Women and Imperialism: The Colonial Office and Female Emigration to South Africa,

1901-1910
Author(s): Brian L. Blakeley
Source: Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies , Summer, 1981,
Vol. 13, No. 2 (Summer, 1981), pp. 131-149
Published by: The North American Conference on British Studies

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Women and Imperialism: The Colonial Office
and Female Emigration to South Africa, 1901-1910

Brian L. Blakeley

The emigration of women to South Africa and the other parts of the em-
pire had been periodically promoted throughout the nineteenth century,
but it was that great imperial crisis known as the Boer War which gave
such emigration an immediate political and patriotic importance. The emi-
gration of women, especially single women, was increasingly viewed not
only as a means of assisting unfortunate, superfluous individuals but as a
way of strengthening the empire-a matter of imperial urgency. By 1901
the issue of female emigration had become a part, and some argued the
most important part, of the larger question of how to secure the South
African colonies to the British Empire in more than name. An organized
program for sending single women to South Africa was therefore jointly
developed by the Colonial Office and the emigration societies which had
long been interested in this work. This alliance between the hard-nosed
bureaucrats of Downing Street and the amateurish gentlewomen who ran
such organizations as the British Women's Emigration Association sel-
dom, as events proved, operated smoothly, contributing in part to its
limited success. This attempt to stimulate the settlement of women in
South Africa is important, however, in illustrating the national mood in
the aftermath of the victory in South Africa, the increased involvements of
women in imperial affairs, and the difficulties facing the advocates of fe-
male emigration.
The origins of Joseph Chamberlain's, ard hence the Colonial Office's,
interest in female emigration is difficult to pinpoint. The preliminary re-
port of 1900 of the Lands Settlement Commission chaired by H.O.
Arnold-Forster drew the attention of the office to the demographic weak-
ness of the British position in South Africa.' In addition, Viscount Milner,
the High Commissioner for South Africa, was obviously anxious to in-

'Minutes on "Report of the Lands Settlement Commission, South Africa," 28 November

1900, P.R.O., C.O. 417/339.

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132 Albion

crease the British population in South Africa once the war had been won.2
Of primary importance, however, was the intervention of Sir John
Ardagh, a member of the South African Compensation Commission
determining the validity of damage claims resulting from the war. Amid
the general discussion of post-war reconstruction, Ardagh brought for-
ward a plan by which women themselves could contribute to the strength-
ening of the British position in South Africa.3 In a series of memos written
in 1901 and 1902 Ardagh refined his ideas on the importance of female
emigration and gained the support of Chamberlain and his officials at the
Colonial Office.4
In his first memo of January 22, 1901, prepared originally for Milner
and then submitted for Chamberlain's consideration,5 Ardagh blamed the
Boer War on "the tyranny of the corrupt fTransvaalV oligarchy." Th
oligarchy had survived into the 1890s to perpetuate its "scandalously un-
just" practices largely because the English in Johannesburg had been "mere
temporary sojourners" anxious to make money but "always cherishing the
intention of returning to their native country." The continued power of the
Boers could be broken only through the encouragement of British settle-
ment in South Africa.6
The success of any such plan rested, in Ardagh's opinion, on persuading
British women to settle in South Africa. Without such women the male
Uitlanders would continue to marry Dutch girls, producing children who,
because of the pervasive influence of the mother, would be "absorbed into
the Boer population" rather than becoming loyal subjects of the Crown.
Ardagh, unlike earlier feminist advocates of female emigration, was blunt
both in terms of what was expected of the girls and what they could ex-
pect. Prudery must be set aside; even though it required calling "a spade
a spade," the object of his plans was the provision of wives for the single

2For a general discussion of Milner's plans for "immigrants, anglicisation, and prosperity," to
use the words of Arthur Keppel-Jones, see Keppel-Jones, South Africa: A Short History (Lon-
don, 1961), pp. 140-144; G. H. L. Le May, British Supremacy in South Africa, 1899-1907 (Ox-
ford, 1965), pp. 155-191; G. B. Pyrah, Imperial Policy and South Africa, 1902-10 (Oxford,
1955), pp. 182-216; John Marlowe, Milner:.Apostle of Empire (London, 1976), pp. 132-159;
and Walter Nimocks, Milner's Young Men: the "Kindergarten" in Edwardian Imperial Af-
fairs (Durham, N.C., 1968), pp. 30-53.
3Susan [Harris], Countess of Malmesbury, The Life of Major-General Sir John Ardagh (Lon-
don, 1909), pp. 382-387.
'These memos plus Colonial Office minutes and related documents are found in the Ardagh
Papers deposited at the Public Record Office (Kew).
'Minutes on "Ardagh's Memo," June 1901, P.R.O., C.O. 417/368.
'Sir John Ardagh, Memo of 22 January 1901, "Association for Facilitating and Promoting the
Emigration of Selected Young Women under Proper Supervision to South Africa," P.R.O.
30/40/18 (Ardagh Papers), pp. 1-2.

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 Women and Imperialism 133

British men who would be going to South Africa. The female emigrants
must be "marriageable," which meant "young, healthy, and fairly good
looking." Upon arriving in South Africa, the girls would be immediately
provided the opportunity for "social intercourse with eligible young
men." Under these circumstances Ardagh had no doubt that the female
emigrants would quickly find husbands, the plan thus becoming "in fact a
matrimonial agency on an extensive scale." The girls would improve their
position in life, but they could not expect to live "a lazy and luxurious
life."7
In later memos Ardagh developed the "political patriotic and imperial
interest" behind his colonization scheme, arguments which were also
becoming respectable both to the Colonial Office and to some members of
societies sponsoring female emigration. Ardagh believed that the racial
future of South Africa was at stake. The Boers had sufficient women; the
British in South Africa lacked almost 100,000 females without whom
many men were unlikely to marry. Such a situation was fraught with
danger to the empire. Under the influence of the Bond and "Africander
propaganda" loyalty to Britain had declined throughout South Africa,
being replaced by "aspirations for a Dutch South Africa."' Ardagh postu-
lated the end of the war as the "critical moment" in the history of South
Africa. Being at least temporarily in control, Britain should provide
"British mothers"-two hundred unmarried British girls each week for a
minimum of five years. Such an undertaking would redress the numerical
inequality between the sexes and perhaps save South Africa for the
empire; but, it would cost money. The existing emigration societies could
perform this work efficiently only with government support in the form of
free passages or cash grants.'
To Ardagh, no time should be lost. South Africa was quite literally at the
"parting of the ways." If the government did not act immediately

the future population of South Africa instead of being a pure race of loyal
Britains, as we desire to be, and as it must be if we are to retain the sympathy
and affection of South Africa as an important part of the Empire, will become
more and more imbued with alien blood and unfriendly traditions, and will not
improbably seek to revive that struggle which has already cost us such a great
expenditure and so many sacrifices.'0

