Chapter VII
“River, river, little river
May thy loving prosper ever”
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This cartoon from "Punch" dating from March 1888 is captioned by a satirical poem regarding Cecil Rhode's ambitious plan to establish the "Cape To Cairo" railway in central Africa in the face of Portuguese counter-claims to territorial holdings.
“In the autumn of 1884, the colonial adventurer Heinrich Vogelsang abruptly purchased the Portuguese-held territory of Angra Pequena in the name of the German Reich (Vogelsang arranged for the contract to be signed in terms of nautical miles, therefore obscuring the actual area of land to be leased.) Responding to expansionism within the Cape Colony, Bismarck hastily renamed the territory "Lüderitzbucht" and extended the frontier by almost 600 miles to encompass all land north of the Orange River to the ill-defined northern border with Portuguese holdings near Luanda.
For Cecil Rhodes, this new German-Portuguese territory came as a blow to the ambitions of many within the Cape Colony who wished to become a major power within the African interior. French colonialists had enjoyed more success than their British counterparts along the Niger River, whilst Germany continued to consolidate their position in nearby Kamarun and Togo. More locally for Rhodes, settlers in the Transvaal maintained their expansion into Zululand, often in direct contravention of the London Treaty. In a speech to the Cape Parliament later that year, Rhodes spoke for many within Whitehall when he addressed the Cape House of Representatives to state that Kaiser
“desires nothing more than a stranglehold by the Indian Ocean” and that
“Without drastic action, the Cape will find ourselves isolated by the northern possessions of the four power pact.” However, even in this relatively late stage in the process of African colonisation, Britain felt unwilling to become directly involved in military confrontation in Africa, a position Rhodes personally considered to be at risk of condemning Britain to second-tier status within southern Africa. The so-called
“bottleneck” of Bechuanaland was quickly transformed into a British protectorate the following year, lessening the risk of the Cape being relegated to little more than a trading post. However, in the view of many colonial administrators, there was a perception that large-scale emigration to the new cattle-ranching territories could only be achieved by properly securing the Cape's borders, a consideration that harboured ill-feelings amongst the Colonial Office mandarins.
With Whitehall seeking to divest some responsibilities to its junior partner in the Cape, Sidney Shippard, a local judge and trustee of Rhodes’ second will, was appointed administrator of the region. Seemingly without a sense of irony, Shippard promptly established his office in the town of Vryburg, the erstwhile capital of the Boer Republic of Stellaland. In doing so, Rhodes’ gamble of playing the Cape Authorities against the local claim jumpers paid off. Stellaland passed into a brief footnote and the tract for the first section of the road to Egypt had been secured. In a manifesto addressed to his constituents at Christmas, Rhodes stated that
“the great Lake system, with its vast population and almost unlimited market for the consumption of our manufactures, is now finally open for constructive development under the Union Flag.” Shortly afterwards, Rhodes held discussions with his friend and rival for the Premiership, John Merriman, and assured him that the Stellaland Compromise had been necessary as a means of placating the settlers there. The two men had nearly broken over the plan, but a hasty discussion in Kimberly later that year had restored their relationship.
“Rhodes’ dealings under the Stellaland flag” Merriman wrote in a letter to his wife shortly after the two men had had their reconciliation
“has been a bitter pill to swallow, especially for those of us who considered him to have been an uncompromising Imperialist [...] but fundamentally, we have now acquired over half-a-million square miles of prime ranching territory, with the promise of more to follow.” Rhodes had prevented a major schism with his more conservative rivals in Cape Town, and in doing so, had also won over a considerable number of non-English settlers towards his territorial ambitions.”
-From
“Cecil Rhodes: Architect of Empire” by Alfred Kwarteng, Canongate, 2007
“When Rhodes arrived in London in December 1887 to seek political support for the Cape to Cairo Railway, he found himself far less well known amongst the political elites than he would have otherwise have liked. Visiting the Colonial Office, the Secretary of State, Viscount Knutsford, originally mistook him for Graham Bower, the Secretary to the High Commissioner, whilst the Chancellor, W. H. Smith, flatly refused to meet him. Rhodes did however possess sufficient wiles, wisdom and wealth to make the Prime Minister instantly suspicious of his ambitions. Writing in his diary shortly after hearing Rhodes’ proposal for extending full British hegemony over Nyasaland, Salisbury wrote
“It is not our duty to sacrifice so much, especially with regards to our alliance with Portugal, for so little promise of gain.” Salisbury’s fundamental belief was to leave the untamed centre of the continent to the
“gradual march of civilisation” rather than promoting colonial ambitions in an already fractious region.
