Rhosarian 2019

The Rhosarian 1/19
A man named Charles Rudd, on behalf of
Rhodes, obtained from Lobengula, the Matabele
chief in Bulawayo, a concession to “win and
procure” all the “metals and minerals situated and
contained in my Kingdoms, principalities and
dominions”. ... The new British South Africa
Company successfully petitioned the Queen for a
Royal Charter. The Charter acknowledged, in
appropriate legalese, “That the existence of a
powerful British Company, controlled by those of
Our subjects in whom We have confidence, and
having its principal field of operations in that
region of South Africa lying to the north of
Bechuanaland and to the west of Portuguese East
Africa, would be advantageous to the commercial
interests of Our subjects in the United Kingdom
and in Our Colonies,” and empowered the
Company to promote “trade, commerce and good
government (including the regulation of liquor
traffic with the Natives)”, to suppress “the slave
trade - of which there was no evidence at all - and
open up the territories “to the immigration of
Europeans”. The Company would also “to the
best of its ability preserve peace and order” and
for this purpose was authorised to “establish and
maintain a force of police”. ...
The occupation would be a commercial
undertaking; the whole business of founding a
new country would be put out to contract for
recruiting, provisioning, equipping and paying a
pioneer force of nearly two hundred men, who
would become the first white settlers in the new
country; also for making “a good wagon road”
from Palapye, in Bechuanaland, to Mount
Hampden, which was to be the destination in
Mashonaland; and for “holding and occupying”
the new territory until 30 September 1890, after
which the Company would relieve Johnson of his
responsibilities.
Frank Johnson’s tender was £87 500, which
was a lot of money in those days.
Rhodes believed at first that this was all it
would cost him to occupy the country. He certainly
promised Johnson and his partners - and, indeed,
all the pioneers - free land and free mining claims
when they reached Mashonaland, but as these
were costing him nothing he could afford to be
generous. But there was one factor he had
overlooked - or had probably chosen to disregard:
BSAP ANNIVERSARY
October 2019
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the danger of sending a body of men into a
wilderness inhabited by warlike savages without
some protection against attack. The British
Government - as represented by Sir Henry Loch,
the High Commissioner in Cape Town - was
adamant that the pioneer force must be provided
with an adequate military escort.
Naturally Loch was not prepared to recommend
to his Government that it should assist in financing
Rhodes’s commercial enterprise by supplying
troops at the expense of the British taxpayer. He
made it clear to Rhodes that he would have to
arrange the escort at his own expense. Rhodes
demurred; but when Sir Henry Loch threatened to
recommend to Britain that the Charter should be
cancelled if he refused to comply, Rhodes realised
he had no option.
At first, Rhodes proposed raising a police force
of only a hundred men. ... But as the later idea
developed of two hundred pioneers - who would
really only be civilians, although it was agreed to
attest them for the duration of the march - making
their perilous way to Mount Hampden, four hundred
and fifty miles inside the Matabele-dominated
country, even less cautious characters than Sir
Henry Loch were beginning to feel that a force of
only a hundred men would be a far from adequate
escort. Frederick Selous himself, who had been
appointed to act as guide to the pioneer column and
knew the territory as well as anyone, persuaded
Rhodes that he needed at least two hundred and
fifty. This disturbed Sir Henry Loch even more;
indeed the High Commissioner was by no means
the only person in high places who was growing
nervous; and from a number of quarters Rhodes
was prevailed upon, finally without too much
demur, to persuade his co-directors in London to
authorise a force of five hundred - all to be paid for
by the Company.
The authority was given; but the concept of this
escort for the pioneer column had now clearly
grown. It was becoming a formidable force in its
own right, needing a separate organisation and a
distinctive identity, and it would march with the
pioneer column into Mashonaland, to become a
permanent feature of the establishment. And so it
was that the British South Africa Company’s Police
came into existence before anyone had set foot as
a settler in the new country.