Joseph Chamberlain, already familiar with the land settlement plans of

Milner and Arnold-Forster, was receptive to the principle of female emi-
'Ibid., pp. 3-4; Ardagh, Memo of 21 April 1902, "The Repatriation and Rehabilitation of the
Burghers after the War," P.R.O. 30/40/18.
'Ardagh, "Confidential Memo of 6 March 1902," P.R.O. 30/40/18.
'Ardagh, "Confidential Memo of 12 June 1902," P.R.O. 30/40/18.
'?Ardagh, "Second Memorandum," P.R.O. 30/40/18.

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134 Albion

gration to South Africa. Even as Ardagh's first memo was percolating

through the bureaucracy, Chamberlain was publically praising the work
already being done in this field by the British Women's Emigration As-
sociation. In a speech at its annual meeting on March 14, 1901, he stressed
that the B.W.E.A. gave new hope to the redundant women of England
and also strengthened the empire. Agreeing with Ardagh that the con-
clusion of the war represented a crucial period in the history of South
Africa, Chamberlain stressed the need to provide wives for the men who
would emigrate. Without these women the men would remain transients
and do nothing to ensure the future loyalty of South Africa." More signi-
ficantly, perhaps, Chamberlain sent his speech and Ardagh's first memo
to Milner and the governors of Natal and the Cape for consideration.'2
The British Women's Emigration Association, whose annual meeting
Chamberlain had graced, was to prove another force in directing his at-
tention towards female emigration. Founded in 1884, the B.W.E.A. had
sent some single women to South Africa during the late nineteenth
century, but because of its amateurish leadership, its lack of adequate
funding, and its emphasis on helping "educated" women who generally
preferred Australia or Canada the number was small."' It was not until
1899 that Mrs. Ellen Joyce, a long-time worker in the area of femrale emi-
gration, persuaded the B.W.E.A. Council to establish a separate South
African Sub-Committee.'4 By June this committee was meeting weekly,
and, in tune with the times, keeping its proceedings confidential.'5 Little
was achieved by Joyce and her colleagues prior to the intervention of
Ardagh, however. Ardagh, when he first submitted his proposals to Mil-
ner and the Colonial Office in January 1901, had been unaware of the
existence of the B.W.E.A. It was Chamberlain who urged him to work
through the B.W.E.A.,'6 a suggestion which led to the scheduling of a

" The Times (London), 15 March 1901. Because of the obvious value of Chamberlain's
port, the B.W.E.A. reprinted his speech as a pamphlet for distribution.
2Henry Lambert's minute of 13 June 1901 on Ardagh's memo, P.R.O., C.O. 417/368, and
C.O. to Governors, 23 March 1901, P.R.O., C.O. 417/339.
'3For the background and work of the B.W.E.A. see Una Monk, New Horizons: One Hundred
Years of Women's Migration (London, 1963), pp. 1-17; and J.A. Hammerton, Emmigrant
Gentlewomen: Genteel Poverty and Female Emigration, 1830-1914 (Totowa, N.J., 1979), pp.
148-153.
"U.B.W.E.A., Council Minutes of 22 March 1899, Fawcett Library 1. The records of several
female emigration societies are deposited at the Fawcett Library presently located at the City of
London Polytechnic. The reference numbers refer to the boxes at the Fawcett Library in which
the manuscript materials are kept.
'5U.B.W.E.A., Council Minutes of 14 June 1899, Fawcett Library 1.
6Malmesbury, Life of Ardagh, pp. 440-441

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 Women and Imperialism 135

special B.W.E.A. council meeting in April 1901.'7 By the time the council
met Chamberlain's speech to the B.W.E.A. had brought the concept of fe-
male emigration to the attention of the public. This plan was viewed as a
part of the larger scheme, discussed in periodicals such as The Nineteenth
Century, The Fortnightly Review, and The Contemporary Review as well
as in parliament, for reinforcing "the British element" in South Africa.'8
It was not surprising therefore that the ladies were caught up in the en-
thusiasm of the moment and endorsed, with some reservations, Ardagh's
plan.'9 To retain control of the project the South African Sub-
Committee was renamed the South African Expansion Committee
(S.A.X.) and given virtual independence to push this new, imperial
work.20 Thus, although Lady Malmesbury, Ardagh's wife and an
immediate force in female emigration, was undoubtedly exaggerating
when she claimed that her husband had founded the South African Ex-
pansion Committee,2' Ardagh was the catalyst in persuading both the
B.W.E.A. and the Colonial Office to support extensive female emigration
to South Africa. Having ignited the fire, however, Sir John withdrew from
the arena, leaving the ladies and the government to work out the details of
the scheme.
The ladies of the S.A.X., led by Malmesbury, Joyce, Lady Knightley of
Fawsley, the president, and Mrs. Evelyn Cecil, threw themselves into their
new work. Educating the public about the objectives of the S.A.X. was of
utmost importance because only in this way could they gain the necessary
financial support. First and foremost in this area was the inauguration in
January 1902, in conjunction with the parent B.W.E.A., of a monthly
journal-The Imperial Colonist. Through this journal the S.A.X. made
known the support of prominent imperialists such as Milner and Wolseley,
described to possible contributors the objectives and work of the com-
mittee, and, through articles such as Miss Chitty's "Imperial Patriotism,"
made it clear that female emigration was a useful, patriotic activity.22

''U.B.W.E.A., Council Minutes of 15 February 1901, Fawcett Library 1. The delay was to
provide Milner with the opportunity to react to Ardagh's plan.
"SThe Times (London), 22 March 1901, p. 12e, and Hansard, 4th Series, 91 (25 March 1901):
1162-1191.
'9U.B.W.E.A., Council Minutes of 18 April 1901, Fawcett Library 1.
20U.B.W.E.A., Council Minutes of 1 May 1901, Fawcett Library 1.
2Malmesbury, Life of Ardagh, p. 440. This claim was vigorously challenged by Joyce who
argued that the organization had evolved naturally from the B.W.E.A. Joyce to Malmesbury,
26 January 1909, P.R.O. 30/40/18.
22Chitty, "Imperial Patriotism," The Imperial Colonist 3 no. 25 (January 1904): 15-16.
Women were also active in educating the public in imperial matters through such recently
founded organizations as the Victoria League (1901) and the League of Empire (1901). J.G.
Greenlee, "Imperial Studies and the Unity of the Empire," Journal of Imperial and Common-
wealth History 7 no. 3 (May 1979): 322.

