Authoritative Life of General William Booth — South Africa and Colonisation, Part 2

[Illustration: MRS. BRAMWELL BOOTH]

The following account of one journey taken by Colonel Kitching alone, who was not only his Secretary but his representative in many directions throughout his latest years, shows the loving willingness of an Army Secretary to do and bear anything for Christ's sake, and, what our Staff Officers generally understand by the words "indefatigable," and "unconquerable":-- "After a long journey of thirty hours I reached ---- railway station, expecting, in the virgin simplicity of my youthful mind, to find his place within sight--perhaps across a couple of stiles--instead of which I found that it was thirty-six miles or more--four hours' drive in a Cape cart.

The only 'boy' at the station with a vehicle was engaged, so I bade him come back again for me as soon as he had got rid of his fare, which he did in something over an hour, although he had said he should be 'back in a second.'

When he did come he was unwilling to take me without his baas' leave, so we set off to find the baas; he was not at his house nor at his stable; he might be at church.

I went and routed him out of his devotions, finally bargaining with him to take me there and back for £3!

"Now Mr. ----'s 'farm' comprises some eighteen or twenty different farms, of which about 160,000 acres are in one block, and some 80,000 acres more in three or four separate pieces.

Each of these farms is managed by a farmer who is responsible to the top manager, who also has charge of one of the individual farms.

My destination was a farm where Mr. ---- was believed by the railway people to be that day.

"The first half of the ride we were cooked in the sun; then darkness came on--black darkness; then some ominous drops of rain, which were soon _sheets_ instead of _drops_, and such thunder and lightning as I never want to hear or see again in this life.

"I was afraid we should get lost in the dark; for, although it was called a 'main road,' it was in reality merely a _track_--not that in many places--with any amount of 1 ft. , 2 ft. , 3 ft. , and 4 ft. holes (no, I draw the line at the 3 ft. holes, upon consideration);

but my driver, who dignified himself with the title of 'mail contractor,' was sure that his horses could find the way in the darkest darkness, as they do the journey each way twice every week.

But when the darkness got so dense that we could not even see the horses except when it lightened, even he grew doubtful, remembered that he _himself_ had not driven them along that road for more than eight months (though his boy had done), and he thought that we had better stand still where we were till the storm was over and the moon rose; but I knew the moon would not rise till 10. 30, and we were already about eighteen miles from anywhere!

"My entreaties that he should proceed met with success, and the result that we lost the road twice, got into a deep hole and capsized--the whole caboose.

"When at last we reached the farm, it was to be met with the announcement that Mr. ---- had left there the previous day, and was believed now to be about twenty-six miles (three hours nearly) further on.

"I was soaked to the skin, as hungry as a hunter, and dead beat into the bargain.

The farm manager insisted that I must stay the night--it was imposible to go on in that storm--and go on in the morning.

"This is a little world.

Mr. ---- had mentioned my name in speaking to him of The General's visit to Johannesburg, and he had remembered it as that of the only Salvation Army Officer from whom he had ever received a letter.

Ten years ago or more he had addressed some inquiry or other to Headquarters, and I had written him in reply.

"The next morning I drove on to -----, and found Mr. ----in his orchard.

He had not received The General's wire saying I was coming for the simple reason that, not wanting to be bothered with mails or telegrams for a couple of days, he had instructed the post office people to forward all his dispatches to a place which he did not intend to go until the next day!"

If public receptions at railway stations, speeches and addresses by Governors, Mayors, and Ministers, and Press eulogies could have satisfied him, The General could not but have been delighted with South Africa, as the following extracts may show.

In _The Ladysmith Gazette_ we read:-- "General Booth has flashed past Ladysmith like a meteor, but I am inclined to think he has left a trail of light behind him.

It is fifteen years since I last saw the Leader of The Salvation Army.

Those fifteen years have made but little alteration in the man.

There is the same old Saxon profile, the same storm-defying, weather-beaten, almost eagle-eyed features, and the same slightly rasping, but intensely interesting in its earnestness, voice.

"There is plenty of strength still in that patriarchal figure, and with the exception of a slight stoop The General is as vigorous as he was fifteen years ago.

In appearance, The General reminded myself of Canon Kingsley.

They have the same Anglo-Saxon, falcon-like features, and the same indomitable energy and courage.

Canon Kingsley was not so well provided with hair as The General;

but, on the contrary, he could boast of a more prominent nasal organ.

