[ A 'rapid survey of the British Spheres of Africa' [ by H. M. Stanley? ]] Printed pamphlet: 'Our Future Relations with Africa. Speech at Newtown, N. Wales. July 23rd, 1897.

13pp., 8vo. Stapled. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight rust to staples. Consisting of a title leaf and 9pp. of text in small print, paginated [2] 3-11. The author is not named, and no other copy of the title has been traced, either on OCLC WorldCat or on COPAC, but the item comes from a collection of papers by Stanley - and Africa is his specailist subject. The author begins his 'rapid survey of the British Spheres of Africa' by explaining his aim in speaking: 'Ladies and Gentlemen, | No doubt your own Member, with his customary attentiveness, has kept you pretty well informed regarding Home politics, and as there is nothing new and exciting just at present within the sphere of these islands demanding our immediate attention, I beg leave to introduce to your notice, our prospective relations with the Dark Continent. The time is none too early for you to cast in your minds, as to what these relations may be ten or twenty years hence, and the earlier you can grasp the tendency of the present activities in Africa, the better you will be able to support your representative in Parliament when his vote may be required at some momentous occasion.' The author considers that Britain's 'most vital duty at present is to keep off trespassers from our possessions in South Africa, while not neglecting our tropical territories in that Continent, because during the first decades of the coming century, Africa will be to this country what America was in the beginning of the 19th century.' Much of the first half of the speech defends Cecil Rhodes over the Jameson Raid, and in the second he stressing 'the necessity of not interfering with the Chartered Company more than our duty to our principles compels us to do', and predicts the construction of 'the much needed railway between Kiliman and Lake Nyassa'. He gives 'a brief sketch of possible railway development from the Cape to Cairo' and of 'the development and enterprise going on […] in British East Africa'. He discusses the Mombasa-Nyanza Railway, and building projects in Egypt. The speech concludes: 'Therefore, that you may not be a stumbling block to African progress, you should observe an attitude of quiet attention towards Charter Land, loudly encourage the Government in its work in East Africa, applaud every progressive advance in the Soudan, maintain a judicious reserve about the Royal Niger Company, but keep on asking how soon the West African Colonies are to be taken in hand after two centuries of neglect, and you cannot fail to render good service to Africa to British trade and commerce and to civilisation in general.'