Native Life in South Africa Part 33

Finally General s.m.u.ts expressed regret at the shooting of the brother of Jacobus Bezuidenhout. "Apparently the deceased had been shot because he attempted to escape, and in the circ.u.mstances," added the General, "the Germans were clearly justified in shooting him."

If General s.m.u.ts is right in his concluding remarks, then the Germans are quite justified in pillaging Belgium, as the reason they ravaged that country was because the Belgians refused to comply with a plain request to allow German troops to proceed through Belgium to France. But whatever the view of the South African Government might be on these subjects, we would like to point out that it is against a coloured man's grain to obey the orders of a man, no matter who, if he is at war with the coloured man's chief. It would be nothing unusual for a German to order a coloured man about in times of peace, but once war was declared, it became an outrage upon the traditions of the blacks to obey Germans who were now the enemies of their country.

General s.m.u.ts will no doubt remember his own operations in 1901, before he became a British subject. How he then invaded Cape Colony, and got a number of recruits from among the Dutch inhabitants of certain Cape districts. How eventually, when he came to the district of Calvinia, his burghers, reinforced by rebels, found a coloured blacksmith there, by the name of Abraham Ezau.

How the burghers demanded certain information from this man, and he refused to supply enemies and rebels of the Crown with any information.

That the man was severely ill-treated and tortured, but that he would not disclose anything. And how that a gang of Boers dragged this coloured man out of the town and shot him down; that they also looted Abraham Ezau's shop and took away the murdered man's tools, which his widow never recovered, and for which the writer has been informed she never received any compensation.

The Cape Government, prior to the Union, erected a tombstone over the grave of this man, who sacrificed his life for it rather than betray his country. And the sight of that memorial stone was no doubt a grim reminder to the inhabitants of Calvinia of what would happen if the rebels invaded Calvinia once more.

Burra dur hai Tipperary Bahoot lumbah koouch wo Burra dur hai Tipperary Sakki pas pownchenay ko Ram ram Piccadilly Salaam Leicester Square Burra, burra dur hai Tipperary Lakin dil hoaye phus-gayah.

"Tipperary" in Hindustani.

The Natives and the Cape coloured Afrikanders were not alone in tendering loyal offers of service to the Government. The Indians of Natal and other coloured residents likewise offered their services to the Government, besides subscribing liberally according to their means to the various war funds. The St. Helenians of Capetown pa.s.sed the following resolutions, which Mr. S. Reagon, the secretary, forwarded to the Government: --

(1) That this meeting of St. Helenians expresses its unswerving and devoted loyalty to His Majesty King George and His Governments.

(2) That it expresses its full confidence in the Union Government in the present crisis through which the Empire and Union are pa.s.sing, and congratulates General Botha, and expresses its deep appreciation of his practical patriotism in having taken command of the Union Forces in the field.

(3) That the services of the a.s.sociation and its members be hereby offered to the Union Government in whatever manner they may be of a.s.sistance to ensure the triumph of the Empire and for the maintenance of law and order.

Shortly after the outbreak of the present war, Dr. Abdurahman offered the Government the services of the 5,000 coloured warriors recruited through the A.P.O., and General s.m.u.ts replied that the offer was under consideration. Meanwhile the A.P.O. recruiting agency had been continuing its work, and no fewer than 13,000 coloured men had sent in their names and addresses and signified their intention to take the field. So Mr. Fredericks, the secretary of the A.P.O., wrote once more to General s.m.u.ts, on October 23, offering the services of these men in the name of the Coloured People's Organization. This offer brought forth the following definite reply, which is couched in identical terms to the one sent on the same date to Dr. Rubusana, who wrote offering the services of 5,000 Natives: --

== Department of Defence, Pretoria, November 6, 1914.

Sir, -- With reference to your letter of the 23rd ult., I beg to inform you that the Union Government greatly appreciates the offer of service of the Cape coloured people.

I am, however, to refer you to the provisions of Section 7 of the South African Defence Act, 1912, and to state that the Government does not desire to avail itself of the services in a combatant capacity of citizens not of European descent in the present hostilities.

Apart from other considerations, the present war is one which has its origin among the white peoples of Europe, and the Government is anxious to avoid the employment of coloured citizens in a warfare against whites.

No doubt the Government of British South Africa was actuated by the loftiest motives in rejecting voluntary offers of service from citizens of non-European descent; but it is clear that such a reply at such a time ought not to please many people in Great Britain who had to offer the cream of British manhood to defend their portion of the Empire, and then to offer in addition more men to lay down their lives for the safety of the Colonies, including South Africa, a land with thousands of able-bodied and experienced warriors who are willing to defend their own country. For the same reason this decision ought not to please our French Allies, who, besides sacrificing men and money on the battlefields of Continental Europe, must provide more men and money to guard their colonial possessions in different parts of the globe. This decision ought not also to cheer any one in Belgium, where fathers and mothers and their children are separated and starving, a nation living practically in exile, or in bondage, its brave monarch sojourning in foreign territory.

