the decrees of fate, nor do I want to say too much on what Rhodes calls ‘the personal.’
But this really was a great blow to me, and I have never quite got over your breakdown
and departure, never quite felt the same man since, either politically or privately. . . . Dear
Friend, I miss you fearfully, always shall miss you. So does this young country."'(12)
I think we are justified in assuming that a man as intimate as this with Rhodes and
Milner, who was used in such confidential and important ways by both of them, who
knew of the plans for the Johannesburg revolt and the Jameson Raid before they
occurred, and who knew of the Rhodes secret society, was an initiate. That Garrett knew
of the Jameson plot beforehand is recorded by Sir Edward Cook in his biography. That
Garrett knew of the secret society is recorded by Garrett himself in an article which he
published in the
Garrett made this last revelation are of some significance. He spoke of "that idea of a sort
of Jesuit-like Secret Society for the Promotion of the Empire, which for long he hugged
and which—minus, perhaps, the secrecy and the Jesuitry—I know to have had a good
deal of fascination for others among our contemporaries not reckoned visionaries by the
world. "
We have said that Garrett was used by Milner as an intermediary with both Rhodes
and Stead. The need for such an intermediary with Rhodes arose from Milner's feeling
that it was politically necessary to conceal the intimacy of their relationship. As Rhodes
told Stead, speaking of Milner, on 10 April 1900, "I have seen very little of him. He said
to me, 'The less you and I are seen together the better.' Hence, I never invited him to
Groote Schuur."(13)
Garrett was also used by Milner as an intermediary with Stead after the latter became
alienated from the initiates because of his opposition to the Boer War. One example of
this is of some significance. In 1902 Milner made a trip to England without seeing Stead.
On 12 April of that year, Garrett, who had seen Milner, wrote the following letter to
Stead: "I love the inner man, Stead, in spite of all differences, and should love him if he
damned me and my policy and acts ten times more. So does Milner—in the inner court—
we agreed when he was over—only there are temporary limitations and avoidances.... He
told me why he thought on the whole he'd better not see you this time. I quite understood,
though I'm not sure whether you would, but I'm sure you would have liked the way in
which, without any prompting at all, he spoke of his personal feelings for you being
unaffected by all this. Someday let us hope, all this tyranny will be overpass, and we shall
be able to agree again, you and Milner, Cook and I." It is possible that the necessity for
Milner to overrule his personal feelings and the mention of "the inner court" may be
oblique references to the secret society. In any case, the letter shows the way in which
Stead was quietly pushed aside in that society by its new leader.
Another prominent political figure who may have been an initiate in the period
before 1902 is Lord Rosebery. Like his father-in-law, Lord Rothschild, who was an
initiate, Rosebery was probably not a very active member of The Society of the
Elect, although for quite different reasons. Lord Rothschild held aloof because to
him the whole project was incomprehensible and unbusinesslike; Lord Rosebery
held aloof because of his own diffident personality and his bad physical health.
However, he cooperated with the members of the society and was on such close personal
relationships with them that he probably knew of the secret society. Brett was one of his
most intimate associates and introduced him to Milner in 1885. As for Rhodes,
Rosebery's official biographer, the Marquess of Crewe, says that he "both liked and
admired Cecil Rhodes who was often his guest." He made Rhodes a Privy Councillor,
and Rhodes made him a trustee of his will. These things, and the fact that the initiates
generally assumed that Rosebery would grant their requests, give certain grounds for
believing that he was a member of their society.(14) If he was, he played little role in it
after 1900.
Two other men, both fabulously wealthy South Africans, may be regarded as members
of the society and probably initiates. These were Abe Bailey and Alfred Beit.
Abe Bailey (later Sir Abe, 1864-1940) was the largest landowner in Rhodesia, a large