Although Rhodes would inevitably be proven right in his ambitions, at the time, it was only the recent creation of the Congo Free State by the Belgian King Leopold that had aroused strong feelings by the British public. Effective German control of West Africa was still limited, and as can be seen from this cartoon from
“Punch” dating from the following March, Rhodes’ disagreements with the Portuguese over the territory of Mashonaland tended to arouse ridicule, rather than respect;
"Now then, young Obstructive, still playing the sentry,
Where nobody wants you to watch or mount guard?
Are you to rule everyone's exit and entry?
Clear out, my young friend, or with you 'twill go hard.
You Portuguese Tappertit, your chest there a-beating.
D'ye think I'll be stopped by a monkey like you?
My Mash, that young woman! Will you bar our meeting?
We're sweethearts. Will you interfere with our rendezvous?
You pert whippersnapper, my sable-skinned leery-one
My masculine wooing's too wise to resist.
Shall Roads or Rhodes be cut out by a small Iberian,
With a gun and a swagger? Pooh! You shan't stop our Tryst!
We've put up too long with your pranks, my fine fellow,
Because of your size, upon which you presume.
Oh, it's no use to twirl your moustache and look yellow!
Mean having that gal, howsoever you fume.
You'd better behave yourself, boy, or no doubt
Look back to home and stop finding Britons to goad.
Before very long we shall clean you right out.
And don't go a-blocking up other folks' roads.
Eh? You warn me off her? I mustn't come nearer?
Ha, ha! My good-nature aside, you should not be so rash!
Clear out, whilst you're safe, you young shrimp! I steer her.
I shan't let you come 'twixt me and my Mash!"
-From
“Blaggards, Braggards and Blowhards: Satire as an Albertian Institution” by Leopold Sked, Jericho House Press 1987
“At the time, Joseph Chamberlain was one of the few politicians to take Cecil Rhodes’ “Cape to Cairo” proposal seriously. At a Colonial Conference in Liverpool in early 1888, Chamberlain invited the ambitious Cape Politician to give an address on the merits of the scheme to an audience of Liberal Imperialists. Rhodes impressed the audience, and was later invited to formally present the paper he had co-authored with the Conservative MP James Hutton to the Radical Association’s new manifesto. Hutton had found little traction for promoting the idea amongst his own party, with only Lord Randolph Churchill and Henry Drummond Woolf giving the proposals any real consideration amongst the government benches. Many Liberals were sceptical of the proposals as well, with Hugh Childers in particular dismissing the scheme as
“foolhardy.”
Despite the lackluster response from Parliament, Chamberlain’s patronage was enough to arouse support for Rhodes’ scheme amongst the Radical Association. At Leicester that February, Chamberlain spoke in favour of the program, with the speech later appearing as an article in the Fortnightly Review, which was now edited by his crony T. H. S. Escott. In many respects, Chamberlain’s support for the scheme fed into a perception of him as Lord Granville’s
“perfect Jingo” that had been dubbed upon him since the Alexandria Riots of 1882. Whilst somewhat unfair, especially given the fact that Chamberlain had described the Egyptian Revolutionary Movement as
“the legitimate representation of discontent.”, it certainly resonated with his domestic critics. Aside from Charles Dilke, many of Chamberlain’s allies in the Cabinet disowned his support for Rhodes, with James Stansfeld describing the furora as
“the last gamble of Whiggism.” Regardless, Chamberlain’s position within the Liberal Front-bench had been weakened, although it was his dalliance with the daughter of the American Secretary for War that would lead to a far greater threat to the future of the Radical Imperialism.”
