Page:Last Will and Testament of Cecil Rhodes.djvu/164

150 desire that we should deal with the practical part of the Company’s development in Matabeleland and Mashonaland, because you must remember that the English are a very practical people. They like expansion, but they like it in connection with practical business. I will not refer to the causes that led to our late war, but I may tell you very frankly that we either had to have that war or to leave the country. I do not blame the Matabele. Their system was a military system; once a year they raided the surrounding people, and such a system was impossible for our development. Conclusions were tried, and they came to a successful issue so far as we were concerned. I might make one remark with respect to that war; that to refer to the men who took part in it as political adventurers was a mistake. You can quite understand that, however bad times were, you would not risk your life unless there was something other than profit from the possible chance of obtaining a farm at the end of the war of the value now of about £50. Really, why the people volunteered so readily was that they had adopted this new country as their home, and they saw very clearly that unless they tried issues with the Matabele, they would have to leave the country. I think that is the best reply to the charge that the men who took a part in the war did it for the sake of loot and profit.

“Now, in looking at this question, we have to consider what we possess, and I can tell you that we possess a very large piece of the world. If you will look at the map, let us consider what we have north of the Zambesi. We have now taken over the administration of the land north of the Zambesi save and except the Nyassaland Protectorate. We have also received sanction