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136 Albion

Other significant publicity was provided by the annual meetings of the

South African Expansion Committee, which became after 1903 the South
African Colonisation Society (S.A.C.S.). Held in the most fashionable
London homes, such as Sunderland House and Grosvenor House, these
meetings were extensively covered by the respectable press. Hosted by the
Dukes of Marlborough and Westminster, chaired by such luminaries as
Chamberlain and Crewe, and attended by an impressive cross section of
polite London society, these festive meetings provided not only publicity
but helped to raise money and to reward the less prominent volunteer
workers on whom the success of the South African Colonisation Society
ultimately depended.23
In its publicity the S.A.C.S., as the South African Expansion
Committee will now be called, developed the ideas of Sir John Ardagh.
Specific descriptions of the opportunities in South Africa for governesses,
domestic servants, and even female poultry raisers were matched by
articles editorializing on the importance of women to the empire. Accord-
ing to Lady Knightley, the president of the S.A.C.S., only the presence of
women would transform "the blood-stained veldt" into "a loyal and pros-
perous community living in peace and harmony beneath the British
flag."24 Despite occasional assurances that the S.A.C.S. did not aim at the
subjugation of the Boers,2" The Imperial Colonist was filled with refer-
ences to the need for women to go to South Africa "where Semi-
barbarism, Retrogression, and Ignorance for years [had] re
preme."26 Although Rhodes was dead his ideal was not; women must
"slough off the pettiness of the past and rise to the height of Imperial
womanhood.' '27
The implementation of the Ardagh plan and the harnessing of the
feminine enthusiasm of the S.A.C.S. proved to be a slow, often uncertain
process. Throughout 1901 and well into 1902, while the war was still in
progress, the executive committee of the S.A.C.S. confined itself to re-
quests for free or indulgent passages on troop ships for wives anxious to
rejoin their husbands in South Africa.28 Chamberlain obtained some in-
23The Imperial Colonist 1-12 (1902-1914). The annual meetings of the B.W.E.A. were held at
the Imperial Institute and were much less elaborate and impressively attended. The list of the
S.A.C.S. Vice-Patrons (1902), including Devonshire, Balfour, Selborne, Milner, Asquith,
Chamberlain, and Edward Grey, indicates that it had little difficulty in attracting support from
the leaders of both major parties. S.A.C.S., Report of 1903, p. 3, Fawcett Library 41.
2"The Imperial Colonist I no. 1 (January 1902): 2.
2"For example see "Annual Meeting of the S.A.C.S.," ibid., 4 no. 43 (July 1905): 76.
26Ibid., 1 no. 2 (February 1902): 11.
27Ibid., 1 no. 5 (May 1902): 40.
25S.A.X., Minutes of 18 June 1901, 3, 11, and 17 July 1901; and 6 November 1901, Fawcet
Library 1.

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 Women and Imperialism 137

dulgent passages for the S.A.C.S. and, in general, hoped that preparations
could be begun for the anticipated post-war "rush" of women into South
Africa.29 Both the S.A.C.S. and the Colonial Office were, however, leery
of moving too rapidly in this matter. In particular, Henry Lambert of the
Colonial Office feared that Chamberlain would be held personally respon-
sible for any female emigrants who came "to grief or destitution."30 Other
members of the Colonial Office staff, such as George Fiddes, urged that
as much responsibility as possible be left to the ladies in London.31 Not
only was the Colonial Office reluctant to assume any new responsibilities
during a time of crisis, but it obviously sought to use the S.A.C.S. as a
shield to deflect possible public criticism.
Before large numbers of single women could be emigrated, the Colonial
Office and the S.A.C.S. had to obtain the support of both Milner and the
female leaders of British society in South Africa. Only Milner could sub-
sidize the work of the S.A.C.S., and only committees of South African
ladies could make the necessary local arrangements for receiving, protect-
ing, and placing the new immigrants. Ardagh's plan, interpreted by
Chamberlain in his address to the B.W.E.A., received little support from
the governments of Natal and the Cape,32 but Milner viewed the plan as
supportive of his general desire to strengthen the British element in South
Africa. In response to specific requests by Chamberlain, Milner agreed to
provide ?15,000 a year for the project. This money would be used for
emigrant passages to South Africa, railroad fares from the Cape to either
the Orange River Colony or the Transvaal, and the establishment of
hostels for the protection of the young ladies. Although general guidelines
would be laid down by Milner, the S.A.C.S. would necessarily be respon-
sible for selecting the female emigrants and supervising them on the
voyage to South Africa." Henry Lambert viewed Milner's response as

29U.B.W.E.A. to C.O., 19 July 1901, P.R.O., C.O. 417/340; C.O. to War Office, 18 June
1901; and Chamberlain's minute of 30 May 1901 on Ardagh to Lord Monk Bretton, 27 May
1901, P.R.O., C.O. 417/339.
30Lambert's minute of 22 May 1901 on J. Edith Bairnsfather to Joyce, 28 March 190
C.O. 417/339.
3'Fiddes' minute of 28 May 1901 on Ardagh to Monk Bretton, 27 May 1901, P.R.O., C
417/339.
32C.O. to Governors of Cape, Natal, and South Africa, 23 March 1901, P.R.O., C.O.
417/339; Walter Hely Hutchinson to Chamberlain, 26 April 1901, P.R.O., C.O. 48/552; and
Monk Bretton to Joyce, 20 August 1901, P.R.O., C.O. 219/179.
"Chamberlain to Milner, tel., 21 June 1902, and Milner to Chamberlain, tel., 12 August 1902,
Parliamentary Papers, vol. 45, "Further Correspondence Relating to Affairs in South
Africa," Cd. 1463, 1903, pp. 1-3.

