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Lord Selborne and the British Protectorates, 1908–1910

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Alan R. Booth
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Extract

The responsibility for the retention of the British Protectorates during the period leading up to Union lay more with Lord Selborne than with the British government as a whole. Governemental dealings (both Conservative and Liberal) with the Protectorates up to the era of Lord Selborne had been consistently heedless of the interests of the Africans involved.

The key to the change in policy seems to have been Selborne's dealings with the Basutos. The High Commissioner, from the time of his first exposure to them until years after his departure, continually evidenced the highest regard for the Basutos' intellect, accomplishments and military prowess. Through the vehicle of the National Council, he had a real chance to learn what the nation was thinking, wishing or fearing. Through correspondence with local traders and missionaries (notably the Rev. Jacottet), Selborne had become convinced, by the eve of the National Convention, that the Protectorates, whatever the outcome of the native franchise question, must be withheld from the Union if the current African restlessness, especially in Basutoland, were not to be transformed into outright rebellion. The virtual denial of native representation by the Convention provided Selborne with a plausible and strong reason for doing so. In the face of determined opposition by the Convention, Selborne stood firm, and was backed up by the Colonial office for fear, among other reasons, that he would resign if it did not.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 1969 , pp. 133 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

1 Cf. especially Pyrah, G. B., Imperial Policy and South Africa, 1902–1910 (Oxford, 1955);Google ScholarThompson, L. M., The Unification of South Africa, 1902–1910 (Oxford, 1960);Google ScholarWalker, E. A., Lord de Villiers and His Times (London, 1925);Google ScholarWalton, E. H., The Inner History of the National Convention of South Africa (Cape Town, 1912).Google Scholar

2 William, Waldegrave Palmer, second Earl of Selborne (1859–1942).Google Scholar

3 The Bechuanaland Protectorate had been annexed in 1884. The annexation, the cession of some of the territory to the Cape and more to the British South Africa Company, were all done without the knowledge or consent of the Tswana. Guaranteed their independence by the Conventions of 1881 and 1884, the Swazis were nevertheless handed over to the South African Republic (Transvaal) in 1894 without their consent. They were returned to the protection of the British High Commissioner upon the granting of responsible government to the Transvaal in 1906. Basutoland, annexed at the request of Moshoeshoe in 1868 by the High Commissioner, was likewise reannexed to the Cape government in 1871 without its consent, only to be returned to British colonial status in 1884. Cf. particularly Lord, Hailey, Native Administration in the British African Territories: Part V: The High Commission Territories (London, 1953), passim.Google Scholar

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9 Report of High Commissioner's Visit to Bechuanaland Protectorate, Apr. 1906, ibid.

10 Orpen to Sir Joseph West Ridgeway, Chairman of the South African Inquiry Committee, MS 1250, Orpen Papers, Cory Library, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, printed in Cape Times, 25 Apr. 1906.

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44 Sections 150 and 151 became Sections 149 and 150 in the final version of the South Africa Act.

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