Tshekedi Khama, Smuts, and South West Africa

Michael Crowder

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00007588

Tshekedi Khama, Smuts, and South West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Michael Crowder

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Ever since the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, Jan Smuts, one of its principal architects, had visions of transforming it into a ‘Greater South Africa’,. The South Africa Act of 1909 which established the Union provided for the eventual incorporation of other African Territories. It madespecific reference to Southern Rhodesia and the neighbouring British dependencies of Basutoland, the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and Swaziland, Known collectively as a High Commission Terretories because, pending transfer to the Union, they were admitted by the British High Commissioner to South Africa.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , March 1987 , pp. 25 - 42

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00007588 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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^{Page 26 note 1} For the background to Smuts's attempt to incorporate South West Africa, see Wellington, John H., South West Africa and its Human Issues (Oxford, 1967),Google Scholar and First, Ruth, South West Africa (Harmondsworth, 1963). See also Public Records Office (PRO), London; Dominions Office (DO) 35/1934, Trusteeship.Google Scholar For a general study of Smuts's ambitions, see Hyam, Ronald, The Failure of South African Expansion, 1908–1948 (London and New York, 1972).CrossRef Google Scholar

^{Page 26 note 2} Hancock, W.K., Smuts, Vol. II, The Fields of Force, 1919–1950 (Cambridge, 1968), p. 467.Google Scholar

^{Page 26 note 3} Scott, Michael, ‘The Case of Chief Tshekedi of Bechuanaland Against the Union Government's Claims re: South West Africa’, Rhodes House Library (RHL), Oxford, 610. 471. S. 1, p. 11.Google Scholar

^{Page 27 note 1} Botswana National Archives (BNA), Gaborone; BT Adm 7/8, Tshekedi to High Commissioner, Cape Town, 30 June 1946.

^{Page 27 note 2} Benson, Mary, Tshekedi Khama (London, 1960).Google Scholar

^{Page 27 note 3} BNA, BT Adm 7/8, Draft of letter to Government Secretary returned to Tshekedi Khama by Douglas Buchanan.

^{Page 28 note 1} Tshekedi Khama Papers (TKP), Pilikwe; Tshekedi Khama to Mary Blossom, Bulawayo, 5 July 1947. See also BNA, BT Adm 7/8, Douglas Buchanan to Tshekedi, 5 June 1946, concerning the draft letter of rejection in preparation for his consideration.

^{Page 28 note 2} RHL, Anti-Slavery Society Papers (A-SSP), Mss. British Empire S. 22; Anti-Slavery Society to Lord Addison, Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 17 May 1944.

^{Page 28 note 3} Ibid. Memorandum prepared by the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society on the South African Protectorates of the Union, 17 May 1944.

^{Page 28 note 4} Ibid. Anti-Slavery Society to Addison, 30 April 1946.

^{Page 28 note 5} For the fullest exposition of his views, see Tshekedi Khama, The Case for Bechuanaland, privately printed 19 August 1946. Copies exist, inter alia, in the BNA and the University of Botswana Library.

^{Page 29 note 1} BNA, BT Adm 7/8, Dr R. T. Bokwe to Tshekedi Khama, 20 May 1946.

^{Page 29 note 2} Ibid. Professor Z. K. Matthews to Tshekedi Khama, n.d.

^{Page 29 note 3} Ibid. A. B. Xuma to Tshekedi Khama, 23 May 1946.

^{Page 29 note 4} PRO, DO 35/1936, Sir Evelyn Baring, British High Commissioner, to Sir Eric Machtig, DO, 26 June 1946.

^{Page 29 note 5} BNA, BT Adm 7/9, ‘Extract from Race Relations Pamphlet, 101/46’.

^{Page 30 note 1} Nicholl, Heaton, Delegate of the Union of South Africa, Twelfth Plenary Meeting of the United Nations Organisation,Westminster Hall,London,17 January 1946. Record of Proceedings, pp. 188–93.Google Scholar

^{Page 30 note 2} RHL, A-SSP, S. 22, Tshekedi to C. W. Greenidge, 19 February 1946.

^{Page 30 note 3} Ibid. See Tshekedi Khama's document dated 1 February 1946 attached, outlining his plans for the railway.

^{Page 30 note 4} BNA, BT Adm 7/8, Resident Commissioner to Tshekedi, 20 February 1946.Google Scholar

^{Page 31 note 1} Ibid. Chiefs of the Bakwena, Bamalete, Bamangwato, Batloka, Batawana, and Banwaketse [sic] Tribes to the High Commissioner, Mafeking, 29 April 1946. This is reproduced in Khama, op. cit. ch. 1.

^{Page 31 note 2} BNA, BT Adm 7/8, Tshekedi to Buchanan, 7 May 1946.

^{Page 31 note 3} PRO, DO 35/1935, Baring to DO, 6 May 1935.

^{Page 32 note 1} PRO, DO 35/1937, CP (46) 157, 15 April 1946.

^{Page 32 note 2} PRO, DO 35/1935, SA Bechuanaland, Basutoland, and Swaziland (BBS) to DO, telegram reporting private information from Buchanan to Baring.

^{Page 32 note 3} PRO, DO 35/1935, DO telegram to High Commissioner, BBS, 6 May 1946.

^{Page 32 note 4} PRO, DO 35/1937, Cabinet Conclusions, 13 May 1946.

^{Page 33 note 1} PRO, DO 35/1935, Note dictated by D. D. Forsyth in the course of conversation at the DO, 24 May 1946.

^{Page 33 note 2} PRO, DO 35/1935, Extract from a meeting of the Cabinet held on 27 May 1946 at 11.30 a.m.

