1256 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [paRrTV
(Governor, who had returned to London after his retirement
from the Governorship of the Colony, and from others, had
no effect, and the troops were finally withdrawn in 1869.1
The only conclusion which can fairly be drawn from the
circumstances is that the use of Imperial troops by a Colonial
Government can hardly ever be successful.
Incidentally it was proposed by the War Office that the
officer commanding the Imperial troops should be given
full control over the Colonial forces employed during the
hostilities. To this proposal exception was promptly taken
by the Colonial Office, which laid stress on the fact that it
would be a contradiction of the policy of leaving the Colony
to deal with questions of itself, if the Imperial Government
claimed direction of the operations, and that the only claim
which could possibly be made was that the Imperial officer,
while actually engaged in operations which were being
sonducted jointly by Imperial and Colonial troops, should
take command of the joint forces.?
Circumstances in the case of South Africa have been
decidedly different. The South African Colonies have always
formed a portion, and one not in recent years, in extent of
territory, the most considerable, of the British possessions
in South Africa. Even at the present time it is essential to
maintain a garrison in South Africa for the safety of the
British possessions and Protectorates, though it was the
desire of the Imperial Government in 1869 to 1872, when
they urged upon the Government of the Cape to accept
responsible government, to withdraw gradually from the
Cape all the Imperial forces stationed therein with the
exception of a regiment for the protection of the naval
station at Simon’s Bay.? This aspiration was never, how-
ever, carried out, for the years after responsible government
were not merely years of growing difficulty with the native
population, culminating in the efforts of the Cape to control
L See Parl. Pap., H. C. 307, 1869, and C. 83.
' Parl. Pap., H. C. 307, 1869, p. 443.
! Parl. Pap., C. 459, 708, 732. Cf. Lord Blachford’s article in the
Nineteenth Century, August 1879, pp. 271 seq.
