house of commons, july 31, 1906

it is my duty this afternoon, on behalf of the government, to lay before the committee the outline and character of the constitutional settlement which we have in contemplation in regard to the lately annexed colonies in south africa. this is, i suppose, upon the whole, the most considerable business with which this new parliament has had to deal. but although no one will deny its importance, or undervalue the keen emotions and anxieties which it excites on both sides of the house, and the solemn memories which it revives, yet i am persuaded that there is no reason why we should be hotly, sharply, or bitterly divided on the subject; on the contrary, i think its very importance makes it incumbent on all who participate in the discussion—and i will certainly be bound by my own precept—to cultivate and observe a studious avoidance of anything [17]likely to excite the ordinary recriminations and rejoinders of party politics and partisanship.

after all, there is no real difference of principle between the two great historic parties on this question. the late government have repeatedly declared that it was their intention at the earliest possible moment—laying great stress upon that phrase—to extend representative and responsible institutions to the new colonies; and before his majesty's present advisers took office the only question in dispute was, when? on the debate on the address, the right hon. member for west birmingham—whose absence to-day and its cause i am quite sure are equally regretted in all parts of the house—spoke on this question with his customary breadth of view and courage of thought. he said: "the responsibility for this decision lies with the government now in power. they have more knowledge than we have; and if they consider it safe to give this large grant, and if they turn out to be right, no one will be better pleased than we. i do not think that, although important, this change should be described as a change in colonial policy, but as continuity of colonial policy."

[18]if, then, we are agreed upon the principle, i do not think that serious or vital differences can arise upon the method. because, after all, no one can contend that it is right to extend responsible government, but not right to extend it fairly. no one can contend that it is right to grant the forms of free institutions, and yet to preserve by some device the means of control. and so i should hope that we may proceed in this debate without any acute divergences becoming revealed.

i am in a position to-day only to announce the decision to which the government have come with respect to the transvaal. the case of the transvaal is urgent. it is the nerve-centre of south africa. it is the arena in which all questions of south african politics—social, moral, racial, and economic—are fought out; and this new country, so lately reclaimed from the wilderness, with a white population of less than 300,000 souls, already reproduces in perfect miniature all those dark, tangled, and conflicting problems usually to be found in populous and old-established european states. the case of the transvaal differs fundamentally from the case of the orange river colony. [19]the latter has been in the past, and will be again in the future, a tranquil agricultural state, pursuing under a wise and tolerant government a happy destiny of its own. all i have to say about the orange river colony this afternoon is this—that there will be no unnecessary delay in the granting of a constitution; and that in the granting of that constitution we shall be animated only by a desire to secure a fair representation of all classes of inhabitants in the country, and to give effective expression to the will of the majority.

when we came into office, we found a constitution already prepared for the transvaal by the right hon. member for st. george's, hanover square.[1] that constitution is no more. i hope the right hon. gentleman will not suspect me of any malevolence towards his offspring. i would have nourished and fostered it with a tender care; but life was already extinct. it had ceased to breathe even before it was born; but i trust the right hon. gentleman will console himself by remembering that there are many possibilities of constitutional settlements lying before him [20]in the future. after all, the abbé sieyès, when the constitution of 1791 was broken into pieces, was very little younger than the right hon. gentleman, and he had time to make and survive two new constitutions.

frankly, what i may, for brevity's sake, call the lyttelton constitution was utterly unworkable. it surrendered the machinery of power; it preserved the whole burden of responsibility and administration. nine official gentlemen, nearly all without parliamentary experience, and i daresay without parliamentary aptitudes, without the support of that nominated majority which i am quite convinced that the right hon. member for west birmingham had always contemplated in any scheme of representative government, and without the support of an organised party, were to be placed in a chamber of thirty-five elected members who possessed the power of the purse. the boers would either have abstained altogether from participating in that constitution, or they would have gone in only for the purpose of wrecking it. the british party was split into two sections, and one section, the responsibles, made public declarations of their intention to bring about a constitutional deadlock by obstruction and [21]refusing supplies, and all the other apparatus of parliamentary discontent. in fact, the constitution of the right hon. gentleman seemed bound inevitably to conjure up that nightmare of all modern politicians, government resting on consent, and consent not forthcoming.

