CHAPTER II

TROPICAL AND SEMI-TROPICAL LANDS

THE native systems and the principles of native land law are almost identical in the Central and Southern territories of the Continent, but in South Africa these have been subject to three centuries of dislocation under the pressure of the varying European systems of Dutch and British tenure, so that little remains but the hopeless confusion which to-day confronts the Union Government of South Africa.

There are but two native states outside the Union where the land situation can be regarded as at all satisfactory-Swaziland and Basutoland. Swaziland is a Protectorate under the British Government and will for all time be regarded as one of the most amazing illustrations of the concessionaire evil. When Lord Selborne endeavoured to bring some order out of the chaos he discovered, in the first place, that every acre of land had been alienated to white men, and thus the native had nowhere to live. Next in confusion he found that concessions overlapped each other territorially; furthermore, one white man had got the land, another had got the trees upon the land, while yet another had got everything

under the land. In point of fact, these concessions went much further; to one white man certain taxes were conceded, to another telegraphs, to another road-making, and to yet another a trade monopoly. As Lord Selborne humorously remarked: "The number of concessions given were only limited by the available number of boxes of champagne !"

But the situation did not even end there, for one white man who arrived in Swaziland with the purpose of securing a concession discovered this situation and obtained from the Swazis a concession which granted to him anything and everything that had not been granted to anybody else. But chaos did not even end there. fusion was worse confounded owing to South African rivalries, through which both Great Britain and President Kruger for the Transvaal Government had agreed to recognize the validity of all these concessions!

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The difficult task of unravelling the threads of this confusion was entrusted by the British Government to Mr. George Grey, brother of Viscount Grey, who it will be remembered met with so tragic a fate whilst hunting lions. The recommendations of Mr. George Grey were issued in 1906, and under these most of the Swaziland concessions were cancelled.

Basutoland may roughly be described as a native reserve, or a territory within the confines of which white ownership of land is precluded. Basutoland is, however, confronted with a twofold land menace. First, the very fact of a white

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exclusion constitutes the country a veritable Naboth's Vineyard, and secondly, the remarkable increase of both population and live stock renders the question of legitimate expansion a very serious problem for both the Basutos and their neighbour, the Union Government of South Africa.

Sir Herbert Sloley, the ex-administrator of Basutoland, says:

"I believe the density is about forty-five to the square mile, and when allowance is made. for the fact that population is increasing and a considerable proportion of these reserves consists of mountain and forest, it becomes evident that some improved system of intensive culture is necessary if these people are to continue to get their living from the land."

It will probably be found that the British Imperial policy of restricting the ownership of land to natives will be maintained, but some provision must be made for the surplus population. The suggestion of organizing periodic migrations to the late German territories, attractive though the proposal may be to white men in South Africa, is hardly likely to appeal to those most concerned the natives of Basutoland.

The South African land problems are rendered immensely difficult wherever white colonization is possible, and this is of course the chief reason why, north of the Zambesi, the only other territory where similar conditions prevail to any appreciable extent is East Africa, where every

excuse is put forward for removing the native from the land he has occupied from time immemorial. In 1912-13 the East African Native Labour Commission published its report. Throughout the 300 pages of its evidence are scattered hundreds of suggestions by white witnesses for obtaining labour by means of cutting down native landthe right to do so is never so much as questioned ! One witness, appending what he calls "a few of my grievances and suggestions," says:

"The Native Reserves of this country are unnecessarily large, making it impossible to properly control them and collect the Hut Tax. Before any effective law can be passed with regard to labour the Reserves must be considerably reduced, enabling Commissioners and Police to trace each native if in the Reserve and to immediately arrest him if out of the Reserve without proper authority."

The mental attitude of this gentleman is to say the least curious. It is apparently a personal "grievance" to this immigrant white settler that the indigenous owner of the land is allowed more than in this gentleman's opinion is good for him. Apparently, also, it is a personal "grievance that natives from this reserve are allowed to travel outside it without being arrested for the criminal act of walking about the country God has given them!

But this attitude is unfortunately very widespread throughout British East Africa; the whole evidence tendered to the Commission covers

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proposals of every sort and kind for "forcing the natives to work for the white plantation owners. One suggests making the native wear European clothes, in order to buy which he will be compelled to seek work from the whites. Several witnesses urged upon the Commission the plan of making the native inhabitants labour for nothing upon works of public utility, apparently oblivious of the fact that the native had already discharged his administrative obligations by paying taxation. But the proposal most favoured was that of cutting down the native occupancy of land. Mr. Fletcher, of Kyambu, said :

"If the Reserves were cut down sufficiently, it would undoubtedly have the effect of turning off a large number of natives, who would be made to work for their living.'

It has been the pride and glory of the best British statecraft that it has sought to uplift the people and to educate them to a higher standard of industrial life. During the sittings of the East African Commission, one witness, Mr. Howitt, of Kyambu, actually advanced the proposition that the native should be left uneducated in agriculture solely in order that the white settler might profit by his ignorance! Here is the precious passage:

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"He did not favour the idea of natives being taught better methods of agriculture in the Reserves, on the grounds that, if they were taught to work in the Reserves, the tendency