The Manawatu Daily Times British Justice Vindicated

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7278, 4 October 1933, Page 6

The Manawatu Daily Times British Justice Vindicated

* * The news was such as to make the bells of lieaven ring, said the chairman of a great religious conference in England at which the audience rose and applauded, and sang the Doxology in thanksgiving, upon hearing the decision of the British Government in the case of a Bechuanaland chief who had flogged a white man. The instinct which led, a hundred years ago, to the freeing of the slaves obviously remains very much alive when such emotions could be felt in Britain for a triumph of justice, mingled with humanity, so far away. And the satisfaction and relief which have been expressed most poignantly by this religious audience will be felt throughout the British world. The case was a testing one for British justice. One Tshebedi had been for eight years past the acting chief of the largest native tribe in the Bechuanaland protectorate during the minority of the last chief's son. As such he had ceitain powers of jurisdiction over nativ.es, and those were exceeded recently when the court over which lie presided ordered a white man to be flogged for immorality against natives. The white man was apparently notorious for his dealings with native women. The type has done much harm, in the early days of colonisation, in every British colony. lie admitted assaulting a native who had hit a native woman' with whom he was consorting, the natives’ ideas of sex morality being higher apparently than those of the settler in his country. Tshckcdi explained that this while man, his brother, and another had been repeatedly before him on similar charges. But to order a white man to be flogged was an unheard of proceeding. One remembers the fears of a local “chief captain” when, in his ignorance that he was a Homan citizen, he had ordered the flogging of St. Paul. If white men could be flogged by natives in countries where white people make the smallest minority British influence, in those countries, would soon be no more than a byword. Two hundred marines, with howitzers, under a British Admiral, were rushed to the spot. A court was held, which sentenced the white man to be banished from all the native territories and at the same time caused Tshekedi to lie suspended from his functions during His Majesty’s pleasure. Admiral Evans, of the Broke, told him lie was a decent-living man, but he could not exceed the law. That was less than three weeks ago. An inquiry has since been held by the Dominions Office, and Tshckcdi is now to be reinstated. Tshekedi explained that he had no intention of stretching his jurisdiction beyond its proper sphere, and would leave Europeans, in future, to be dealt with by their own courts. It would appear that those might have been more effective in the past if Tshckcdi had done more to co-operate with them. The native chief has had his lesson, from which no lasting humiliation should be suffered. The white man will not injure Aatives more. The difficult case seems .to have been satisfactorily settled from every point of view.