Both men had flashing eyes, deeply-set and overhanging eyebrows, giving force and determination to the face.

"Both the late Canon and General Booth were equally sturdy specimens of Saxon descent, and both worked for the masses.

Canon Kingsley, as he would admit to-day, was before his time, and in aiding the Chartist movement made a fatal mistake.

Canon Kingsley, as shown in _Alton Locke_, endeavoured to raise the masses to heights attainable only by men of education and men of thought, and to-day the recoil of that pernicious doctrine is being felt.

"General Booth places a man in the position God intended him to occupy, and if the man can raise himself higher by strenuous effort then well and good.

"The Salvation of General Booth is the true Salvation--the Salvation of regeneration, and the world's thinkers are surely recognising the fact that The Salvation Army is a factor to be reckoned with.

General Booth and his people have succeeded when all others have failed."

_The Rhodesia Herald_, of Salisbury, said:-- "General Booth has well been called the Grand Old Man of The Salvation Army, for undoubtedly it is his remarkable personality and fierce energy which has made The Army what it is to-day, and has enabled it to do a work which no other religious organisation has attempted to do on anything like the same scale, and to reach a section of the people who remained untouched by the more orthodox methods of other bodies.

It is not so very many years ago that branches of The Army in many towns in the United Kingdom were striving to make headway against most determined opposition--opposition employing methods of which the authors soon became heartily ashamed.

Yet to-day, the different branches of The Army are doing their work, not only unmolested, but helped and encouraged by all classes of the community.

And this because The Army has wrung recognition by transparent honesty of purpose, and unceasing efforts to help those most in need of help and encouragement.

As the aged General put it on his arrival in Johannesburg, the Organisation of which he is the mainspring has set before itself the task of giving a helping hand to the very poor, those who are without friends, and those who have fallen in the battle of life."

The members of the Cape Town and district Evangelical Church Council in their address to General William Booth, D. C. L.

, said:-- "We have been deeply touched by the energy, the wisdom, and the consecration with which you carry on your work at a period of life when most men have retired from active service.

"We would join with our brethren of the Christian Churches throughout the world in assuring you of our admiration, mixed with our wonder, at the success which has attended your labours for the Salvation of the most helpless and degraded members of our race.

"Hand in hand with your efforts for the Salvation of the souls of the fallen have gone a true Christlike care for the bodies of the unfortunate, and an attempt to stem the current of social evil and degeneracy.

"We are deeply interested in your experiments in colonising those parts of our Empire which are at present sparsely populated, and thus relieving the tension of social problems in the larger cities of Great Britain, and that congestion of population which is a fruitful source of individual and of social degradation.

"We trust your visit to South Africa may result in the settlement in the rich lands now untilled of a population, which by its industry, thrift, and character will compare with those of Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

"We rejoice that the great Captain of Salvation continues to lead the Organisation, of which you are the head and heart in one, to great victories over the forces of evil, and assure you that in this land we recognise The Salvation Army as a powerful force for the spiritual and social uplift of the people.

It is always a pleasure for the Churches we represent to render any aid in our power to an Organisation for whose members and whose work we have the deepest regard.

"It is the earnest prayer of the Council that your visit may be full of blessing to your community, that it may result in a fresh infusion of hope and enthusiasm into the hearts of your fellow-workers, and that God may abundantly fill you with spiritual and physical energy in the fulfilment of the great enterprise on which you have entered.

"_August 26_, 1908." The address of the Bloemfontein Town Council very carefully avoids any reference to the proposed Over-Sea Colony.

Perhaps the whole secret of South Africa's indifference to it is revealed in the following extract from a paper, whose name we omit, lest any appearance of hostility to any locality or any element in that enormous country should seem to have crept into our feelings here.

After half a column of compliments as to his good work and intentions the editorial gentleman, not of Bloemfontein, goes on with his great "But" as follows:-- "But the social elevation, or the spiritual conversion of the boozy scum of a European nation may not be advanced at the cost of the well-being of our own people.

We protest most earnestly against that at once.

It does not matter whether he has fixed his eye upon Rhodesia or the Kalahari desert--these lands belong geographically to South Africa, and we need it for its own peoples.

True, we have plenty of territory, even for others who may wish to come and settle amongst us, and wish to be of us.

"But we have no room for the 'submerged tenth' of any other nation whatever."

In vain did The General keep explaining in every land he visited that he had never thought of, or made any plan for, "dumping" crowds of wastrels on any country, but only such people as had been tested and proved fit for such an opportunity as they could not get in overcrowded countries.

