Evening star., 1923-08-31
SOUTH RHODES|A
ENJOYING FREEDOM
Country Recently Liberated
BY England Has Government
) Unlike Any Other.

Brifain has just granted the right of
self government was expected to be
second Rand. but has turned out
South African Kansas, observes a
bulletin from the headquarters of the
National Geographic Society.
at present South Rhodesia has
government like none other in the
woNd. 1t discloses the only instance
where great corporation, the British
South Africa Company, governs a vast
andspopulous country in which a con-
siderable white population is actively
engaged in business. politics and
farming. Hitherto and elsewhere
that form of government has been
reserved for native, and usually back
ward, peoples.
HEhe country's future status came
up automatically at this time under
theS charter granted by Victoria at
th9s behest of Cecil Rhodes. which
chSrter provided that at the end of
t"ehtS-hVe years. or at the end Of
any subsequent ten-year period, 1t
might be renewed. altered or an
nulied The quarter century expired
In 1914. when it was reaff1rmed. Dis
cussions about action to be taken in
1879 brought the announcement that
the country is to join the family of
British states.
Rise Has been Kaleidoscope.
1T is hard to realize how far South
AFRICA has emerged from dark con-
tinsnt status; and South Rhodesia's S
rise has been Kaleidoscope. Should
an airpiane land you today in its
meHropolls, Bulawayo, you might be
invited to lecture about your trip be-
fore group of gentlemen in evening
dress. You would find the conven-
lenses Of modern hostelry in Bula-
stroll down a broad. paved. cleo
tr1c-llghted street, however, and you
Wonia encounter many natives,
psaseaeie ,hss aftt. and nd. nearly nude. Less
Lobengula held sway here over the
wariike Matabeles. This crotchety
chief had an idea that a pain could
be cured by the sacrifice of a head
from any chance passer-by. And he
seemed to have as many pains as a
highly civilized hypochondriac.
With the tinesse of William
| ing rights to Lobengula's domain for
monthly pension. a thousand rifles
and' some ammunition. But the en-
| occurred many years later in this his
namesake colony. After a native
outbreak was put down by Lord
PfuYner and 500 soldiers the tribes
! men took to the Matopos mountains.
Thither marched Rhodes. with only
TWO companions. unarmed. and camp
ID along the hills until he had inter
Hiewed every important chief and
1e remained, surrounded by fierce.
Ulopdthirsty savages.
Called "View of the World"
While in these mountains on that
1recarious mission Rhodes is said to
lave selected the site of his world
ampuS burial place, which he called
the view of the world Between two
great powders is the mountain-top
rave with the simple inscription.
Here lie the Remains of Cecil John
Rhodes
"A second grave-that of DR.. Jane
on-recalls the occasion when this
light, bald. mild little man led his
! roie handful Of men against the
age horde made their last stand
.er 4 series of forays against set
RS Jameson wired Rhodes for ad-
ce and got the laconic reply, Read
luke, fourteen, thirty-one.
Jameson sent for missionary BIZ
Die and found this Injunction: or
what king. going to make war against
another king. sitteth not down first.
| and consulteth whether he may be
able with ten thousand to meet him
that cometh against him with twenty
thousand Jameson wired back, in
substance, All right; l have read it,
md then planted the British flag
iirmly in Bulawayo and crushed Lo-
bengula's power.
Everybody knows. in an academic c
way. of South RhodeSa's great nat
ural spectacle, the Victoria Falls.
Chilly reciting its dimensions-a mile
wide and from $50 to nearly $50 feet
high-means little. The imaginative
person might stand on Capitol Hill, in
| Washington. look at the Capitol S
dome and try to visualize a sheet of
| water higher than that dome extend
ing all the way from the Capitol.
| down Pennsylvania avenue to the
White House.
From Outlet Into Yawning Gorge.
Even then he would miss the roar
audible ten miles away and the feel
| of the mist which carries almost as
| far; and the spectacle of this great
water volume hurtling off through a
100-foot outlet into a yawning gorge
| that winds away for forty miles; and
the bridge over this gorge at nearly
| 400 feet above the water level.
| The manysded Cecil Rhodes had
| an eye for publicity. 1t was he who
| insisted that the bridge should be
built near enough to the falls so the
rolled by. Engineers told him no,
as they told Hartman when he pro-
posed his wild scheme of bridge
across the Great Salt Lake. Both
Rhodes and Hartman had their way
But in his hope for South Rhode
sia'S future Rhodes was mistaken
The colony prospered, but not from
the mines as Rhodes expected. In
stead, farming and grazing lands are
the magnets which drew the $4,000
white men to this remote area
enough, even with nearly 100000 ma
tives. to be given the reins of gov
ernment.'