MAN OF VISION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1939, Page 2

MAN OF VISION

REMINISCENCES OF CECIL RHODES .BRITISH RACE’S SUPERIORITY. SOUTH AFRICAN MEMORIAL SERVICE. Mr R. H. Henderson, Minister without Portpolio, speaking at the annual Cecil Rhodes memorial service r.t Groote Sehuur, South Africa, gave a number of interesting reminiscences of Rhodes. The fundamental thought which permeated Rhodes seemed to be the superiority of the British race and their system of government, said Mr Henderson. It was clear that he thought the best service he could do humanity was to bring as large a section of the globe as possible under their control. "I contend,” he wrote in 1887, “that we are the first race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race”; and throughout his career he worked to this great idea before him, even in his earlier efforts to keep the road to the north open, in which he received little support either in South Africa or from the British Government. His vision of Empire may have been beyond his time, but when he said “England should rule this earth,” he meant it. but he meant the Anglo-Saxon race. HIS GENEROSITY. “Rhodes’s generosity was not confined to money, but extended to his personal possessions. This great estate upon which we stand was beautified by him, not for himself, but for posterity. “Not only did he keep open house, but the public were allowed free access to every part of the garden and grounds, and on public holidays overran the estate, picking flowers, as if it were public property. Though he never went out among them, he once remarked to a friend, ‘How delightful to see one’s fellow creatures about one enjoying themselves.’ “His religion was that a man without a purpose was negligible and a God without a purpose inconceivable, and perhaps this singleness of purpose was responsible for his success. Despite this, he was not without romance. “A man of many friends, he never failed one. It is said that at the time of the discovery of gold on the Rand he sacrificed priceless options to attend the deathbed of a friend. After the Raid, when Jameson was discredited and broken in spirit, Rhodes did not repudiate him, which he might have done, but was tenderly solicitous concerning him, and put him on his feet again. INSPIRED CONFIDENCE. “The confidence he inspired in everyone I had the ' opportunity of personally experiencing during the Kimberley siege. It was characteristic that when he arrived in the last train which reached everyone immediately felt, ‘Rhodes is here, and all will be Well.’ “My impression of him was that of a big boy with an extraordinary zest for life; cheerful in outlook, brimming with confidence and impatient of the future. His abounding hope and confidence never deserted him. When the food problem was presented to him during the siege, he said: ‘The food is all right. When the chickens are.finished we will eat horse.’ “He had a charming manner, which he adopted in the face of opposition.’ It was as if the loftiness of his schemes and the exclusion of self affected all who came into contact with him with a sense of inferiority. Never was the strength of his personality so clearly demonstrated as when, on the Matabele rising after the Jameson Raid, Rhodes, robbed of all status by his resignation from the directorate of the British South Africa Company, hurried north and took command. Nobody disputed his right to do so, and everyone rallied to him as their natural leader. “On one occasion I had to deal with Rhodes in an official capacity over the transfer and sale of some item associated with the municipal services.' His first words were: ‘What’s your price?’ —a perfectly pertinent question. ‘You have noticed that I am charged with saying that every man has his price, and so he has,’ he continued. ‘But people put a meaning on it which I neither intended previously nor intend now. But if you will tell me your price, if you will tell me what you want, then I can deal with you.’ The deal was concluded satisfactorily.”