On the other hand, if there is any one place where this decision of the Government of British South Africa would be hailed with the liveliest satisfaction, it is certainly Berlin, and that particularly after the bitter experiences of German troops in encounters with native African troops, both in Continental Europe and in East and West Africa.

Similarly this decision of the South African Government ought not to please the Boers themselves, inasmuch as, finding the request for volunteers amongst the whites failed to secure sufficient men, the Union Government had perforce to resort to coercion, in that some 300 Boers who refused to enlist for service in the expedition to German South West Africa were fined or imprisoned. This course, which is practically conscription, would have been unnecessary had the Union Government accepted the offered service of the 18,000 and more volunteers whom it curtly rejected.

The coloured people, judging by the letters that many of them have sent to the Press, felt humiliated to find that during the Empire's darkest hour a Government to which they pay taxation is publishing decisions that ought to wound the feelings of the Allies' sympathizers and give satisfaction to the enemy.

It is just possible that the Government refused the offer of the coloured people in deference to the wishes of a section of the white people of the Union; but judging from the African Press, that section, although somewhat noisy, was an infinitesimal one.

This section, as is shown from the extract below, also discussed the voyage of the Indian troops to Europe. The 'East Rand Express', a paper published in one of the most important suburbs of Johannesburg, said: --

== COLOURED TROOPS AND THE WAR

The news that Great Britain intends to employ Indian native troops against the Germans has come as a shock to many South Africans.

We can but hope the news is incorrect. In our opinion it would be a fatal mistake to use coloured troops against the whites, more especially as plenty of whites are available. From the English standpoint there is probably nothing offensive in the suggestion. Most Home people do not seem to see anything repugnant in black boxers fighting whites, but they have not had to live in the midst of a black population.

If the Indians are used against the Germans it means that they will return to India disabused of the respect they should bear for the white race. The Empire must uphold the principle that a coloured man must not raise his hand against a white man if there is to be any law or order in either India, Africa, or any part of the Empire where the white man rules over a large concourse of coloured people.

In South Africa it will mean that the Natives will secure pictures of whites being chased by coloured men, and who knows what harm such pictures may do?

That France is employing coloured troops is no excuse.

Two blacks in any sense do not make a white. The employment of native troops against Germany will be a hard blow on the prestige of the white man.

These emotionalists urge the Imperialists against the use of black warriors for the simple reason that it would give them (the emotionalists) "a shock".

So that the agony of British troops and the anxiety of British wives and mothers is not to be lessened, nor the perils of non-combatants greatly minimized, or the war hastened by a decisive concentration of the Empire's forces on the battlefield, because of the "shock"

it would give the emotionalists for black to fight against white.

The common-sense view would show the advantage in permitting all subjects, including the coloured races of South Africa, to take part in the struggle and thus enable the authorities to place more men on the Continent, instead of sending drafts of Imperial troops to take the places of men at the outposts of the Empire, who are disqualified solely by their colour.

Last New Year the author received a letter from a well-known British mother conveying her well-wishes besides the following moving particulars: --

== We are almost beside ourselves with grief over this awful war.

My young nephew has been home on a nine days' holiday at Christmas and he has now returned to the front. He has been awarded the D.S.O. for blowing up a bridge and so delaying the Germans in the march upon Paris.

My cousin, Mrs. ----, has lost her two only sons -- both killed on the same day -- December 21. Besides other English friends and relatives fighting on the British side, I have also a young German cousin fighting on the other side. He has been so badly wounded in his throat that the vocal chords have received such an injury as to lead to the loss of his voice, and his career as a barrister is probably at an end.

His poor mother is a widow and has only one other son, who is very delicate.

The writer has during the past six months come across instances of the loss of an only son, but all these agonies count as nothing to your colourphobic emotionalists, who must, at any price, be spared their "shock" regardless of the sufferings of others.

Now ask these men what they would offer the Empire as a subst.i.tute for the coloured troops whose employment against the enemy gives them "the shock", and you will find that they have nothing to offer but their colour prejudice.

What, for instance, could the leader-writer of the 'East Rand Express'

offer to the Empire in place of the generous help rendered to it by the Maharajah of Mysore, a lad of only eighteen years of age, who besides the services of his men gave the "trifle" of 330,000 Pounds, or in place of the present of the Nizam of Hyderabad, who contributed 396,000 Pounds towards the cost of the Hyderabad contingent; or the Maharajah Scindia of Gwalior, who handed to King George, as a Christmas present for the troops, a "tiny fleet"

of forty-one motor-ambulances, four motor-cars for officers, five motor-lorries and repair wagons, and ten motor-cycles; or to come nearer home, and to deal with a more modest gift, the two hundred bullocks which Chief Molala Mankuroane, near Kimberley, gave General Botha to feed the Union troops?

