In the aftermath of the opening months of the South African War, British imperialists considered the settling of retired soldiers in South Africa as an efficient way of creating a loyal colony. This article explores the 1900 South African Lands Settlement Commission, and specifically the role of its chairman, the Liberal Unionist politician Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster. It shows how the findings and recommendations of Arnold-Forster's commission were presented as a way of keeping the British empire together through government involvement rather than private initiative. While often ignored because of its failure, the commission and the ideas behind it illustrates the link between imperialism, military planning and nationalism in British politics. Proponents of soldier-settlement in South Africa argued that only by creating a majority population of British veterans, combining the roles of farmers and military reservists, could the colony be secure. The article examines the commission and the settler plan in conjunction with Arnold-Forster's background and imperial ideology, arguing that the commission's failure does not mean that such ideas were unimportant. The opposition to the settler scheme could utilise the language of anti-imperialism alongside criticism of Arnold-Forster's views on Ireland, showing how the soldier-settlement idea could be larger than the sum of its conclusions. Rather than seeing the soldier-settlement scheme in isolation, the article argues that the case of Arnold-Forster and the Lands Settlement Commission provides a valuable insight into wider British political debates at the turn of the century.

中文翻译：

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“对我们的种族至关重要”：何阿诺德-福斯特和南非士兵定居点

在南非战争开始的几个月之后，英帝国主义者认为在南非安置退役士兵是建立忠诚殖民地的有效方式。本文探讨了 1900 年的南非土地定居委员会，特别是其主席、自由联盟主义政治家休·奥克利·阿诺德-福斯特 (Hugh Oakley Arnold-Forster) 的角色。它展示了阿诺德-福斯特委员会的调查结果和建议是如何通过政府参与而不是私人倡议将大英帝国团结在一起的一种方式。尽管由于失败而经常被忽视，但该委员会及其背后的想法说明了英国政治中帝国主义、军事计划和民族主义之间的联系。南非士兵定居点的支持者认为，只有通过培养英国退伍军人的多数人口，结合农民和军事预备役人员的角色，殖民地才能安全。文章结合阿诺德-福斯特的背景和帝国意识形态检查了委员会和移民计划，认为委员会的失败并不意味着这些想法不重要。对定居者计划的反对可以利用反帝国主义的语言以及对阿诺德 - 福斯特对爱尔兰的看法的批评，表明士兵定居的想法可能大于其结论的总和。与其孤立地看待士兵安置计划，