after the conference. It said:
“Mr. Rhodes is my man! I have just had three hours talk with him. He is full of a far
more gorgeous idea in connection with the paper than even I have had. I cannot tell you
his scheme because it is too secret. But it involves millions. He had no idea that it would
cost £250,000 to start a paper. But he offered me down as a free gift £20,000 to buy a
share in the P.M. Gazette as a beginning. Next year he would do more. He expects to own
before he dies 4 or 5 millions, all of which he will leave to carry out the scheme of which
the paper is an integral part. He is giving £500,000 to make a railway to Matabeleland,
and so has not available, just at this moment, the money necessary for starting the
morning paper. His ideas are federation, expansion, and consolidation of the Empire....
He took to me. Told me some things he has told no other man—save Lord Rothschild—
and pressed me to take the £20,000, not to have any return, to give no receipt, to simply
take it and use it to give me a freer hand on the P.M.G. It seems all like a fairy dream....
He said he had taken his ideas from the P.M.G., that the paper permeated South Africa,
that he
met it everywhere.... How good God is to me.... Remember all the above about R. is very
private.”
The day following this sensational conversation Stead lost a libel action to the amount
of £2000 damages. Rhodes at once sent a check to cover it and said: "You must keep my
confidence secret. The idea is right, but until sure of the lines would be ruined in too
many hands. Your subsidiary press idea can be discussed without risk, but the inner circle
behind would never be many, perhaps three or four.”(6)
About the same time, Rhodes revealed to Stead his plans to establish the British South
Africa Company and asked him who in England could best help him get the necessary
charter. Stead recommended Albert Grey, the future Earl Grey, who had been an intimate
friend of Stead's since 1873 and had been a member of the Milner-Toynbee group in
1880-1884. As a result, Grey became one of the original directors of the British South
Africa Company and took the first steps which eventually brought him into the select
circle of Rhodes's secret society.
This society took another step forward during Rhodes's visit to England in February
1890. The evidence for this is to be found in the
B. Brett), who had obviously been let in on the plan by Stead. Under date of 3 February
1890, we read in these
was at Stead's today when he called. I left them together. Tonight I saw Stead again.
Rhodes had talked for three hours of all his great schemes.... Rhodes is a splendid
enthusiast. But he looks upon men as 'machines.' This is not very penetrating." Twelve
days after this, on 15 February, at Lord Rothschild's country house, Brett wrote in his
journal: 'Came here last night. Cecil Rhodes, Arthur Balfour, Harcourts, Albert Grey,
Alfred Lyttelton. A long talk with Rhodes today. He has vast ideas. Imperial notions. He
seems disinterested. But he is very ruse and, I suspect, quite unscrupulous as to the means
he employs.”(7)
The secret society, after so much preliminary talk, took form in 1891, the same year in
which Rhodes drew up his fourth will and made Stead as well as Lord Rothschild the
trustee of his fortune. It is perfectly clear from the evidence that he expected Rothschild
to handle the financial investments associated with the trust, while Stead was to have full
charge of the methods by which the funds were used. About the same time, in February
1891, Stead and Rhodes had another long discussion about the secret society. First they
discussed their goals and agreed that, if necessary in order to achieve Anglo-American
unity, Britain should join the United States. Then they discussed the organization of the
secret society and divided it into two circles: an inner circle, "The Society of the Elect",
and an outer circle to include "The Association of Helpers" and
(Stead's magazine, founded 1890). Rhodes said that he had already revealed the plan for
"The Society of the Elect" to Rothschild and "little Johnston." By "little Johnston" he meant Harry H. Johnston (Sir Harry after 1896), African explorer and administrator, who
had laid the basis for the British claims to Nyasaland, Kenya, and Uganda. Johnston was,
according to Sir Frederick Whyte, the biographer of Stead, virtually unknown in England
before Stead published his portrait as the frontispiece to the first issue of
discussion of the membership of "The Society of the Elect," Stead asked permission to
bring in Milner and Brett. Rhodes agreed, so they telegraphed at once to Brett, who
arrived in two hours. They then drew up the following"ideal arrangement' for the society: