wants to better himself. In that he is quite right, but he does not
see his way on a small plot of ground, and off he goes down a mine,
or something of that sort. There are great difficulties in the way
of State-aided emigration. We do not want the riff-raff; we don't
want the "surplus population." It is one of the greatest
difficulties to get decent, steady Englishmen to settle on the
land. It is the people who settle on the land who make a country,
and if Sir Frederick Young can give us a receipt for making English
people settle there he will confer one of the greatest possible
benefits on South Africa. Sir Frederick Young departed from the
usual custom on such occasions by touching on politics. I am glad
he did, because more interest is given to the discussion, and there
is nothing like good, healthy controversy. Sir Frederick Young is
greatly concerned that there should be a settled policy for South
Africa. All I can say is, in Heaven's name, don't listen to a syren
voice of that kind. So surely as you have a settled policy--some
great and grand scheme--so surely will follow disaster and
disgrace. The people of South Africa may be very stupid, but they
are very much like other people--determined to make their policy
themselves, and the policy of South Africa is not going to be
framed in Downing Street. I cannot help thinking Sir Frederick
Young did injustice to some of my friends who have been at the head
of affairs. "The mournful mismanagement of South African affairs,"
he says, "during the last twenty-five years, and most especially
during the last decade, has been truly lamentable, and cannot fail
to awaken the saddest feelings on the part of every loyal Briton
and true-hearted patriot." But have affairs been mismanaged for the
last twenty-five years? The revenue twenty-five years ago was
£500,000. It is now nearly £4,000,000. For twenty-five years, under
the beneficent rule of Downing Street, we had not a mile of