The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1896-07-15
The Doom Of the South African
Company.

Company have decided, after mature
elaboration, to accept the resign
alton of Cecil Rhodes. The step
next in order is for the Company
itself to tender its resignation and
for the British people to accept it.
To make scapegoat of Rhodes is
to provoke the worlds ridicule.
What he did, he did on behalf of
the Company and obviously with
the assent of the directors. 1t is
absurd to suppose that he could
have gone on levying war on African
nations, invading African territory
and annexing regions larger than
the British islands of his own mere
motion, without the knowledge and
assent OF the Company of which he
was he executive officer. 1t is quite
possible that the details of his oper-
ations were kept secret in his own
bosom. But this broad outline Of
the policy which he pursued in the
conquest of Matabeleland, and the
organization of Rhodesis, must have
been submitted to his Company,
duly explained to the Board of
Directors and approved by them.
Had they not been, Rhodes would
have been nothing but common
highway robber, liable to be hung
to the first tree.
The South African Company ap-
pears to have believed that it could
do at the close of the nineteenth
century that which Give did with
impunity in the middle of the
eighteenth. The East India Com
pany sanctioned the conquest of
Bengal and the Mogul empire, and
no one raised word Of protest; it
directed its servanss to "take upon
themselves the entire administration
of the revenues" or in other words,
to steal everything in sight. That
policy was carried out by Warren
Hastings, by Lord Wolsely, by Lord
Hastings, by Bentinck and their sue
cessors. 1t provoked no fatal CEN
sure and it did not bring its punish
ment till whole British army was
cut off in Afghanistan, when the
natives rose in their wrath and the
Company was abolished in Difference
to the demands of an exasperated
British public. The directors Of
the East African Company think
that they can repeat this page of his
tory. They have seized Bechuana-
land; they have carried on a war of
aggression and determination in
Matabeleland; they have occupied
Mashonaland; they attempted to
invade and conquer the Transvaal.
When their buccaneering enterprises
provoke indignation among the
masses of the English people they
fancy they can escape the penalty
of their deeds by throwing bit to
the whale in the shape Of Sir Cecil
Rhodes.
1t is a mistake. They are like
Hohenlohe, who fancies he can adj
minister the affairs of Germany on
the principles of Metternich. These
people forget that the world moves
and that men move with it. The
people of South Africa are not like
the feeble Hindoos who were beaten
at Plassy. The Matabeles are brave,
ready to die for their country, and
we'll armed. According to the dis
patches which we receive every day
or two they are always getting
beaten and slaughtered-there
should be none of them left. But
somehow, they are like the serpent
in mythology, on whose neck two
heads grew for every one that wal
cut off. The more they are exter
minated the more there are of then
to kill.
Cecil Rhodes and Jameson pre-
cipitated the collapse of the foolish
policy. They gave the Beers notic'
that British domination was incon
sistent with Boer independence