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138 Albion

providing a suitable stimulus to the work of the S.A.C.S.34

By early 1902 the S.A.C.S. had also established contacts with groups of
interested women in South Africa. J. Edith Bairnsfather, who like many
of the members of the S.A.C.S. had become interested in female settle-
ment through the emigration work of the Girls' Friendly Society,33 organ-
ized a South African Immigration Association at Cape Town.36 This or-
ganization encouraged the emigration of young women, especially domes-
tic servants, to the Cape. Bairnsfather's committee was to have a long and
often stormy relationship with the S.A.C.S.37 More significant for the
purposes of this study was the creation of a S.A.C.S. branch at Johannes-
burg on April 26, 1902. According to the Johannesburg Star, this
organization would not only help to civilize single men "made rough
by the struggle with primitive nature," but be "a potent instru-
ment in . . . strengthening those ideal ties that bind the Mother Country
and her daughters into one Imperial whole."38 The work of this
branch was brief, however, it tasks being largely assumed by a "Women's
Immigration Department" financed by Milner. This agency was to apply
to the S.A.C.S. in London for women to fill known vacancies in the
Transvaal and to be responsible for the financial operation of the project.
Because many of the South African ladies earlier associated with the
S.A.C.S. served as advisors to Milner's new department, the two agencies
worked closely together.39
With the needed administrative arrangements now made, the Colonial
Office and the S.A.C.S. were by the summer of 1902 in a position to begin

34Lambert's minute of 14 August 1902 on Milner to Chamberlain, tel., 12 August 1902,

P.R.O., C.O. 291/41.
"Girls' Friendly Society, Minutes of the Imperial, Colonial, and Overseas Committee, 5 July
1901, 17 July 1901, 24 October 1901, 16 June 1902, and 1 October 1902, Class 1, Ref. 87. The
records of the G.F.S., used with the permission of Dame Marion Kettlewell, are deposited at
the G.F.S., Townsend House, London. In addition to Bairnsfather, London emigration
leaders such as Mrs. Joyce and Lady Knightley of Fawsley were also active in the work of th
G.F.S. For a general account of the work and ideals of the G.F.S. during this era see Brian Har-
rison, "For Church, Queen, and Family: The Girls' Friendly Society 1874-1920," Past and
Present 61 (November 1973): 107-138.
36Cape Times, 22 April 1901, enclosed in Hely Hutchinson to Chamberlain, 22 April 1901,
P.R.O., C.O. 48/552.
"For a discussion of the relations between these two organizations and Bairnsfather's c
of the S.A.C.S.'s work see S.A.X., minutes of 9 April 1902 and Malmesbury's "Report of the
Committee of Enquiry on the Criticisms contained in the letter from the Hon. Sec. of the
S.A.I.A. (dated Feb. 4. 02)," Fawcett Library 41.
"Clipping from The Star (Johannesburg), 28 April 1902, P.R.O. 30/40/18.
39J.M. Russell (W.I.D.) to S.A.X., 16 August 1902 and 1 September 1902, P.R.O., C.O.
291/51.

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 Women and Imperialism 139

a more systematic colonization of young women in South Africa.40 The

practical achievements of the S.A.C.S. proved, however, a disappointment
to the Colonial Office and Milner. The first party of carefully screened
general servants, assured that they would receive ?3 per month during
their first year of service, was not assembled until September 1902.4'
Despite the hiring of a paid secretary and the renting of additional office
space,42 the S.A.C.S. was never able to meet the quotas established by
Milner. Milner argued that regular weekly parties of twenty-five servants
were required to make the program work effectively.43 This annual figure of
approximately 1200 female emigrants for the Transvaal alone exceeded the
past figures of the parent B.W.E.A. The best that the S.A.C.S. could pro-
duce was the dispatch of parties of fifty women in October, November, and
December 1902 and January 1903, about half of Milner's request. Both
Milner and Chamberlain urged action, the latter arguing as early as
November 1902 that the entire project was "becoming discredited" be-
cause of the delays on the part of the S.A.C.S.44
The S.A.C.S. maintained that the careful screening of approximately
1300 applications in October alone45 plus the cost of its expanded opera-
tion made it difficult to meet Milner's expectations. "6 Following dis-
cussions with the S.A.C.S., the Colonial Office, convinced that some
financial support had to be given to the London committee, approved a
capitation grant of ?1 for each woman sent to the Women's Immigration
Department in the Transvaal.47 To protect its investment the Colonial Of-
fice appointed four representatives, headed by Henry Lambert of the Emi-
grants' Information Office, to serve on the nine-person Transvaal Com-
mittee of the S.A.C.S. The chairman of the committee remained, how-
ever, Mrs. Evelyn Cecil, who was assured that she would retain a "free
hand" in organizing the actual emigration work.4" Having broken new

4"The S.A.C.S. approved Milner's Transvaal arrangements on 6 August 1902. S.A.X. to C.O.,
29 August 1902, P.R.O., C.O. 291/51.
4'S.A.X. to C.O., 4 September 1902, P.R.O., C.O. 291/51.
42The work of the S.A.X. was done out of rooms at the Imperial Institute. S.A.X., minutes of
4 June 1902, and Alecia M. Cecil to Mrs. Matthews, copy, 27 June 1902, Fawcett Library 41.
43Milner to Chamberlain, tel., 17 November 1902, P.R.O., C.O. 291/44.
44Milner to Chamberlain, tel., 14 November 1902, and Chamberlain's minute, P.R.O., C.O.
291/44; and minutes on S.A.X. to C.O., 21 November 1902, P.R.O., C.O. 291/52.
4'Cecil to Russell, copy, 31 October 1902, Fawcett Library 41.
46SAX. to C.O., 21 November 1902, and S.A.X. to C.O., 12 December 1902, P.R.O., C.O.
291/52.
"7Minutes on S.A.X. to C.O., 21 November 1902, P.R.O., C.O. 291/52, and S.A.X. to C.O.,
8 January 1903, P.R.O., C.O. 291/65.
4'C.O. to S.A.X., 5 February 1903, P.R.O., C.O. 291/65, and Hunt to Onslow, 17 December
1902, P.R.O., C.O. 291/52.

