ABSTRACT
With Cape self-government, Lord Kimberley had hoped that the British Government would be able to withdraw decently as a principal from South African affairs. Now the stream of natives from every part of South Africa that came to the diamond fields seeking employment and guns was at once evidence of the disruption of tribal life and economy, and the cause of still more rapid social change. Into the new urban and industrial communities the native policy of the frontier farmers intruded itself. In a South Africa that the British Government hoped would soon be a self-governing federation, able in its strength and security to develop a calm and liberal native policy, it was actually the attitude of the frontier that was everywhere to the fore. Confederation came to appear as a political necessity to be urgently pursued, so urgently pursued that the British Government felt compelled to advance it by every means in its power.
