mang of Johannesburg. Organizing these facts, Mr.
Plaatje shows how the native has been maltreated and debased so as to
be considered a pariah of society in his own native land. In the
struggle between right and wrong, the latter has triumphed,
culminating in such an evil as the Native Land Act, an effort at class
legislation, the worst sort of discrimination and segregation in land
tenure.

One would have difficulty in believing that such barbarities could be
practiced within the British Empire, were it not for the fact that Mr.
Plaatje not only quotes from the act _in extenso_ but quotes also from
the debates in the Colonial Parliament to show that the intention of
the legislators was to restrict the native to their reservations or to
servitude among the white population to placate the extreme Dutch
Party in South Africa. In other words, the Colonial Parliament took
the position of Mr. J.G. Keyter, the member for Ficksburg, who said:
"They should tell the native, as the Free State told him, that it was
white man's country, that he was not going to be allowed to buy land
there or hire land there, and that if he wanted to be there, he must
be in service." The author is thankful for the assistance given the
natives by the British, but contends that the fortunes of the former
should not have been committed to the hands of the Dutch Republicans
without adequate safeguards.

The work will doubtless be successful as an appeal to the court of
public opinion, as it is intended. The case is ably and seriously put
and is supported by adequate evidence to warrant the author's
conclusions as to the enormity of the crimes against the natives. In
making this bold agitation for economic equality, this book may
materially influence future events in South Africa and in England. It
will doubtless lead British statesmen to conclude that the imperial
power cannot dissociate itself from the responsibility for native
affairs. The writer will attract attention too because of the novelty
in that this work is the product of the brains of an intelligent
native, who can think and express himself well on public questions. It
will be surprising to those Englishmen who have hitherto treated the
natives altogether as an uneducated mass incapable of thinking and
will certainly excite sympathy among those who believe in the
principles of liberty and justice.

* * * * *

_The Danish West Indies under Company Rule, 16