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140 Albion

ground by converting the S.A.C.S. into a quasi-official agency directly in

receipt of government funds, the Colonial Office now hoped that the
extensive emigration of women to the Transvaal could be achieved.
The Colonial Office was again mistaken. Despite the improved financial
condition of the S.A.C.S. and the support it had received from Milner and
Chamberlain, the number of women sent out to South Africa was dis-
appointingly small. Between May 1901 and early 1904 the S.A.C.S. sent
2,164 women to South Africa, 1,024 of them going to the Transvaal.49
Thereafter, the annual figures for the Transvaal declined steadily,
averaging around 200 per year50 and never approaching the numbers de-
sired by Milner, to say nothing of Ardagh. The reasons for the failure of
the S.A.C.S. were numerous and reflected not only limitations in its ap-
proach to female emigration and weaknesses in its organization but also
the political and economic obstacles in South Arica and England to the
emigration of large numbers of British girls.
The most obvious problem was the inability of the S.A.C.S. to persuade
enough young women to begin a new life in the wilds of South Africa.
In large part this resulted from the determination of Cecil, Joyce, and
their colleagues to emigrate only women of the highest moral character
and those who possessed suitable training. Girls who might have seen emi-
gration to South Africa as a new start in life were discouraged by the
S.A.C.S. Steeped in the principles of the Girls' Friendly Society, which
stressed "moral purity," London would not accept any woman who had
had an illegitimate child or "whose conduct /had] been unsteady, in-
temperate or dishonest."5' The S.A.C.S. also feared that to send out too
many failures would jeopardize its reputation and effectiveness. The Wo-
men's Immigration Department in the Transvaal was equally cautious.
Johannesburg required that each applicant have "personal references with
an unblemished record." In addition, each girl was required to undergo a
strict medical examination and to provide a medical history of her entire
family so that "every danger of hereditary or incipient disease" was
known to the doctor.52 The result of this concern for quality was that each
serious applicant was carefully screened and interviewed, usually in
London.

"The Imperial Colonist 3 no. 30 (June 1904): 62, 65-66. For a detailed breakdown of these
women see S.A.C.S., Report for 1903, pp. 47-49, Fawcett Library 41.
'?The Transvaal figures for selected years are: 1904 (233), 1905 (193), 1906 (182), 1907-08
(299), and 1910-11 (213). S.A.C.S., Annual Reports (1904-1911), passim, Fawcett Library 41.
"S.A.X., Minutes of 5 March 1902, Fawcett Library 41.
'5S.A.C.S., Report for 1905, pp. 48-49, Fawcett Library 41. See also "Dr. Neville Wood's
Report," S.A.C.S., Report for 1904-05, pp. 19-23, Fawcett Library 41.

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 Women and Imperialism 141

The caution of the S.A.C.S. was illustrated in its annual reports, which
classified the girls sent out the previous year as very satisfactory, satis-
factory, fair, or unsatisfactory. The S.A.C.S. proudly reported that eighty
percent of the girls sent out in 1902-03 were in the upper two categories.
Less than ten percent were morally unsatisfactory.53 By 1905 the successes
represented eighty-six percent of the 193 girls sent out to the Transvaal.54
The private correspondence between the leaders of the S.A.C.S. and their
contacts in South Africa also reflected this same concern with quality and
purity. Apologies for two moral failures sent to the Transvaal resulted in
firm promises of a "very careful" medical examination and a greater at-
tempt "to find out what the girls have been doing up to the last minute."55
The Colonial Office and some officials in South Africa objected to what
they saw as an unreasonable unwillingness on the part of the S.A.C.S. to
widen its "field of selection." Officials at the Colonial Office suggested
that the S.A.C.S. work in cooperation with the Charity Organization
Society, despite its "rather evil sounding" name, orphanages, and other
institutions in the provinces. Frederick Graham confessed that he simply
could not understand the "attitude of mind" prevalent at the S.A.C.S.'6
You had to expect to have a "few scandals."57 Mrs. Bairnsfather at the
Cape suggested that desperately needed servant girls be drawn from train-
ing homes such as those of Dr. Barnardo, but this idea received no
support from the S.A.C.S.58
The leaders of the Transvaal Committee of the S.A.C.S. continued in-
stead to insist on the need for a careful screening and selection process. To
recruit girls from institutions would simply be to send girls to positions for
which they were unprepared. For this reason the S.A.C.S. and the
B.W.E.A. strongly recommended training schools offering "colonial"
courses to prospective emigrants.59 Furthermore, the S.A.C.S. did not
trust the volunteer workers outside of London to select women of good
character. Local workers, it argued, encouraged good, proper women to
stay at home and sent the S.A.C.S. only "the moral failures of the dis-

'5S.A.C.S., Report for 1903, P. 52, Fawcett Library,41.

54S.A.C.S., Report for 1905, p. 50, Fawcett Library 41.
"See especially the private letters from Cecil to the members of the Transvaal Committee in
Johannesburg. Cecil to Russell, copies, 6 November 1902, 23 January 1903, 5 February 1903,
and 25 May 1903, Fawcett Library, 41.
'6Minutes on S.A.X. to C.O., 21 November 1902, P.R.O., C.O. 291/52.
"Graham's minute of 14 November 1902 on Milner to Chamberlain, 20 October 1902, P.R.O.,
C.O. 291/43.
5SS.A.X., Minutes of 7 May 1902, Fawcett Library 41.
"For a description of the school at Stoke Prior see The Imperial Colonist 10 no. 126 (Ju
1912): 102-105.

