Sir G. BADEN-POWELL, K.C.M.G., M.P.: My friend, Mr. Merriman, has made a speech of the utmost value to South Africa, and it is a very fitting, I will not say reply, but comment, on the address to which we have listened with such pleasure; but Mr. Merriman, with his strong arguments and apt illustrations, came at the end to the conclusion at which Sir Frederick Young had arrived. I have not much to add, but I think we have heard from Sir Frederick Young a view of South African affairs on the political side which, I may tell you frankly, differs diametrically from my own. I have heard from Mr. Merriman a view of affairs in which I cordially concur, but from neither have I heard of that third aspect which, I think, is necessary to complete the view. Sir Frederick Young has told us that for twenty-five years, certainly during the last ten years, South Africa has been mismanaged. I must confess I was sorry to hear the strong language he used, because one cannot but remember that for the greater part of the last twenty years most of the affairs of South Africa have been in the hands of free self-governing communities. Cape Colony has been under Responsible Government since 1873, and the Free State and the Transvaal have always been self-governing. I agree with Mr. Merriman that for the last twenty-five years affairs in South Africa have progressed, with one signal and fatal exception, and that was the policy under which we took over and then gave back the Transvaal. Omitting that, I think we have but little to be sorry for in the history of South Africa. There have been troubles, but I, for one, think that all difficulties, would have been avoided if the phrase "Imperial aid" had been substituted for that of "Imperial interference" in the affairs of South Africa. It is the aid which has been given by the Mother Country which has resulted in developing the material resources, and, above all, in establishing the security from native attack of various European States in South Africa. Sir Frederick Young spoke of the attitude towards the Imperial Government. I could wish he had been in Cape Town on the day Sir Charles Warren landed, and seen the ovation he received from all classes. Let me add this--that the Bechuanaland expedition, which was led by Sir Charles Warren, and in which I had the good fortune to take part, cost the Mother Country perhaps L1,500,000, but in the discussions in Parliament or in the press as to the future of Bechuanaland, the fact is seldom mentioned that Bechuanaland was acquired for the Empire at the cost of the British taxpayer. Let me remind you of another fact, which the Cape Colonist well knows--that when the Imperial Government wished, from wise motives of economy, to extend