as i told the house in may, his majesty's government thought it their duty to review the whole question. we thought it our duty and our right to start fair, free, and untrammelled, and we have treated the lyttelton constitution as if it had never been. one guiding principle has animated his majesty's government in their policy—to make no difference in this grant of responsible government between boer and briton in south africa. we propose to extend to both races the fullest privileges and rights of british citizenship; and we intend to make no discrimination in the grant of that great boon, between the men who have fought most loyally for us and those who have resisted the british arms with the most desperate courage. by the treaty of vereeniging, in which the peace between the dutch and british races was declared for ever, by article 1 of that treaty the flower of the boer nation and its [22]most renowned leaders recognised the lawful authority of his majesty king edward vii, and henceforth, from that moment, british supremacy in south africa stood on the sure foundations of military honour and warlike achievement.

this decision in favour of even-handed dealing arises from no ingratitude on our part towards those who have nobly sustained the british cause in years gone by. it involves no injustice to the british population of the transvaal. we have been careful at each point of this constitutional settlement to secure for the british every advantage that they may justly claim. but the future of south africa, and, i will add, its permanent inclusion in the british empire, demand that the king should be equally sovereign of both races, and that both races should learn to look upon this country as their friend.

when i last spoke in this house on the question of the south african constitution, i took occasion to affirm the excellence of the general principle, one vote one value. i pointed out that it was a logical and unimpeachable principle to act upon; that [23]the only safe rule for doing justice electorally between man and man was to assume—a large assumption in some cases—that all men are equal and that all discriminations between them are unhealthy and undemocratic. now the principle of one vote one value can be applied and realised in this country, either upon the basis of population, or upon the basis of voters. it makes no difference which is selected; for there is no part of this country which is more married, or more prolific than another, and exactly the same distribution and exactly the same number of members would result whether the voters or the population basis were taken in a redistribution bill. but in south africa the disparity of conditions between the new population and the old makes a very great difference between the urban and the rural populations, and it is undoubtedly true that if it be desired to preserve the principle of one vote one value, it is the voters' basis and not the population basis that must be taken in the transvaal—and that is the basis which his majesty's government have determined to adopt.

the right hon. gentleman the member for st. george's, hanover square, had [24]proposed to establish a franchise qualification of ￡100 annual value. that is not nearly such a high property-qualification as it would be in this country. i do not quarrel with the right hon. gentleman's constitution on the ground that his franchise was not perfectly fair, or not a perfectly bona fide and generous measure of representation. but it is undoubtedly true that a property-qualification of ￡100 annual value told more severely against the boers than against the british, because living in the towns is so expensive that almost everybody who lives in the towns, and who is not utterly destitute, has a property-qualification of ￡100 annual value. but in the country districts there are numbers of men, very poor but perfectly respectable and worthy citizens—day labourers, farmers' sons, and others—who would not have that qualification, and who consequently would have been excluded by the property-qualification, low as it is having regard to the conditions in south africa. quite apart from south african questions and affairs, his majesty's government profess a strong preference for the principle of manhood suffrage as against any property-qualification, and we have therefore determined that manhood [25]suffrage shall be the basis on which votes are distributed.

it is true that in the prolonged negotiations and discussions which have taken place upon this question manhood suffrage has been demanded by one party and the voters' basis by the other, and there has been a tacit, though quite informal agreement that the one principle should balance the other. but that is not the position of his majesty's government in regard to either of these propositions. we defend both on their merits. we defend "one vote, one value," and we defend manhood suffrage, strictly on their merits as just and equitable principles between man and man throughout the transvaal. we have therefore decided that all adult males of twenty-one years of age, who have resided in the transvaal for six months, who do not belong to the british garrison—should be permitted to vote under the secrecy of the ballot for the election of members of parliament.