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142 Albion

trict."60 Because of the care with which the S.A.C.S. protected its charges
by hiring matrons for the voyage to South Africa and providing hostels
for the girls once they had arrived, it was only natural that the London
ladies wanted to begin the process with a wholesome, untainted party of
young women.
A related problem, inherited in part from the parent B.W.E.A., was the
unwillingness of the S.A.C.S. wholly to accept the fact that it was basic-
ally promoting the emigration of domestic servants who would quickly
marry. Most young domestics sent to South Africa did, in fact, marry
quickly, explaining that area's small membership in the Girls' Friendly
Society, an organization whose members were required to be chaste.6' The
ladies who managed the S.A.C.S., unlike some earlier advocates of female
emigration,62 never doubted that worman's natural state was as a helpmate
to man. Nevertheless, Ardagh's idea of sending young women to South
Africa principally, if not solely, to breed was offensive to many in the or-
ganization. The S.A.C.S. supported the earlier view that the most socially
and economically depressed women in England were the "educated"
middle class women who possessed everything necessary to be good
mothers and homemakers except husbands. These women, who usually
listed themselves as governesses or lady-helps, women "educated above
the ordinary servant class,"63 were the women the S.A.C.S. was most an-
xious to send out to South Africa.
Although the Women's Immigration Department in Johannesburg re-
ported that 866 of the 995 girls arriving in the Transvaal prior to June 30,
1905, were domestic servants,64 The Imperial Colonist concentrated on
articles detailing the colonial opportunities for skilled, educated women.
One finds repeated references, such as Knightley's, that the S.A.C.S. was
not "a registry for servants," but wanted to assist "educated women."65
Cecil in 1903 looked forward to a period when she could sent out other
than domestics.66 Due to these prevalent attitudes, the S.A.C.S. spent an
inordinate amount of time and energy attempting to interest the Colonial

"0Minutes on S.A.X. to C.O., 21 November 1902, P.R.O., C.O. 291/52.

6G.F.S., Minutes of the Sectional Committee for South Africa, 4 October 1911, Reference 93,
Class l.
"2A. James Hammerton, "Feminism and Female Emigration, 1861-1886," in Martha Vici-
nus, ed., A Widening Sphere: Changing Roles of Victorian Women (Bloomington, Ind., 1972),
pp. 52-71.
63Friendly Leaves (G.F.S.), 28, no. 323 (July 1903): 253.
64S.A.C.S., Reportfor 1905, p. 53, Fawcett Library 41. Of the 995 women only 23 were classi-
fied as governesses or teachers and only 25 were lady-helps.
"S.A.C.S., Minutes of 2 December 1903, Fawcett Library 41.
66Cecil to Russell, copy, 27 February 1903, Fawcett Library 41.

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 Women and Imperialism 143

Office in such projects as the recruitment of more English school teachers

for the schools of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony and in the
settlement of educated female farmers on cooperative farms. The Colonial
Office had no interest in either scheme.67 The simple fact was that
domestic servants and/or girls willing and anxious to marry could be
placed in South Africa; educated governesses and lady-helps could not. By
being unwilling fully to accept this reality, and to act aggressively on it,
the S.A.C.S. had little hope of meeting the quotas established for it.
This somewhat narrow approach of the S.A.C.S. to female emigration
created occasional disagreements with other agencies, quarrels which il-
lustrated, and to some extent resulted from, the administrative weaknesses
of the organization. Operated largely by upper and middle-class women
anxious to engage in imperialistic philanthrophy, the S.A.C.S. was woe-
fully top-heavy. In addition to executive and finance committees, the
S.A.C.S. had education, agriculture, shipping, and nursing committees,
to say nothing of its six territorial committees, the most important of
which was the Transvaal Committee, and a Scottish Branch.6" To be a
member of the S.A.C.S. was to be an officer. These numerous
committees, all headed by women accustomed to deference, frequently
quarreled with outside groups and amongst themselves. The absence of a
unified view of female emigration and the lack of trust between the
various committees of the S.A.C.S. did little to strengthen the increasingly
tentative support of the Colonial Office.
Internecine squabbles with the Scottish committee over the selection of
emigrant teachers preoccupied the S.A.C.S. during 1903 and 1904, but the
major difficulties arose with locally established committees in South
Africa. The women who headed these associations lusted after the promise
of domestic servants. As Mrs. Hely Hutchinson stated in an article in The
Nineteenth Century, "The greatest impediment to progress in South
Africa, from the Mother's . . . point of view, is the impossibility of ob-
taining efficient domestic servants."69
J. Edith Bairnsfather, the honorary secretary of the South African Im-
migration Association at Cape Town, obviously had no interest in Mil-
ner's plan to send women to the Transvaal and thus to deprive the mist-
resses of the Cape of badly needed assistance. On at least one occasion she

67Alice Balfour to Chamberlain, 15 May 1903, and C.O. to Hervey, 28 May 1903, P.R.O.,
C.O. 291/65; and Edith Lyttleton Gell to Chamberlain, 17 June 1902 and minutes, P.R.O.,
C.O. 417/367.
6"S A.C.S., Report for 1903, pp. 3-7, Fawcett Library 41. Changes in the original organiza-
tional structure of the S.A.C.S. can be traced in the annual reports.
6"May Hely Hutchinson, "Female Emigration to South Africa," The Nineteenth Centlurv 51
(January 1902): 71.

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144 Albion

managed to kidnap a girl destined for the Transvaal, causing great resent-
ment in both Johannesburg and London.70 She also managed to confiscate
grants from the Cape Parliament and the Rhodes Trustees intended for the
B.W.E.A. There was little doubt in London that Baimsfather was unwill-
ing to "work loyally" with the S.A.C.S." As early as July 1903 the
general confusion in the operation of the S.A.C.S. and its various com-
mittees was so great that Lady Malmesbury suggested that a man be ap-
pointed organizing secretary. This idea was rejected by a 10 to 7 vote of
the Executive Committee,72 and the problems continued.
The most serious example of the confusion besetting the S.A.C.S. came
in 1907, hardly an opportune time in view of the granting of responsible
government to the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. T.G. Town,
the Johannesburg correspondent of the Emigrants' Information Office, re-
ported a glut of servants in the Transvaal. Town therefore urged that the
S.A.C.S. Johannesburg committee, headed by a Mrs. Logan, suspend
operations for a time.73 Logan's committee initially agreed, but neverthe-
less defended its operation on imperial grounds. Uncharacteristically,
Logan argued that the S.A.C.S. was "purely for colonisation" and that its
"marriage list" was very creditable. The real cause of indigency, the mar-
riage of white men to colored women, was thus being successfully combat-
ted.74 Confusion at both the Colonial Office and the S.A.C.S. occurred
when Johannesburg reversed itself and requested an additional thirty girls
for October 1907: Lambert, the most important of the Colonial Office of-
ficials on the Transvaal committee, was astonished at the contradictory de-
cisions.
Lambert believed that it was most unwise to send domestics to an area
with high unemployment. In addition, if colonization was the principal
object of the S.A.C.S. it was silly to send potential wives to a region
from which white males were departing.7" The S.A.C.S. was forced to ad-
mit the force of such criticisms and could only request clarification from
Mrs. Logan.76 These explanations proved unconvincing to Lambert, who

'?S.A.X., Minutes of 2 July 1902, Fawcett Library 41.