-From
“Chamberlain and Cecil: An Imperial Partnership” by Anita Lewis, Dixon 1987
“Chamberlain had met Mary Endicott at a reception in Washington in November 1887. At the age of fifty-one, he was still slim, handsome and possessed of sufficient energy to deal with the killing pace of his American tours whilst regaling people into the small hours, smoking one of his ubiquitous cigars. At twenty-one, Endicott was less than half Chamberlain’s age, and was even younger than his two eldest children, Beatrice and Austen. Yet by the time he had left Washington in the new year, he had wooed a devout and intelligent girl of respectable New England Puritan stock. His letters to Endicott over the next few months were regular and demonstrate Chamberlain’s vast and wide-ranging number of interests. In some respects, they resemble a diary and for his biographers, present one of the best sources of information for the Liberal interregnum of the mid-1880s;
13th February: I do hope that you will find your new house to your satisfaction when you come to take possession of it. It has currently presented such a wonderful vision for me than I can now connect an image of you in every room.
21st February: I have not yet seen the child that I was unable to get along with. At times, I think that I must get it from my father, who was equally tender with children and so touched by their hopes and sorrows.
22nd February: After dinner, I took down one on of the counterfactuals that I had written several days ago and read it to the family, they proved a highly perceptive audience. Afterwards, Neville played a lied of Mendelson and part of a fine sonata by Beethoven.
25th February: I may have failed to mention, but I hope that you will be pleased that I have prepared a rose garden for you at Highbury? Personally, given the current palava with Mr Rhodes’ railway, I hope that you feel more minded to marry a horticulturist rather than a politician. I have a rather fine shower of orchids for you when you arrive.
Before the end of March however, the engagement had been threatened when a number of the more “colourful” letters between the two had been cut, bound and sent to the offices of the Washington Post. Although they caused little controversy on the London scene, Endicott’s father responded with fury. The two men had previously enjoyed a warm relationship, with the Secretary of War and Chamberlain exchanging several ideas regarding the reorganisation of the army. With the breaking of the so-called
“Highbury Letters”, the relationship soured, and Chamberlain was forced to cancel the Engagement. It was the latter action that resulted in the most political damage to Chamberlain, and was caricatured in the Conservative press as lacking gumption and clout and he was similarly mocked even in the aspects of the friendly media. For a brief period, Chamberlain’s political career seemed in doubt, and even Dilke mooted the possibility of him resigning the Presidency of the Radical Association. In April, he was even offered a Peerage from Trevelyan, but it was only out of consideration of his eldest son’s political career that he declined. Although the scandal inevitably declined, Chamberlain stated that it had taken
“a good eighteen months out of my political livelihood” and whilst he would soon rekindled his old courtship with the social reformer Beatrice Potter, his love for Endicott never entirely cooled. The two continued to correspond, and after Chamberlain's death, she requested a lock of his hair that she later had made into a pendant.
-From
“The Chamberlain Dynasty” by J. E. Powell, Cambridge University Press 1955
“Following the death of Wilhelm I in November 1887, the Prince of Wales was the official representative of the British government at the coronation of the new Kaiser. With the Queen engaged by a state visit to Canada, Albert enjoyed his first official engagement to a major European monarchy and was perceived by many to have done a reasonable job. His brother-in-law, the new Emperor, was already terminally ill with throat cancer, although an emergency laryngectomy, the first to have ever been performed in Europe, was widely credited as allowing him to recover enough energy to pass Germany’s first major constitutional reforms since the formation of the Reich.
Prince Albert enjoyed the visit to Berlin, especially with regards to reconciling with his sister, the new Empress Victoria. The two had grown apart following their father’s death, with Victoria taking their side of the Queen, who partly blamed Albert’s lollygagging for contributing to the Prince Consort’s misery during his final months. The coronation of her husband, although a subdued affair owing to the Kaiser’s own illness, did improve their relationship, as well as that between Victoria and her son, the new Crown Prince. On the return voyage from Hamburg, Albert was taken ill with a severe bout of his recurring bronchitis. He survived, but the sickness was enough to convince the heir to the throne to curb his intense smoking habit.”
-From
“King Albert” by Timothy Scally, Beaver Books 1983