now there is one subject to which i must refer incidentally. the question of female suffrage has been brought to the notice of various members of the government on various occasions and in various [26]ways. we have very carefully considered that matter, and we have come to the conclusion that it would not be right for us to subject a young colony, unable to speak for itself, to the hazards of an experiment which we have not had the gallantry to undergo ourselves; and we shall leave that question to the new legislature to determine.

i come now to the question of electoral divisions. there are two alternatives before us on this branch of the subject—equal electoral areas or the old magisterial districts. when i say "old," i mean old in the sense that they are existing magisterial districts. there are arguments for both of these courses. equal electoral areas have the advantage of being symmetrical and are capable of more strict and mathematical distribution. but the boers have expressed a very strong desire to have the old magisterial districts preserved. i think it is rather a sentimental view on their part, because upon the whole i think the wastage of boer votes will, owing to excessive plurality in certain divisions, be slightly greater in the old magisterial districts than in equal electoral areas. the boers have, however, been very anxious that the old areas of their former [27]constitution, of their local life, should be interfered with as little as possible, and that is a matter of serious concern to his majesty's government. further, there is a great saving of precious time and expense in avoiding the extra work of new delimitation which would be necessary if the country were to be cut up into equal mathematical electoral areas.

the decision to adopt the old magisterial areas, which divide the transvaal into sixteen electoral divisions, of which the witwatersrand is only one, involves another question. how are you to subdivide these magisterial districts for the purpose of allocating members? some will have two, some three, some a number of members; and on what system will you allocate the members to these divisions? we have considered the question of proportional representation. it is the only perfect way in which minorities of every shade and view and interest can receive effective representation. and lord elgin was careful to instruct the committee as a special point to inquire into the possibility of adopting the system of proportional representation. the committee examined many witnesses, and went most thoroughly into [28]this question. they, however, advise us that there is absolutely no support for such a proposal in the transvaal, and that its adoption—i will not say its imposition—would be unpopular and incomprehensible throughout the country. if a scientific or proportional representation cannot be adopted, then i say unhesitatingly that the next best way of protecting minorities is to go straight for single-member seats. some of us have experience of double-barrelled seats in this country; there used to be several three-barrelled seats. but i am convinced that if either of those two systems had been applied to the electoral divisions of the transvaal, it would only have led to the swamping of one or two local minorities which with single-member divisions would have returned just that very class of moderate, independent, dutch or british members whom we particularly desire to see represented in the new assembly. therefore, with the desire of not extinguishing these local minorities, his majesty's government have decided that single-member constituencies, or man against man, shall be the rule in the transvaal. but i should add that the subdivision of these electoral districts into their respective constituencies will not [29]proceed upon hard mathematical lines, but that they will be grouped together in accordance with the existing field cornetcies of which they are composed, as that will involve as little change as possible in the ideas of the rural population and in the existing boundaries.

the committee will realise that this is a question with an elusive climax. it is like going up a mountain. each successive peak appears in turn the summit, and yet there is always another pinnacle beyond. we have now settled that the members are to be allotted to single-member constituencies based on the old magisterial districts according to the adult male residents there. but how are we to apply that principle? how are we to find out how many adult males there are in each of the districts of the country, and so to find the quota of electors or proper number of members for each division? the proverbial three alternatives present themselves. we might take the lyttelton voters' list revised and supplemented. we might make a new voters' list, or we might take the census of 1904.

lord selborne has pointed out to us that it might take just as long a time to revise the lyttelton voters' list as to make [30]a new voters' list, which would occupy seven months. so that, with the necessary interval for the arrangements for election, ten months would elapse before the transvaal would be able to possess responsible institutions. i think we shall have the assent of all south african parties in our desire to avoid that delay. i am sorry that so much delay has already taken place. it was necessary that the cabinet should secure complete information. but to keep a country seething on the verge of an exciting general election is very prejudicial to trade. it increases agitation and impedes the healthy process of development. we are bound to terminate the uncertainty at the earliest possible moment; and we have therefore determined to adopt the census of 1904.