"'J. Gordon Sprigg to Malmesbury, copy, 5 February 1903, and S.A.X., Minutes of 4 Ma
1903, Fawcett Library 41.
72S.A.C.S., Minutes of 1 July 1903, Fawcett Library 41.
"Thomas G. Town to Mrs. Logan, copy, 24 July 1907, enclosed in E.I.O. to S.A.C.S., 11 Sep-
tember 1907, P.R.O., C.O. 291/122. Town reported that one Johannesburg daily had 92 ads
from domestics seeking work.
74Logan to Town, copy, 6 August 1907, enclosed in E.I.O. to S.A.C.S., 11 September 1907,
P.R.O., C.O. 291/122.
"Cecil to Logan, copy, 4 October 1907, and E.I.O. to S.A.C.S., 11 September 1907,
C.O. 291/122.
76Cecil to Logan, copy, 4 October 1907, P.R.O., C.O. 291/122.

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 Women and Imperialism 145

continued to oppose any additional female emigration to the Transvaal.

Lambert feared that the Colonial Office, having been warned of potential
dangers, would be hard pressed to justify its actions to the press or parlia-
ment if anything went wrong. Furthermore, he now had a "complete dis-
trust" of the judgment of the Johannesburg committee." Lambert even-
tually relented, but it is apparent that by late 1907 the S.A.C.S.'s leading
contact with the Colonial Office was having second thoughts about the en-
tire project.78
Lambert was not the only person becoming disillusioned. Mrs. Joyce,
who Chamberlain had earlier characterized as a trustworthy person,79
largely withdrew from the work of the S.A.C.S. and concentrated her at-
tention on the more fruitful, traditional emigration of women to Canada
and Australia. Others in the organization, upset at the inability of the
S.A.C.S. to emigrate "educated" women, broke off in 1910 and founded
the Colonial Intelligence League to promote the emigration of "Better
Class Women" to the colonies.8" Thus, by 1910 the S.A.C.S. had lost con-
siderable official and private support, in part because of its inefficiency
and the confusion surrounding its objectives.
All fault did not rest with the S.A.C.S., however. For a wide variety of
reasons, significant numbers of English opposed any large-scale emigra-
tion of women to South Africa. Discussions in parliament indicated a
widespread opposition by Irish and Liberal members to land settlement
plans in general. Henry Labouchere, as early as 1901, strongly objected to
the establishment of "a sort of competition between the Dutch and the
mythical colonists and the mythical women in the procreation of their
species."81 Not only was it morally wrong to establish "another plantation
of Ulster in South Africa,"82 but the settlement plans of Milner were re-
garded by his critics as costly and unlikely to contribute to a permanent
solution of the South African problem.83
Outside of parliament there was extensive opposition to the emigration
of large numbers of young, presumably innocent women to a region
thousands of miles from home and acknowledged by the S.A.C.S. to be

"Vivian to Lambert, 19 November 1907, and Lambert to Vivian, 20 November 1907, P.R.O.,
C.O. 291/122. For the private correspondence on this muddle see Cecil to Logan, 4 October
1907, and Cecil to Lady Selborne, 10 November 1907, Fawcett Library 41.
"Lambert's minutes of 2 December and 4 December 1907, P.R.O., C.O. 291/122.
"Chamberlain's minute of 30 May 1901, on Ardagh to Lord Monk Bretton, 27 May 1901,
P.R.O., C.O. 417/339.
'?C.I.L., Minutes of 23 February 1910, Fawcett Library 37.
"Hansard, 4th Series, 92 (28 March 1901): 148.
'Ibid., 91 (25 March 1901): 1174.
'Ibid., 132 (24 March 1904): 658-661; and idem, 143 (30 March 1905): 1784-5.

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146 Albion

primitive, morally dangerous, and, at least in the past, violent. Critics

viewed the entire project as irresponsible and seized upon any problem,
and there were many, as illustrative of the failure of the entire plan and
attacked the S.A.C.S. repeatedly in the press.84 Others thought it unwise
to export good domestic servants when they were needed so badly in
England.85 Even Mrs. Norman Grosvenor, a member of the S.A.C.S.,
argued that there was no surplus of domestics at home. Only the better
educated women were superfluous in Britain, and for that reason she help-
ed to form the Colonial Intelligence League in 1910.86 The S.A.C.S. could
only reply, as Sir Henry McCullum did at its 1904 meeting, that although
domestics were needed at home they were even more desparately required
in South Africa. "Pride of race" required Britain to share her domestics
with the colonies.87 As early as November 1902, when enthusiasm for the
S.A.C.S. should have peaked, Alecia Cecil was forced to admit that emi-
gration, especially of domestic servants, was not a cause which appealed to
"a wide public sympathy."88 Substantial financial support from the public
was never forthcoming.
Equally discouraging, but more predictable, was the lack of support
from South Africa, especially from the Boer community. Organized in
large part to strengthen the British element in South Africa, the very name
of the organization, the South African Expansion Committee, was of-
fensive. In an attempt to placate the opposition in South Africa this "mis-
leading" name was altered in 1903 to the more neutral South African
Colonisation Society.89 Speakers at the annual meetings attempted to re-
assure critics both at home and in South Africa that there was no desire to
destroy Dutch culture, but simply to keep South Africa white.90 Such as-
surances were all to no avail. The various sub-committees of the S.A.C.S.
remained exclusively English. South African financial support would, it

'4For a discussion of these press attacks in such diverse places as the Edinburgh Evening News,
the Daily Mail, The Times, and "popular rags" like the People's Journal see S.A.C.S. to
C.O., 24 March 1904, P.R.O., C.O. 291/65; and Cecil to Russell, 29 July 1903 and 12 August
1903, Fawcett Library 41.
"The shortage of domestics, the servant problem, was frequently discussed in the pages of The
Nineteenth Century, the Contemporary Review, and The Fortnightly Review. See also Patricia
Branca, Silent Sisterhood: Middle Class Women in the Victorian Home (Pittsburgh, 1975), pp.
30-34.
"C.I.L., Minutes of 23 February 1910, Fawcett Library 37.
"The Imperial Colonist 3 no. 30 (June 1904): 65.
"Cecil to Russell, copy, 20 November 1902, Fawcett Library 41.
"Cecil to Russell, copy, 15 May 1903, Fawcett Library 41. The name change was also a part of
the power struggle to assert the independence of the S.A.C.S. from the B.W.E.A.

