioner who, however, met his critics fairly and won their respect. But feeling was intensified by the acquittal in Aug. 1911, by a Rhodesian jury, of a white man who had shot dead a Kaffir. (This led to the making of a special jury list for the trial of such cases, the ordinary jury not being trusted to administer impartial justice.) In all during the year ending March 31 1912, there was in the Union alone (i.e. Rhodesia excluded) 85 cases of outrages upon Europeans by natives, as compared with 69 during 1910. On the Rand the evil was attributed in part to illicit liquor selling and in part to the fact that the mine labourers were without their women-folk, and a petition signed by 52,000 Rand residents (presented to Parliament May 1912) asked inter alia for the provision of compounds in which natives should be permitted to keep their wives, as well as for facilities for training native female servants and for the importation of European domestics.
A commission, appointed in June 1912 on the motion of Sir Thomas Smartt, enquired into the prevalence of sexual assaults, and the extent to which they were attributable to economic and social factors. This commission was presided over by Mr. Melius de Villiers, ex-chief justice of the Free State and included four ladies, one from each province. On its report remedial measures were taken, such as provision for wives in the compounds. It was shown that one cause of the evil was the undue familiarity with which many white women treated male natives employed by them as domestic servants. The measures taken had a good effect, and assaults of the character stated became fewer.
On the larger question as to the place which the Bantu should hold in the community there was much heart searching. There was on the part of the whites agreement on one point only the dependence of agriculture and industry on the manual labour of the native. The situation was complicated by the fact that the whites had not only the native to deal with but a very large number of coloured persons with a greater or less proportion of white blood the well-known " Cape Boys." These people not only competed with the whites in skilled labour, but a good many of them had entered the professions as lawyers, doctors, journalists, land surveyors, etc. The pure African was following their example, and both the coloured and native peoples were learning the power of cooperation. They had their own newspapers, their own political and trade organizations,
and were quick to learn from the methods of the whites. Es- pecially powerful was the influence of education and Christian missions. Many natives made great sacrifices to obtain educa- tion. For educational facilities they had to rely chiefly upon the missionary societies. The provincial councils were not generous in their expenditure in this respect though the total expended on native education rose from 81,000 in 1913 to 137,000 in 1918. More than half the total sum was spent by the Cape province. In regard to higher education the Union Government took a somewhat more liberal attitude and gave its support to the South African Native College at Fort Hare.
The desire of the natives, or the more vocal section of the natives, to escape from European tutelage was seen in a growing inclination, particularly in the Transkeian territories, to secular- ize education and to obtain a larger share in its management. This desire for " self-determination " was also seen in the setting up of many churches independent of European control, a move- ment fostered by intercourse with the negro churches of the United States. Of these native separatist churches perhaps the most influential was the " Ethiopian Church of South' Africa." Their leaders joined in the demands of the " Native National Congress," an organization claiming to represent the Bantu peoples of S.A., in demanding redress of grievances and in especial the removal of the colour bar which existed in all the provinces except the Cape. A deputation from this body came to England in-igig " not to demand independence, but admission into British citizenship."
Such were the aspirations of educated men among the coloured and native races; the more extreme, among whom communist doctrines had gained a hold, raised the cry of " Africa for the Africans." The loyalty of the natives and the valuable services they rendered during the World War went to show that the extremists were not an immediate danger. But the natives also during the war got a new idea of their power. Bantus in Rho- desia, the " Cape Boys " from the Union served as combatants in the E.A. campaign and they saw that the heaviest fighting there fell to black troops. A new situation had arisen, one of the most noteworthy being the development of a race, as distinct from tribal, consciousness.
The problem as it presented itself to the Union Government was how best to secure the future for the white race in S.A., surrounded as it was by a black population five or six times its numbers. The Government would have had to face the bitterest hostility of the Dutch community, and of a considerable section of the British in Natal and the Transvaal had they attempted to remove the colour-bar in those provinces or in the Free State; had the Boers had their way the colour-bar would have been set up in the Cape province. Gen. Botha did not subscribe to the principle of Cecil Rhodes " equal rights for all civilized men." Yet he and his colleagues acknowledged that it was the duty of the State to help forward the native on the path of efficiency and civilization, in opposition to the standpoint of the extreme Dutch Nationalists that there was no room for the advancement of the native save at the expense of the white man. The point of view of the Government was that the natives should be aided in such a manner that they should not come into competition with the whites. The proposal which attracted most support was to keep blacks and whites in separate areas, while still employing natives for labour on white enterprises. The plan was feasible; it was for example being worked in Basuto- land under the Colonial Office. In that territory white settle- ment was forbidden, but thousands of Basutos went on contract to the gold-mines or to farms in the Free State. And there were already native areas in the Cape, such as the Transkei, where, under white officials, the natives possessed some share in the administration. It was in this direction Gen. Botha looked for a solution of the problem. In a speech in Parliament (May 9 1912) he stated that " the time was coming when the native question would have to be considered most seriously in the direction of keeping whites and natives apart and preventing their inter- mingling. They would have to fix attention closely on the question of segregation, while treating everyone with absolute