^{Page 33 note 3} Ibid. Memorandum by Secretary of State on talk with Field-Marshal Smuts.

^{Page 34 note 1} PRO, DO 35/1935, Baring to DO, 14 June 1946.

^{Page 34 note 2} BNA, BT Adm 7/8, Tshekedi and Buchanan to Baring, 13 June 1946.

^{Page 34 note 3} Die Transvaler (Johannesburg), 26 06 1946.Google Scholar

^{Page 34 note 4} PRO, DO 35/1935, Baring to Machtig, ‘Top Secret and Personal’, 26 June 1946.

^{Page 35 note 1} The official of the India Office who informed the Dominions Office of this development insisted that on no account should the information be passed on to Baring and that it should be kept strictly secret. As he explained, the Secretary to the High Commissioner in South Africa's ‘private letters have been most useful to us’, although he has ‘really no right to correspond on official matters with members of the India Office.’ PRO, DO 35 1935, P. J. Patrick, Assistant Under-Secretary of State, India Office, to Sir Charles Dixon, DO, 3 July 1946.

^{Page 35 note 2} India Office Library (IOL), London, IOR L/P+S/12/4559, No. 44/53, ‘Post War Colonial Policy’. See also Hancock, op. cit. ch. 26, ‘The Quarrel with India’. It will be necessary to try and check the Indian Archives on this question in order to follow up Buchanan's approach and see how far the Indian Delegation to the United Nations was, in fact, influenced by Tshekedi's campaign.

^{Page 35 note 3} BNA, BT Adm 7/8, Tshekedi and Buchanan to High Commissioner, 30 June 1946.

^{Page 36 note 1} PRO, DO 35/1936, DO to SA (BBS), telegram, 25 July 1946.

^{Page 36 note 2} PRO, DO 35/1935, Addison to Attlee, 16 July 1946. See also the correspondence in the papers of the Fabian Colonial Bureau, RHL, Mss. British Empire S365, Box 16, for examples of M. P.s being asked to raise the South West African question on Tshekedi's behalf.

^{Page 36 note 3} PRO, DO 35/1935, Addison to Attlee, 16 July 1946.

^{Page 36 note 4} PRO, DO 35/1935, Machtig to Secretary of State, 20 July 1946.

^{Page 36 note 5} Pretoria News, 21 July 1946. ‘Chief Tshekedi attacks Union Policy. Bechuanaland's “Encirclement” Fears. South West African Outlet essential for Territory. “SA opposed to native Development”.’ The Star (Johannesburg), 9 July 1946, ‘Reason for Refusal to Grant Tshekedi Travel Facilities. Interests of Bechuanaland involved in status of South West Africa’.

^{Page 37 note 1} Pretoria News, 12 July 1946.

^{Page 37 note 2} Die Vaderland (Johannesburg), 13 07 1946.Google Scholar

^{Page 37 note 3} PRO, DO 35/1935, Machtig to Bottomley, 10 July 1946.

^{Page 38 note 1} PRO, DO 35/1440, Machtig to Baring, Top Secret, Draft, 13 August 1946.Google Scholar

^{Page 38 note 2} Khama, op. cit.

^{Page 38 note 3} Ibid.

^{Page 38 note 4} Ibid. ch. 9, Conclusions.

^{Page 38 note 5} BNA, BT Adm 7/8, Donaldson to Tshekedi, 1 October 1946.

^{Page 39 note 1} BNA, BT Adm 7/11, Record of Interview between High Commissioner, Cheif Fredrick Maherero, Tshekedi, and other Headman from South West Africa, 20 September 1946.

^{Page 39 note 2} IOL, IOR L/P + S/12/4559, NO, 44/53.

^{Page 39 note 3} PRO, DO 35/1938, Machtig to Bottomley, 29 October 1946.

^{Page 39 note 4} Hancock, op. cit. p. 468 fn. For the conduct of the refrendum, see Freda, Troup, In Face of Fear: Michael Scott's challenge to South Africa (London, 1950), pp. 102–7.Google Scholar

^{Page 40 note 1} BNA, DCS 32/9, ‘Petition of Chiefs against Incorporation of South West Africa in the Union of South Africa’, Tshekedi and Buchanan to Huggard, 3 December 1946.

^{Page 40 note 2} PRO, DO 35/1937, Cabinet Conclusions, 13 May 1946.

^{Page 40 note 3} PRO, DO 35/1938, DO to Acting High Commissioner, South Africa, 17 December 1946, telegrams Nos. 595 and 596.Google Scholar See Friedman, Bernard, Smuts: a reappraisal (New York, 1975), pp. 178–279, for the impact of this reversal on Smuts.Google Scholar

^{Page 41 note 1} TKP, file 62, Scott to Tshekedi, 14 December 1946.

^{Page 41 note 2} Ibid. and RHL, Africa Bureau Papers, Mss. Afr. S. 1681, Box 147, files 3 and 12.

^{Page 41 note 3} PRO, DO 35/1938, Machtig to Huggard, Acting H.C. South Africa, in which he says he does not think it necessary to reply to Scott's two telegrams to Attlee, 21 December 1946.

^{Page 41 note 4} TKP, file 62, Tshekedi to Scott, 28 December 1946.

^{Page 41 note 5} Ibid.

^{Page 41 note 6} Ibid. Also correspondence between Scott and Tshekedi, in RHL, African Bureau Papers, Mss. Afr. S. 1681, Boxes 147–50 and 224.

^{Page 41 note 7} Troup, op. cit.

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