South Africa: The Temptation to Intervene

Abstract

The question of how far self-governing colonies could be allowed unfettered control of their domestic affairs and especially of their native policy, posed a dilemma which was particularly embarrassing for British Liberals. They were torn between their desire to uphold and extend self-government and their desire to secure fair treatment for natives. In the early twentieth century, most people at home would have agreed with Bryce, when he wrote that self-governing colonies were never interfered with in internal affairs, ‘unless in the rare case where a matter primarily local may affect the general relations and interests of the whole Empire’.¹ Interference in such circumstances was thought legitimate, but there was ample room for debate where the frontier line between matters of purely local concern and those of imperial magnitude should be drawn. There was widespread apprehension in Unionist circles in 1905–6 that a Liberal government would draw a frontier line favouring imperial control rather than local autonomy. So strong was Lord Cromer’s apprehension, that it was a major reason why he declined the offer of the foreign secretaryship in Campbell-Bannerman’s cabinet in December 1905.