I have given at length a political conversation I had with an intelligent and well-informed negro. May I add the record of the talk I had with an important servant of the Government. Though he was not concerned with the actual work of governing, he was a man who had a voice in the affairs of the State, a friend and servant of the Government, a man who could well remember the Jamaica of twenty years ago.

I dined with him in a bungalow pleasantly situated in a Kingston suburb. And I retailed to him the opinions of my friend the coloured reformer.

“Bosh,” he said; “stuff and nonsense. Your glib acquaintance was engaged in the delicate art of pulling your leg.”

Remembering the earnestness of my companion of Spanish Town country road—remembering his deep seriousness—I disagreed.

“But, my dear fellow, if they tried on that sort of business we should go for them. Eyre strung up Gordon for that sort of thing, and the black fellows have not forgotten the lesson they were taught then. The black Tommies—who are not all Jamaicans—in Up-Park Camp, and the white troops at Newcastle and Port Royal, would have something to say in the matter of Jamaican freedom.”

“How about the intervention of America?”

“So much rubbish. The Yankees have pretty well cornered the trade of the island; the natives count their money in dollars and American notes instead of English sovereigns, and that is about all America wants.”

“But what’s the good of Jamaica to England if America controls the trade?”

“Give it up my boy. England’s got Jamaica and she will have to keep it. Even dear old arrogant Britain cannot do what she likes with her Colonies. There would be a terrible kick-up if we started turning our possessions adrift because they had ceased to be remunerative. Besides, there is still a good trade done with England, and lately fresh British enterprise has done something in the way of increasing the Briton’s share.”

“But suppose the coloured people were to properly organise, and, under the leadership of a strong man, demand absolute home rule?”

“Then we should have to tell them to go to the devil.”

“And if they refused?”

“Well, then, I suppose, there would be a bit of shooting.”

“With a Liberal Government in power at home?”

“Give it up again, my boy. You know as much about home politics and the colonial policy of the Liberal party as I do.”

“Perhaps the Americans would openly side with the blacks?”

“Then not all the Liberal Governments in the world could prevent the shooting.”

“You think there is no possibility then of the introduction of home rule for Jamaica?”

“I am sure that if the black people were the absolute governors of the country, not one white man would remain in the country. It would be impossible; look at Hayti! The blacks are utterly incapable of self-government; ten years of independence would reduce a black Jamaica to the level of an inland Gold Coast village. With Jamaica a lawless republic, as well as Hayti, the West Indies would be impossible. America knows that; the Yankees would be the first to cry out against it. No, Jamaica is bound fast to England, and neither England nor Jamaica can undo the binding.”

“You think that Jamaica will again become as rich and prosperous as she was in the early days?”

“Why not? The place is rich enough, the climate is good enough. Do you realise what a tremendous upheaval the emancipation of the slaves meant to this little island? The whole economic system was put out of joint. That was only seventy years ago. The old planters who had made great fortunes by means of slave labour were heavily compensated. They saw labour difficulties ahead and sold up their plantations and cleared out of the island. The consequence was that the country found itself in a pretty mess. Can you wonder that its finances got a bit deranged, and that the Jamaican problem loomed large in the London parliament? The island was in a pretty bad way. The negroes felt the pinch as well, but not so much as the white people. Consequently the negroes began to have grievances, and one or two of them started in business as political agitators. It was about the best-paying business in the island in those days. But as things began to brighten up a bit the negro grievance became less acute, and though the agitators did their best to earn a decent living, they began to become less popular. That is about the size of the affair. Of course the negroes are not all content. As your friend said, they have ambition—at least some of them have. But you can be sure that three quarters of a million black men are not going to seriously upset the British constitution. Yes, I am certain that Jamaica has a most prosperous future. We lack capital and we lack good men. There is room in Jamaica for thousands of good, educated Britons with a bit of capital. And these will turn up some day. Fortunes are being made in Jamaica to-day. And as soon as Englishmen get wind of that sort of thing they will find their way to Kingston quickly enough. We have not done with the sugar trade yet, and there is plenty of money in fruit, timber and coffee. We can grow anything, and land is cheap enough. The railway is going to help the country along, and so is the Panama Canal. But most of all we

are going to be assisted by new British immigrants. I wish you would tell your people that it would pay them a good deal better to come to the West Indies than to go chasing gold mines and diamonds in South Africa and the Transvaal.”

“How much capital would a settler want?”

“The more the better of course, but a thousand pounds at least. A good man with a thousand pounds would suit us better than a waster with ten thousand. We don’t want any remittance men. Good, solid, hard-working, level-headed business men are the sort for us. People who will send for their wives and settle on their plantations, without wanting to race over to England every year.”

“My coloured friend suggested that the tendency on part of the planters to go to England every year was a bad thing for the island.”

“And there he was right, of course. We want absolute settlers—men who will adopt the country and call it their home, and count it as their children’s homeland too. We want a solid population of solid white men—not a migratory people who look for fortunes in ten years and then a suburban home near London. I guarantee that any man of the right sort who comes here in the right spirit will never regret his coming.”

“And when he comes, what must he do first of all?”

“Hire himself out as a book-keeper or overseer on some plantation for a year or so, until he has got the hang of the country. After that he can decide matters for himself. There are plenty of openings and plenty of land. With the new settlers we can work out our own commercial salvation. Without them we shall find it difficult. Labour difficulties will disappear as soon as we find more good masters. Even to-day efficient and sensible planters have very little bother with their workmen. A black man is very much what his white employer makes him. The servant of a discontented, slovenly master is discontented and slovenly also. A good master makes a good servant. Yes, put all that nonsense about a free Jamaica, and the Government of Jamaica by Jamaicans, out of your head. It won’t come off. We are going to grow; we are going to be prosperous. And we have no time to discuss absurd impossibilities, or to have sympathy with the impossible ambitions of scheming gentlemen of the coloured class. The black men have, and always will have, their proper place in the island, and they will have a proper part to play in the commerce and government of the island. And that is all. Jamaica is a British Colony governed by white men, and so it will remain for ever.”