East Africa by steamers under the British flag, if they desired to combine on this not-too-agreeable voyage cleanly and spacious cabin accommodation, good, simple, wholesome food, civility of stewards, freedom from taxation,10 and rapidity of transit. But this discrepancy between the passenger steamers of the three nations is partly due to the large subsidies given by the German and French Governments. The establishment of the East African Line has greatly benefited German commerce. A freight rebate is granted to German shippers, which naturally reacts in favour of German goods and against those of other nations. This is particularly noticeable in the hardware and cotton goods trade. In a similar way with exported produce, the London market is not so readily approached when the produce is carried in German or French shipping lines having their bases at Hamburg and Marseilles.

If, however, a steady stream of assisted colonists could be sent out to East Africa, which in time would gradually quicken the passenger and goods traffic, the subsidy might be decreased, and finally become simply an Imperial guarantee of a maximum transport revenue to the steamship line, provided a standard of efficiency were maintained in food, comfort, and speed—an Imperial guarantee, for surely first India, and later British South Africa, and perhaps Australia, might see their way to relieving the mother country of the whole burden of such an experiment, since the commerce of these other portions of the Empire might profit by the development of East Africa? And in return for such an Imperial subsidy a rebate similar to that granted by Germany to German shippers might be granted by us to the merchants of the British Empire employing this line of steamers.

The problem of native reserves is not yet quite settled. Out of heedlessness, negro tribes have occasionally received as a reserve or as actual allotments slices of cool upland when they might just as well have been given tracts of warm country as well suited to their needs, but not adapted for European settlements. Thus native tribes are a good deal split up (sometimes) in their locations. If there was any motive guiding the local administration in these matters it was the desire to avoid solidarity in the distribution of native forces. But this policy also weakens the (possible) White and Indian settlements. If these are dotted about in little enclaves there is much more difficulty in defending them than if they were formed into respectably large communities. In fact, the ideal arrangement of East Africa would be a series of counties or administrative divisions, largely identical with racial or tribal divisions. There might be several little Englands, a little Scotland, a Boerland, a new India, a Galaland, a southern Somaliland, a Swahili province, Masailand, Kikuyu county, Nandi county, and so on. Each of these divisions might in the future have

to say

10 The unofficial taxation on board most British steamers is becoming intolerable to poor passengers. Subscriptions and testimonials, sweeps and charities nothing of tips.

The white areas on the map of British East Africa show the extent of land colonisable by Europeans

The white areas show the approximate extent of land open for European colonisation after Native reserves and future claims are taken into account. The darker tint in the Native reserve area shows the land occupied by Negroes (including Masai and Nilotes). The lighter tint indicates a population mainly Negroid-Caucasian, such as Gala and Somali. These regions, inhabited by the Hamitic Negroids (Gala, &c.), are thinly populated, and might offer considerable scope for Hindu immigration. The patch marked (1) is the Northern Masai reserve, which might well be exchanged for patch (3), at present held open for Europeans. Patch (2) is the Southern Masai reserve. The black line is the Uganda Railway.

considerable powers of self-government, and when a franchise was introduced it could be given with no regard to colour or race, but only with regard to a basis of literacy and intelligence. The British Governor and his representative council would be supreme over all.

There might be, for example, a simple compact Masai reserve. The southern of the two reserves already allotted to the Masai might be enlarged to the westward, and the northern reserve applied to Europeans or Bantu negroes. This might be effected by sinking artesian wells in the southern reserve which would open up for cattle-grazing infinitely larger tracts than are now used by the Masai in this region.

Many of the negroes of East Africa, it must be remembered, have only taken to the hills and cold plateaus because they were incessantly raided in the low lands. Now that security for life and property is established, many of them with no permanent settlements or improvements at present to their credit would willingly take up locations in the hotter lowlands; not perhaps the Masai, but certainly the Bantu.

Another problem to be tackled scientifically is that of the preservation of game.. In order to preserve the wild animals of East Africa from rapid extinction at the hands of reckless game-slayersEuropean, Goanese and Somali-very large areas (30,000 square miles in all) were marked off as game preserves. Much of this land is eminently well suited to colonisation. On the other hand, a good deal of Jubaland and the Tana country would equally well serve the purposes of national parks for game preservation. But these 'parks' in little might be dotted all over the protectorate.

In one way and another it might at any rate be assumed that we have in the southern and western parts of British East Africa at least 25,000 square miles of healthy, unoccupied land open eventually (when roads are extended and railways likewise) to British settlement. These 25,000 square miles of fertile, well-watered soil should in time maintain a vigorous white population of at least 100,000. 'White' Natal, on an area of only about 10,000 square miles, supports already a vigorous British and Dutch population of 100,000. The 100,000 white English-speaking East Africans would become in time a powerful factor in the development and control of all East Africa, especially in friendly alliance with the Germans and Italians.

