CHAPTER III
THE RIDDLE OF SOUTH AFRICA
IT has been already seen how Sir G. Grey’s policy with re- Cape gard to South Africa was repudiated by the Home Govern- g i ° 1 p ny ‘ ment, and how his reinstatement in the position of Governor Wode- had been on the condition that that policy should be dropped. p°“ se on His almost immediate transference to New Zealand released policy, him from a position of great difficulty : while the wisdom of his views was attested by the despatches of his successor, Sir P. Wodehouse. Again we hear of agitation in thé Orange Free State “with a view to the reannexation in some June 1863 shape of that territory to the British possessions in this quarter.” 1 Sir P. Wodehouse writes 2 in 1866, “You are Jan. 13. aware that in 1854 Her Majesty’s Government, strongly impressed with the difficulties it had had to contend with in administering the affairs of the Orange River Territory, not sufficiently appreciating its possible value, and alarmed at the prospect of having to maintain an expensive military force, resolved” on abandonment. “This step gave great dissatisfaction here at the time ; and it may fairly be questioned if the British Government, acting under the pressure of immediate evil, gave sufficient thought to the embarrassment that might arise out of setting up in immediate proximity to ourselves and the native tribes, a small independent state, peopled by the nearest kinsmen of the Cape colonists, possessing their warmest sympathies, excessively weak in itself, and yet almost certain to cause us much inconvenience whenever it should please to come to an issue with the natives around.” In Mr Cardwell’s opinion, however, the Marche
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extension of British rule in Africa was “ a matter too serious in its bearings to be entertained without some overruling necessity such as has not yet arisen.”
Forces, however, were at work, against which the timidity 1 Pari, Pap ti 1868-9. a Ibid.
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