Yours, etc.
(Sgd.) Sol. T. Plaatje,
Editor of `Tsala ea Batho', and Secretary S.A. Native National Congress.
14, Shannon Street, Kimberley.
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"IMVO'S" REPLY
Dear Sir, — I am instructed by the Editor of "Imvo" to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, and to inform you that as he has not been reading and following your writings, etc., he cannot understand what you mean by it. In short, to let you know that he takes no interest in the matter.
I am, Sir,
Yours truly,
(Sgd.) A. M. Jabavu.
"Imvo" Office, King Williamstown,
November 24, 1913.
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Poor fellow! He had not met a single member of the Government since the plague law was so rudely sprung upon an unsuspecting country, and since it sent unprotected widows and innocent children adrift, to wander about with their belongings on their heads. Mr. Jabavu had not met any member of Parliament and discussed the measure with him or with a responsible Government official; so he found it awkward to accept a challenge to substantiate his arguments, in the presence of one who had not only discussed the measure with members of Parliament, with Cabinet Ministers and their representatives, but who had also witnessed the ravages of the Act amongst the Natives in the country.
The general complaint of the Natives of King Williamstown, his fellow-townsmen, is that he refuses to attend their meetings and relies on the white daily papers for information about the Natives at large.
But Mr. Jabavu is nothing if he is not selfish. We are informed, and have every reason to believe, that, three months after the Act was passed, he wanted to raise a loan of 200 Pounds on landed security, but was debarred by the Natives' Land Act. The next issue of his paper praised the Act for the sixtieth time and noted the following exception: "There is only one flaw in this otherwise useful Act, which is occasioning a manifest hardship through harsh administration, and that is the provision relating to lending money."
Now, from our point of view, this seems to be the only defensible provision, as it would tend to discourage usury, a common evil in money transactions between Europeans and Natives; but because it interfered with Mr. Jabavu's personal aims, that is the only flaw. The cold-blooded evictions and the Draconian principle against living anywhere, except as serfs, are inconsequential because they have not yet touched Mr. Jabavu's person.
Chapter XIV The Native Congress and the Union Government
Pity and need make all flesh kin. There is no caste in blood
which runneth of one hue; nor caste in tears, which trickle salt with all.
Sir Edwin Arnold.