The Political Situation

Olive Schreiner

Description

Originally published in 1896, "The Political Situation" is a work of political commentary on the governance of South Africa. Olive Schreiner (1855–1920) was a South African anti-war campaigner, intellectual, and author most famous for her highly-acclaimed novel “The Story of an African Farm” (1883), which deals with such issues as existential independence, agnosticism, individualism, and the empowerment of women. Other notable works by this author include: “Closer Union: a Letter on South African Union and the Principles of Government” (1909), and “Woman and Labour” (1911). Read & Co. History is proudly republishing this classic work now in a new edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

Sujets

• Napoleonic Wars
• Cape Colony
• British Invasion

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 12 décembre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781473397187
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE POLITICAL SITUATION
By
OLIVE SCHREINER

First published in 1896



Copyright © 2020 Read & Co. History
This edition is published by Read & Co. History, an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd. For more information visit www.readandcobooks.co.uk


Contents
Oli ve Schreiner
PART I
PART I
RETROGRESSIVE LEGISLATION
RETROGRES SIVE FACTORS
I. THE BOND
AFRICA BEFORE THE MONOPOLISTS
RETROGRES SIVE FACTORS
II. TH E MONOPOLIST
THE UNION OF THE TWO FACTORS
“BUT ARE THEY NOT ANGLICIS ING AFRICA?”
IS IT WOR TH THE COST?
CHARTERED VERS US BOER RULE
CHARTERED VERSUS FOREIGN RULE
TWO OT HER CULPRITS
PART II
HOW IS THE RETROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT T O BE STAYED?
IS THERE A PROGRES SIVE FACTOR?
WANT ED: A LEADER
FORM ASSOCIATIONS
THREE TE ST QUESTIONS
U SE THE PRESS
INFLUENCE POLITICIANS!
A GRO UP OF TWELVE



Olive Schreiner
Olive Schreiner was born on Wittebergen Reserve, Cape Colony (present-day Lesotho) in 1855. After finishing school, she found work as a governess and a schoolteacher, and during her free time began to work on a novel about her experiences in S outh Africa.
When Schreiner had saved enough money, she travelled to Britain, hoping to become a doctor. She lived in London where she began attending lectures at the Medical School, as well as attending socialist meetings. Schreiner met the publisher George Meredith, who in 1883 published her best-known novel, Story of an African Farm . A commercial and critical success, it is now seen as a defining work of early feminism – as is her later work, Women and La bour (1911).
Over the rest of her life, Schreiner made the acquaintance of a number of figures in London society, including future Prime Minister William Gladstone. In 1889, she returned to South Africa to be with her family. Her brother, William Schreiner, later became prime minister of Cape Colony. Over the next few years she published two collections of short stories, Dreams (1891) and Dream Life and Real Life (1893). She also became heavily involved in politics, and was a fierce opponent of racism and imperialism. Her 1897 work Trooper Peter Halkett of Mashonaland (1897) was a strong attack on British rule in S outh Africa.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Schreiner moved back to Britain. Over the next four years she was active in the peace movement and worked closely with organizations such as the Union of Democratic Control and the Non-Conscription Fellowship. She returned to South Africa in of August 1920, and dying following a heart attack late r that year.



Two questions force themselves upon us when looking at our political situation in the Cape Colony to-day.
FIRSTLY
What is the cause of that steady and persistent Retrogressive Movement which has marked our political existence during the last years?
SECONDLY
How is that Retrogressive Movement to be stayed?


PART I


PART I
LET us glance first at the conditions of this Retrogressive Movement, and see if its cause be d iscoverable.
That such a movement has taken place admits of no doubt.
Many of the measures passed have not only shown no tendency to accord with the movement known as Liberal or Progressive in all countries inhabited by Europeans; but they have shown a persistent tendency to move in a contrary direction, and even to undo the more advanced and progressive legislative enactments of the past.


RETROGRESSIVE LEGISLATION
While in all civilised countries where representative institutions prevail the tendency is to move without intermission in the direction of a broadened electoral basis, so that in several of the English colonies to-day we find manhood suffrage, or one man one vote, or adult suffrage; and while even the most backward of European countries are rapidly tending year by year towards these conditions—we, I believe, alone among civilised people have deliberately, during the last few years, narrowed our basis, 1 and undone the progressive work of the last generation.
So also while in all enlightened countries during the past sixty years public opinion has been steadily advancing in the direction of doing away with the lash as a punishment for minor offences, we in this country have not only, during the last years, possessed certain individuals in our Legislative Councils who have striven to introduce an Act making legal the infliction of corporal punishment for the smallest offences towards master or mistress on the part of household or other servants, and which, if passed would be merely a recurrence to slavery under a new name—but this Act was voted for by three members in the last Ministry, two of them being Englishmen, and one the Premier, Mr. C ecil Rhodes.
Again, while in all civilised countries the tendency, as each country advances, is to consider more and more the welfare of its labouring classes; to remove oppressive restrictions; to en- endeavour deavour by every lawful means to increase their wages; and to regard the labourer, not merely as a means for increasing the wealth of other sections of the community, but to legislate for his welfare, and to regard his happiness as one of the pressing considerations of the State—we in this country have, under the Glen Grey Act of last year, brought in and supported by Mr. Cecil Rhodes and his following, an enactment which compels even the self-supporting and industrious native to work for the white man for a certain time every year, whether he will or no; laying himself open to imprisonment or fine if he refuse, even though his going out to labour for the white man should entail the neglect of his own culti vated lands.
So again, with regard to land tenure; while in all progressive countries there is a tendency to obtain and retain as large a part as possible of lands, mines, and great public works as the property of, and to be worked for the benefit of, the nation as a whole—we, in this country, are for ever and completely alienating our public lands, our minerals, our precious stones, and even our p ublic works.
And further, not only are we alienating them within our own boundaries, and allowing almost without a struggle a small band of Monopolists to gain possession and control of that wealth which should be ours and our children’s to employ for the benefit of the nation that shall be, but we are enabling them to grasp adjacent territories still uninhabited by the white man, so that when the m