There was always the same loud and continued applause for "his noble work," and, then, almost everywhere--not often with the honest outspokenness of that newspaper--the same "I pray thee have _me_ (my country) excused from receiving this Colony."

And then the old man would give the tiny handfuls who, thanks to insane constitutionalism, have been left to monopolise vast areas of the earth, warnings of the future that may be remembered by generations to come.

Whilst in South Africa he was gladdened by receiving the following report as to the multitudes he was sending out to Canada:-- "Emigrated from October, 1903, to July 31, 1908, 36,308; of whom were assisted by loan, 9,400; total amounts advanced, £38,375;

total amounts repaid (within first five years _already_!

), £5,112." But as to South Africa, he grasped the main feature of the situation there; and thus wrote, in words that may be remembered, _not only in that country,_ when, for the British Empire, it is for ever too late:-- "The more I see of this country, the more I am convinced of the folly of the controversy that prevails in some minds, and of the fears that are entertained about the predominance of the Dutch element.

Before many years have passed the question will not be as to what nation of whites shall have the mastery, but whether the whites will have any mastery at all; not whether it shall be Dutch land or British land, but whether it shall be a white man's land.

The undisputed growth in intelligence of the African and Indian combined will soon give them so great a preponderance that they will capture the agriculture and trade generally.

"What is to hinder them from the capture of the mineral production, and the mastery of the country in general?

There is only one way for the white man, and that is to add to his numbers such as will join him in the struggle, and to convert the coloured element to righteousness and truth and honesty and industry.

"I want to help them, but they cannot see far enough.

"These are the sentiments that ought to be pressed upon the attention of our government."

Here is another letter which is valuable especially for the light it gives with regard to The General's careful examination during his journeys into all that concerned the efficiency of The Army and of every leading Officer in it:-- "I have not said much about the character and condition of the work generally, having reserved my ideas for the closing of my correspondence.

"In a general way, however, I will make a few observations:-- "1. The Territory must certainly be in better form than it has ever been before.

This, considering the havoc made by the war, is saying a good deal.

There are more Corps, more Officers, more Soldiers, plenty of money to meet their requirements, and as much favourable public opinion as is good for them, perhaps a little more.

"2. So far as we have had opportunity for observation, the Officers and Soldiers appear to be in good spirits.

"3. Some important advances are under consideration, or in progress, in the direction of properties, both Social and Spiritual.

"4. Several very remarkable Revivals have taken place.

"5. The Commissioner appears to be much improved.

"6. The more I see of ---- the more I like him, and my impression is confirmed that he is a long way the best man in the country for dealing with the natives.

"7. The Commissioner thinks that what there is to be known as to cattle, land, products, etc. , is known to ----.

I love him very much.

"8. The same applies very largely to ----.

What he does know he may know better than ----, though I am not sure whether his knowledge is so extensive.

"9. I have seen little of ----; but he is said to be very successful in his present appointment.

Two gentlemen who have been inspecting his place say they could not have believed that such wonderful results could have been achieved in so unlikely a place.

"10. This man, ----, has sat on the platform, and prayed when he has been called upon to pray; but he has done nothing more.

I shall instruct K. , I think, to ask him a few questions, one of which will be whether he is willing to take a position in another part of the world."

Of course, I am only snatching such sentences as convey the main ideas, without their fuller development, which would risk indicating the persons referred to.

Will it be believed that, whilst this octogenarian was toiling in the heat to prepare if he could a brighter future for some of the poor, a syndicate of slanderers in London, some well educated, some of the Trafalgar Square bawler type, were seeking to bless "the British public" by enlightening them as to his selfish and foolish designs upon them?

According to their theories his every new scheme was only brought forth to turn aside attention from his entire failure, and ensure a continuous flow of money into his coffers!

Perhaps, the best feature of all about his "dreams" was that they never became less cheery for all that, and their continuously increasing infection of the world, despite every attack.

The General writes, after his great Meeting with some of our native comrades as reported in connexion with his final Congress:-- "I have been much occupied, as I have already told you I expected to be, with the _Native Question_; and I am satisfied that one of the greatest things ever done in the history of the world can be done here, and I am determined to make an attempt to do it.

"I do not say that our chance is _greater_ than it is in India--though I am not sure whether it does not equal it in many ways.

Anyway, it appears to me that it is open to us to realise a mighty success."

Chapter XVII