let me ask the committee now to examine the sixteen magisterial districts. i think it is necessary to do so before allocating the members amongst them. in all the discussions in south africa these have been divided into three areas—the witwatersrand, pretoria, and the "rest of the transvaal." pretoria is the metropolis of the transvaal. it has a very independent public opinion of its own; it is strongly british, and it is [31]rapidly increasing. it is believed that pretoria will return three, four, or five members of the responsible party, which is the moderate british party, and is independent of and detached from the progressive association. the "rest of the transvaal" consists of the old constituencies who sent boer members to the old legislature. there will, however, be one or two seats which may be won by progressive or responsible british candidates, but in general "the rest of the country" will return a compact body of members of het volk.

having said that, i now come to the rand. we must consider the rand without any bias or prejudice whatever. the rand is not a town or city, but a mining district covering 1,600 square miles, whose population of adult males practically balances the whole of the rest of the country. the rand population is not, as some people imagine, a foreign population. the great majority of it is british, and a very large portion of it consists of as good, honest, hard-working men as are to be found in any constituency in this country. but there are also on the rand a considerable proportion of dutch. krugersdorp rural is dutch, and has always been excluded from the rand in the [32]discussions that have taken place in south africa, and included in the "rest of the transvaal." but in addition to that there are the towns of fordsburgh, which is half dutch, and two other suburbs which also have a dutch population; and it is believed that these will afford seats for members of the responsible british party with the support of het volk. i must say further that the british community upon the rand is divided into four main political parties. there is the transvaal progressive association, a great and powerful association which arises out of the mining interest. there is the responsible government association; there is the transvaal political association—a moderate body standing between the responsibles and the progressives—and there are the labour associations, which are numerous. there are three main labour associations, or really four—the independent labour party, the transvaal labour league, the trade and labour council of the witwatersrand, and the trade and labour council of pretoria. why do i bring these facts before the committee? i do so because i feel it necessary to show how impossible it is to try to dismiss the problems of this [33]complicated community with a gesture or to solve their difficulties with a phrase, and how unfair it would be to deprive such a community, in which there are at work all the counter-checks and rival forces that we see here in our own political life, of its proper share of representation.

applying the adult male list in the census of 1904 to the three areas i have spoken of, i should allot thirty-two members to the rand, six to pretoria, and thirty to the rest of the country; or, if you include krugersdorp rural in the rand, it would read thirty-three to the rand, six to pretoria, and twenty-nine to the rest of the country. arrived at that point, the committee in south africa had good hopes, not merely of arriving at a just settlement, but of arriving at an agreement between all the parties. i am not going to afflict the house with a chronicle of the negotiations which took place. they were fruitless. it is enough to say that there were good hopes that if the progressive complaint, that the adoption of the census of 1904 did not allow for the increase in the population which has taken place since the census was taken, could be met, a general agreement could be reached. the boers, [34]whose belief that we were going to treat them fairly and justly has been a pleasant feature in the whole of these negotiations, and will, believe me, be an inestimable factor of value in the future history of south africa—the boers with reluctance and under pressure, but guided by the committee, with whom they were on friendly terms, were willing to agree to a distribution which allotted one more seat to meet this increase of the population in the witwatersrand area, and the proposal then became 33, 6, and 30, or, including krugersdorp rural, 34, 6, 29. the responsible party agreed to that. the progressives hesitated. the great majority of them certainly wished to come in and come to a general agreement on those terms. certain leaders, however, stood out for one or two or three seats more, and, although lord selborne expressed the opinion that the arrangement proposed, namely, 33, 6, 30, excluding krugersdorp rural, was a perfectly fair one to the british vote in the transvaal, those leaders still remained unconvinced and obdurate, and all hopes of a definite agreement fell through.