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 Women and Imperialism 147

was apparent, last only so long as Britain maintained her control over the
Transvaal and the Orange River Colony.
Within South Africa itself conditions were not conducive to female emi-
gration. The unfamiliarity with conditions in South Africa, the burden-
some master-servant laws which restricted the freedom of domestics, and the
acknowledged danger presented by the large number of native servants all
combined to reduce the appeal of this part of the empire. Even Mrs.
Joyce, who began rather early to switch her allegiance back to the old
B.W.E.A., preferred the "tone of Canada."91 Added to these problems
was the economic dislocation caused first by the labor shortage in the
Transvaal,92 and later by the "period of misery and suspense" during
which the Liberal government determined its policy towards Chinese
labor.93 As early as 1904 Lambert argued that it was dangerous to
"boom" female emigration given the state of the Transvaal economy. His
superior, Charles Lucas, agreed that it was most unwise to give "undue
prominence to the subject."94
The entire S.A.C.S. program of state-aided female emigration collapsed
with the granting of responsible government to the Transvaal and the
Orange River Colony by the Liberals in 1907. Milner, long since removed
from power in South Africa, complained that the new constitutions re-
presented a "disgraceful desertion" of those English who had been settled
on the land in South Africa, but the general consensus in parliament was
that the costly attempt to establish agricultural settlements had already
failed.95 Lord Elgin argued that no extensive settlement in South Africa
was possible without Boer support and this support was not forthcoming.
Similar views had been expressed before the Tennyson Committee of 1906,
Lambert arguing that emigration societies did nothing to alleviate distress
at home.96 This assessment applied to female as well as to male emigra-
tion. The withdrawal of Transvaal financial support in 1907 threw the

"The Imperial Colonist 4 no. 43 (July 1905): 76; and ibid., 6, no. 78 (June 1908): 3.
"Parliamentary Papers, vol. 76, "Minutes of Evidence taken before the Departmental Com-
mittee [to consider Rider-Haggard's report on settlement colonies]," Cd. 2979, 1906, p. 84.
"The Times (London), 17 December 1903, and S.A.C.S., Report for 1903, p. 53.
93Marx to Cecil, copy, 25 February 1906, enclosed in S.A.C.S. to C.O., 20 March 1906,
P.R.O., C.O. 291/112.
9"Lambert's minute of 11 January 1904, and Lucas' minute of 12 January 1904, on Stanley to
Cecil, copy, 4 January 1904, and Lambert to Vivian, 14 January 1904, P.R.O., C.O. 417/405.
9'Hansard, 4th Series, 132 (24 March 1904): 658-661; idem, 143 (30 March 1905): 1784-85; and
idem, 164 (14 January 1906): 1395-96.
9"Ibid., 167 (17 December 1906): 943; and Parliamentary Papers, vol. 76, "Report of the De-
partmental Committee Appointed to Consider Mr. Rider-Haggard's Report on Agricultural
Settlements in British Colonies," Cd. 2978, 1906, pp. 24-25.

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 148 Albion

S.A.C.S. back on its own meager resources. The Women's Immigration

Department, established by Milner in 1902, was replaced by a private
Johannesburg committee of the S.A.C.S.97 To give this committee a
chance to function effectively Leopold Amery urged the S.A.C.S. to make
its objectives clear. The association could not be seen as anti-Dutch.
Rather, Amery encouraged the S.A.C.S. to stress the need to strengthen
the "white element," Dutch as well as British, and to help assure that
South Africa would remain a white man's country.98
Despite assurances that the political changes in South Africa would not
dampen the "zeal and energy" of the S.A.C.S.,99 it was not able to
achieve much in the way of significant results between 1907 and the out-
break of World War I. On average about 300 persons were annually sent
out to South Africa during this period, but an increasingly large number
of these emigrants were married women and children who were rejoining
the head of an already established household."'? The grand design of
Ardagh to plant thousands of young, blushing British girls in South
Africa, and thereby alter the course of its history, had failed.
Although failing to achieve its avowed objectives, the S.A.C.S. is signi-
ficant. Between 1902 and 1914, 5,748 women and children were sent to
South Africa, a remarkable attempt to strengthen the empire for a private
group of dedicated, if somewhat inefficient, ladies.'0' However, the
S.A.C.S. was even more significant as an example of the imperial mood of
the nation during and immediately after the Boer War. The S.A.C.S.
illustrated the growing interest which women were beginning to take
in imperial matters, an interest also reflected in their growing partici-
pation in older organizations such as the Royal Colonial Society and their
role in the formation and operation of the Victoria League, the League
of Empire, and the Girl Guides. Just as conservatism was strengthened
by such "non-political" groups as the Girls' Friendly Society,102 so
too was imperialism strengthened by such organizations as the S.A.C.S.
Finally, the S.A.C.S. vividly showed the difficulties faced by volun-
teer, female reformers in working with the bureaucracy. Neverthe-
less, despite frustrations on both sides the S.A.C.S. broke new ground

9'Cecil to Lady Selborne, 7 August 1907, 10 November 1907, and 22 November 1907, Fawce
Library 41; and S.A.C.S., Report for 1907-08, pp. 36-41, Fawcett Library 41.
"The Imperial Colonist 6 no. 78 (June 1908): 7-8.
"9S.A.C.S., Report for 1906, p. 35, Fawcett Library 41.
'??S.A.C.S., Report for 1910-1911, pp. 37-38; and Report for 1914-1915, p. 5, Fawcett Library
41.
'?'S.A.C.S., Report for 1914-1915, p. 103, Fawcett Library 41.
'O'Harrison, "For Church, Queen, and Family," p. 107.

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 Women and Imperialism 149

by attracting the attention of the bureaucracy to the role which wo-

men could play in promoting imperialism and by tapping government
funds in support of its work. Both the government and the volunteer emi-
gration workers were, therefore, willing to try again after World War I.
The Colonial Office's support of the then amalgamated Society for the
Oversea Settlement of British Women, consisting of the S.A.C.S., the
B.W.E.A., and the Colonial Intelligence League, was to open a new, final
chapter in the history of female emigration to the British Empire.

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