But to start with, East Africa wants a completed scientific survey and an ideal land settlement; literally an 'ideal,' to be registered and then to be achieved by degrees, without haste, injustice, violence, petty-mindedness, or caprice. The whole possession of 205,000 square miles is worth this outlay as an Imperial speculation; but the outlay should not be the unbusinesslike unplanned dribbling away of the funds of the United Kingdom taxpayer, but an Imperial loan to be contracted by the State of East Africa and paid off out of her future wealth.

H. H. JOHNSTON.

THE FIGHT FOR UNIVERSAL PENNY

POSTAGE

UNIVERSAL penny postage may well be described as a scheme whereby any inhabitant of our planet, white, black, or yellow, may be enabled for the sum of one penny to communicate with any other at the lowest possible rate and the highest attainable speed-Englishman with German, Frenchman, Italian, or Russian; European with American; Asiatic with Australian or African-so that when one soul has something to say to another, neither colour, nor religion, nor creed, nor diplomacy, nor national antipathy, nor latitude nor longitude, nor poverty, nor any other barrier, shall stand between them. It is a grand yet simple assertion of the brotherhood of nations; it is a change that threatens no interests and benefits all mankind.

I purpose to-day to tell the story of our fight for universal penny postage during the last quarter of a century, and to indicate as briefly as possible the present situation and the difficulties to be overcome to complete this grand and beneficent work. Let us, in the first place, glance at the high postage rates from Great Britain to her Colonies twenty-five years ago, and the extraordinary anomalies then existing. At that time I found that while no less than 300,000 emigrants left our shores annually, never to return, the postage of a letter to Australia was 6d., and to India 5d., while the rate from France or Germany to these countries was only 2d. This high rate of postage caused correspondence between relatives and friends to be sent at only rare intervals, and after a brief period to cease altogether.

On the 30th of March, 1886, I was fortunate in winning by ballot in the House of Commons the first place. I took advantage of it to move the following resolution: That in the opinion of this House the time has arrived for the Government of this country to open negotiations with other Governments with a view to the establishment of a universal international penny postage system.' submitting this to a crowded House I pointed out that it was obvious to every mind that by the supply of a cheap, rapid, and trustworthy method of communication in Great Britain and Ireland not only had our people high and low enjoyed a means of continuous intercourse

In

and fellowship with absent friends, not only had works of charity been facilitated, sympathies enlarged, and unity of feeling promoted, but, in addition, an incalculable stimulus had been given to trade and industry of every kind and degree. On these grounds I asked that penny postage be extended to our Colonies and foreign nations; I pointed out that new and distinct advantages would be secured by this extension to the whole world. These were, first, the promotion of brotherly feeling with the millions of Englishmen dwelling in our Colonies, and, secondly, the creation and fostering of a feeling of solidarity and common interest. I then proceeded to describe the conditions of the emigrant to Australia and to America, pointing out that the mass of these exiles were persons in the humblest circumstances, who worked for a daily wage and had to calculate every farthing of expenditure, and with whom economy most often began by the giving up an expensive correspondence, and so practically casting off all the ties which bound them to the land of their fathers. I read a number of letters from the most influential men in Great Britain and Ireland in favour of universal penny postage; in conclusion, I prayed the House of Commons to make intercourse between our sundered coasts as easy as speech, as free as air. I entreated them to tolerate no longer this unworthy great postal profit on the expression of our fraternal sympathies and on the natural development of our trade. And I foretold that this reform, when it is ours-as it soon must be-would confer a widespread benefit on commerce, would bring new happiness into myriads of homes here in this country, and scattered by the brimming margent or the long wash of the Australasian seas, over pathless prairies in America, over tractless plains in Australia, and along glancing equatorial streams, and it would form the last, and not the least, tenacious of the ties that bound our Colonies to their Mother Country. During the debate that followed there was a feeling prevailing in the House that it would be wise as a first step to confine penny postage to the Colonies of the British Empire, and, in order not to lose any advantage, I got a friend of mine to move an amendment-simply asking for imperial penny postage. There was no chance of putting this amendment to the test of a division, and in the meanwhile the Financial Secretary of the Treasury was put up to reply on behalf of the Government. He pointed out that the Government was then losing 1000l. a day, or more than 360,000l. a year, over the present packet service, and it would be ruinous to agree to the resolution proposed by the honourable member for Canterbury. A vote was then taken on the motion for universal penny postage, and I was defeated; but I had the satisfaction of taking into the lobby with me 142 members of Parliament, to each of whom I had the honour twelve years later of presenting a silver penny on the day of our first great victory.

From the hour of our defeat in 1886 no Government, and especially

VOL. LXIV-No. 380

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