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619.
The ianuoa in which public opinion was most interested
were those of the Sudan and South Africa. The areas
where humanitarian arguments were most important,
Uganda and East Africa, - never became the contra of
popular attention. Religion and anti-slave trade
agitation had little popular appeal. The public was
more likely to respond to more spectacular aituationo,
Gordon beaeiged at Khartoum or the Dutch threat in South
Africa= there were situations which contained all the
tensions of possible defeat and humiliation, and gave full
play to grand military exploits and dramatic adventures.
A good deal also depended on the doeigna of the Conservative
Party. In 1885 the Conservatives were striving to
embarrass the Government over its Sudan policy; in 1899
they were anxious to win public support for a confrontation
with the Transvaal. But they were more equivocal about
annexations in East/Central. Africa. Popular Imperialism
was a phenomenon very closely connected with the Conoervativo
position; it could not be divorced from 1% Coneral
Conservative point of view.
Practical economic prospects in Africa were not
greatly emphaained by grase rotte Imperialism. }lord