mineral and agricultural and pastoral country, richer in metals than Australia, more favoured in climate than Canada. Is the command of the sea important, and the possession of harbours and dockyards in all parts of the world? South Africa holds the key of the Southern Ocean, and forms, after Egypt, the second line of communication with India and the East.
These things are the raw material of South Africa's, own prosperity and of her contribution to the strength of the Empire. For the present she has emerged from the melting-pot, an integral part, indeed, of an existent Empire, but still the strangest medley of races and interests and States. Two white races living side by side, with a century of intrigue and warfare behind them; two old British Colonies, two ex-Republics, and the territory of a Chartered Company. The object of this paper is to discuss, in the barest outline, the present relations of these different elements, and the prospect of their consolidation into a peaceful and united South Africa under the British flag.
II.
The first point to realize is the relations of the two white races. The end of the war between them, long as it was foreseen, was oddly abrupt in its result Within a week of the conclusion of peace an Englishman might have walked unarmed in perfect safety from one end of the new Colonies to the other. There is no record since then of the commission of a single crime of violence which could be attributed in any way to feelings aroused by the war. And this very remarkable state of affairs has the one drawback, that—certainly in England, and perhaps to some extent in South Africa as well—it has obscured the existence of a racial problem at all. As a matter of fact, it is quite idle to deny that the great underlying motive in South African politics is still the antagonism of the two white races; and that the war, while it prevented this problem from being
