are
(i.) where the whites, in consequence
of the land being their home-
very numerous they are not so liable as a small white community among innumerable blacks to panic and consequent cruelty and
(iii) with a large white population a public opinion can grow up, stronger and healthier than where there is only a handful of whites.
On the other hand-with the possible exception of New Zealand-the size or long standing of the white community hardly seems to diminish the colour prejudice, and the fact that, in the Crown Colonies and Protectorates, the number of government officers is large in pro- portion to the traders, that those officers are not responsible to an elected local Parliament but to a governor mud a Secretary of State, and that on their reputed success and humanity in handling natives their own interest depends is ü great safeguard and source of confidence to natives. Therefore, although there may be many instances of tactless or brutal officers, the natives are apt to fare better in a Crown Colony and Protecto- rate than in a self-governing colony and this mainly for reason
(d) That the ultimate power in a Crown Colony is not on the spot. attach niore importance to this than to
any
other point. The fate of the natives in a Crown Colony rests with a power in England influenced by a public opiniou which has no colour prejudice and only English traditions and views of political equality and justice. It seems to me that these views may well be onesided from want of knowledge, but they must inevitably tend to more favourable treat- ment of the natives than is accorded by men who live side by side with them, and whose judgment is likely to be warped by colour prejudice, and, if not so dis- torted, may be less favourable, simply because it is more accurate and free from
English counter-prejudice. Further,
(e) In the Crown Colonies and Pro- tectorates there is more personal rule than in the Self-governing Colonies. It will be noted what importance the Report of the Natal Native Affairs Commission attaches to this point, the more in- telligent and reflective among the natives so frequently drew comparisons between the consideration and treatment shown them in pre-responsible Government days when the personal factor had sway and what it is to-day when this element has
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
9
practically been eliminated altogether.
A system of government which disregards natural laws and leaves out of account the idiocrasy of a people is doomed to failure" (p. 8).
"We never stopped to think that our system had become too impersonal for the masses" (p. 9).
"Personal rule supplies the keynote of successful native control” (p. 10).
"In all their clealings with the natives they (the magistrates) are trammelled and hedged in by law and rule, which allow no room for the display of those personal qualities of head and heart, which form the strongest bond between
a foreign ruler, fitted for dominancy, and a dependent people" (p. 12),
The Report does not notice, I think, that the value of the Crown Colony system is that there is personal rule, but personal rule safeguarded by control from England.
Problems as to Native races common
to both Crown Colonies and Self- governing Colonies.
(a) How far is it possible or desirable permanently to keep the natives as a separate element in the community ?
(b) If, for the time being, they must be kept separate, how can the evils of the separateness be minimised ?
(c) If it is advisable or inevitable or both gradually to bring them within the ordinary citizenship, how can the transition best be effected ?
(d) Whether the natives are in the separate stage or the citizen stage, can anything further be done in the direction of non-political measures and precautions which are open to no exception and likely to prevent evil or do good ?
(4) Unless the native race is (like the East Indiaus or Chinese) one with an old civilisation of its own, I do not see how it can be main- tained that it is either desirable or possible to keep natives permanently apart under a separate organisation. The ordinary savage system of tribal chiefs is and must be unprogressive; it inust break down sooner or later as this and that coloured man meets with new ideas, which it is impossible, even if it were desirable, to keep out, or as the hereditary chiefs die out, as appears to have been the case in Fiji. The report of the South African Native Affairs Commission says (p. 19) "The native population as a whole instinctively cling to and cherish the communal system. But there is an increasing number who fret under the conditions of communal 'life, seeking alike for the opportunity to gain independence
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