the committee returned to this country, bringing with them the recommendation that the government on their own [35]responsibility should fix the allocation of seats at that very point where the agreement of one party was still preserved and where the agreement of the other was so very nearly won. and that is what we have decided to do. we have decided to allocate thirty-four seats, including krugersdorp rural, to the rand, six to pretoria, and twenty-nine to the rest of the country. lord selborne wishes it to be known that he concurs in this arrangement. now i am quite ready to admit that every constitution ought to rest either upon symmetry or upon acceptance. our transvaal constitution does not rest upon either symmetry or acceptance, but it is very near symmetry and very near acceptance, and in so far as it has departed from symmetry it has moved towards acceptance, and is furthermore sustained throughout by fair dealing, for i am honestly convinced that the addition of an extra member to the witwatersrand areas which has been made is justified by the increase of the population which has taken place since the census.

on such a basis as this the transvaal assembly will be created. it will consist of sixty-nine members, who will receive for their services adequate payment. they [36]will be elected for five years. the speaker will vacate his seat after being elected. the reason for that provision is that the majority in this parliament, as in the cape parliament, with which the government is carried on, is likely to be very small, and it would be a great hardship if the party in power were to deprive itself of one of the two or three votes which, when parties are evenly balanced, are necessary for carrying on the government. it would be a great disaster if we had in the transvaal a succession of weak ministries going out upon a single vote, one way or the other. and it is found that when parties have a very small majority and are forced to part with one of their members for the purpose of filling the chair, they do not always select the member who is best suited to that high office, but the member who can best be spared.

now let me come to the question of language. under the constitution of the right hon. gentleman the member for st. george's, hanover square, the members of the assembly would have been permitted to speak dutch if they asked permission and obtained permission from the speaker. [37]we are not able to lend ourselves to that condition. we are of opinion that such a discrimination would be invidious. the recognition of their language is precious to a small people. i have never been able to work myself into a passion because there are in parts of south africa dutch people who wish to have dutch teachers to teach dutch children dutch. i have not so poor an opinion of the english language, with its priceless literary treasures and its world-wide business connections, as not to believe that it can safely be exposed to the open competition of a dialect like the taal. we believe that the only sure way to preserve in the years that are to come such a language as the taal would be to make it a proscribed language, which would be spoken by the people with deliberation and with malice, as a protest against what they regarded, and would rightly regard, as an act of intolerance. therefore we have decided to follow the cape practice and allow the members of the transvaal parliament to address that assembly indifferently in dutch or english.

i shall be asked what will be the result of the arrangement that we have made. i decline to speculate or prophesy on that [38]point. it would be indecent and improper. i cannot even tell in this country at the next election how large the liberal majority will be. still less would i recommend hon. gentlemen here to forecast the results of contests in which they will not be candidates. i cannot tell how the british in the transvaal will vote. there are a great many new questions, social and economic, which are beginning to apply a salutary counter-irritant to old racial sores. the division between the two races, thank god, is not quite so clear-cut as it used to be. but this i know—that as there are undoubtedly more british voters in the transvaal than there are dutch, and as these british voters have not at any point in the constitutional settlement been treated unfairly, it will be easily within their power to obtain a british majority, if they all combine to obtain it. i nourish the hope that the government that will be called into life by these elections will be a coalition government with some moderate leader acceptable to both parties, and a government which embraces in its party members of both races. such a solution would be a godsend to south africa. but whatever may be the outcome, his majesty's [39]government are confident that the ministers who may be summoned, from whatever party they may be drawn, to whatever race they may belong, will in no circumstances fail in their duty to the crown.

i should like to say also that this parliament will be of a high representative authority, and it will be the duty of whoever may be called upon to represent colonial business in this house to stand between that parliament and all unjustifiable interference from whatever quarters of the house it may come.

i now approach the question of the second chamber. that is not a very attractive subject. we on this side of the house are not particularly enamoured of second chambers, and i do not know that our love for these institutions will grow sweeter as the years pass by. but we have to be governed by colonial practice; and there is no colony in the empire that has not a second chamber. the greater number of these second chambers are nominated; and i think that the quality of nominated second chambers, and their use in practice, have not been found to be inferior to those of the elective bodies. his majesty's government desire to secure, [40]if they can, some special protection for native interests which is not likely to be afforded by any electoral arrangement, i am sorry to say. we are unable however to countenance the creation in a permanent form of a nominated second chamber. but in view of the position of native affairs, in view of the disadvantage of complicating the elections, to which all classes in the transvaal have been so long looking forward, and most particularly because of the extra delays that would be involved in the creation of a new elective body, the cabinet have resolved for this parliament only, and as a purely provisional arrangement, to institute a nominated legislative council of fifteen members. they will be nominated by the crown, that is to say at home, and vacancies, if any, by death or resignation, will be filled by the high commissioner, on the advice of the responsible ministers. during the course of the first parliament in the transvaal arrangements will be completed for the establishment of an elective second chamber, and if necessary further letters patent will be issued to constitute it.