And when these liberal sacrifices are made by black men for the safety of the Empire, INCLUDING BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA, one is constrained to ask: Where are those loud-mouthed pen-men who, possessed of more pretension than foresight, wrote bombastic articles in the Transvaal Press before the war, threatening that "South Africa will cut the painter", and "paddle her own canoe", if men and women in Europe made themselves a nuisance by advocating ideas of justice in favour of the blacks? General Botha confessed last September that the South African Government tried to, but could not, borrow more than 2,000,000 Pounds; that the Imperial Government had come to the rescue and "helped the Union out of its embarra.s.sment with a loan of 7,000,000 Pounds" of British money. When from his seat in the Union House of a.s.sembly the Prime Minister announced this failure, why did not these secessionists come forward and display their "paddling" capacity? What has suddenly become of them?

Is it not about time that the Empire recognized the unprofitableness, and even the ruinous policy, of these gentlemen, and that it ceased paying so much attention to those whose views are distorted by colour prejudice, whose object is to inflict unnecessary harm on the minds, bodies and spirits of loyal subjects of the Crown?

One cannot help saying that if their career in this respect is not checked, their evil policy will land the Empire in a tangle of difficulties from which its rescue will require the highest statesmanship, much expenditure of treasure, if not also the shedding of blood.

We have already stated that coloured men ARE serving the Empire at the front, but mainly in capacities that do not involve their recognition.

We have recently read of the trial of two coloured men at Willowmore, in the Cape Province. They were said to have expressed the view that if coloured persons are not fit to fight for the Empire "in a war originating entirely among Europeans", they could not be considered fit to drive military wagons in the same war. Recruiting of military drivers was in progress at the time, so they were charged under martial law, and sentenced to nine months, with hard labour, for obstructing the recruiting work. In this case our difficulty is that, not being a lawyer, we are not able to draw the fine distinctions between legal phrases.

But to our untutored lay mind it seems that if to give expression to such logic (whereby ten drivers may think twice before enlisting) is a crime under martial law, then it should be over ten times more criminal, under the same law, for a Government to refuse the offer of service, in the same war, of 18,000 warriors and thereby barring the enlistment of a possible 80,000.

One of the best replies to colour sentimentalists which we have ever read on this subject is quoted from the 'New York World' by the 'Crisis'

(Professor Du Bois's paper) of the same city. Says the 'New York World': --

== The German Amba.s.sador has announced to the United States that he is "unconditionally opposed" to the use of coloured troops.

This is a curious prejudice on the part of the diplomatic representative of a Government that is seeking to bring Turkey into the conflict and trying to persuade the Turk to instigate a "holy war" in Egypt and India against all non-Mohammedans.

When Germany went to war with the British Empire she must have expected to fight the British Empire, and not merely a selected part of the population, the colour of whose skin happened to meet the approval of Berlin.

It is natural enough that Great Britain should bring up her Indian troops, who, by the way, are as completely identified with the Aryan race as the Prussians. But no matter what their race may be, they are part of the Empire and part of Great Britain's regular military power.

If Germany were at war with the United States her troops would have to meet our Negro Cavalry, than whom there are no better soldiers in uniform.

German denunciation of the Indian troops is as futile as German denunciation of the j.a.panese as "yellow-bellies". It is too late to draw the colour line in war. That line was erased more than fifty years ago by Abraham Lincoln in that n.o.ble letter to the Springfield Convention: "And there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue and clenched teeth and steady eye and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation."

One South African writer to the Press had humanitarian reasons against the employment on the Continent of coloured troops from India.

He said that 70,000 of them will be like a morning meal to the trained soldiers of Germany. This sympathetic view does not appear to be shared by German writers to the 'Berliner Tageblatt', who have a high regard for the ferocity of "these Eastern devils".

Apparently this is the only German view which is in harmony with the dispatches of Generals French and Joffre. His Majesty the King has since been to the front, where, in the presence of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Sir Pertabh Singh and other high Imperial officers, His Majesty personally decorated Havildar Darwan Sing Negi (an Indian) of the 39th Garhwal Rifles, with the Victoria Cross, and we need hardly add that V.C.'s are not awarded for fun.

On the first Sat.u.r.day in March, 1915, King George went to Aldershot and acted as starter in the big military race in which over 500 soldiers competed.

Her Majesty the Queen was also present and graciously distributed the prizes.