under the treaty of vereeniging we undertook that no franchise should be extended [41]to natives before the grant of self-government. i am not going to plunge into the argument as to what word the "native" means, in its legal or technical character, because in regard to such a treaty, upon which we are relying for such grave issues, we must be bound very largely by the interpretation which the other party places upon it; and it is undoubted that the boers would regard it as a breach of that treaty, if the franchise were in the first instance extended to any persons who are not white men. we may regret that decision. we may regret that there is no willingness in the transvaal and orange river colony to make arrangements which have been found not altogether harmful in cape colony. but we are bound by this treaty. meanwhile we make certain reservations. any legislation which imposes disabilities on natives which are not imposed on europeans will be reserved to the secretary of state, and the governor will not give his assent before receiving the secretary of state's decision. legislation that will effect the alienation of native lands will also be reserved. it is customary to make some provision in money for native interests, such as education, by reserving a certain sum for administration [42]by the high commissioner or some other political or imperial official. we propose to reserve swaziland to the direct administration of the high commissioner, with the limiting provision that no settlement he may make is to be less advantageous to the natives than the existing arrangement.

on november 30, 1906, the arrangement for recruiting chinese in china will cease and determine. our consuls will withdraw the powers they have delegated to the mining agents, and i earnestly trust that no british government will ever renew them. a clause in the constitution will provide for the abrogation of the existing chinese labour ordinance after a reasonable interval. i am not yet in a position to say what will be a reasonable interval, but time must be given to the new assembly to take stock of the position and to consider the labour question as a whole. i said just now there would be a clause with regard to differential legislation as between white persons and others, and to this clause will be added the words: "no law will be assented to which sanctions any condition of service or residence of a servile character." we have been invited to use the word "slavery" or the words [43]"semblance of slavery," but such expressions would be needlessly wounding, and the words we have chosen are much more effective, because much more precise and much more restrained, and they point an accurate forefinger at the very evil we desire to prevent.

i have now finished laying before the house the constitutional settlement, and i should like to say that our proposals are interdependent. they must be considered as a whole; they must be accepted or rejected as a whole. i say this in no spirit of disrespect to the committee, because evidently it is a matter which the executive government should decide on its own responsibility; and if the policy which we declare were changed, new men would have to be found to carry out another plan. we are prepared to make this settlement in the name of the liberal party. that is sufficient authority for us; but there is a higher authority which we should earnestly desire to obtain. i make no appeal, but i address myself particularly to the right hon. gentlemen who sit opposite, who are long versed in public affairs, and who will not be able all their lives to escape from a heavy south african responsibility. they are the accepted guides of a party which, [44]though in a minority in this house, nevertheless embodies nearly half the nation. i will ask them seriously whether they will not pause before they commit themselves to violent or rash denunciations of this great arrangement. i will ask them, further, whether they cannot join with us to invest the grant of a free constitution to the transvaal with something of a national sanction. with all our majority we can only make it the gift of a party; they can make it the gift of england. and if that were so, i am quite sure that all those inestimable blessings which we confidently hope will flow from this decision, will be gained more surely and much more speedily; and the first real step will have been taken to withdraw south african affairs from the arena of british party politics, in which they have inflicted injury on both political parties and in which they have suffered grievous injury themselves. i ask that that may be considered; but in any case we are prepared to go forward alone, and letters patent will be issued in strict conformity with the settlement i have explained this afternoon if we should continue to enjoy the support of a parliamentary majority.