The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1933. WHITE AND BLACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 232, 2 October 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1933. WHITE AND BLACK.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the v>rong that needs resistance,, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can da

Those -who like to figure Britain as the oppressor of coloured races and as pursuing an Imperialist course in persistent disregard of the rights and customs of the natives, would do well to note the enthusiasm roused at a Congregational Assembly at Nottingham over the reinstatement of the Bechuanaland chief who had been suspended and deposed for flogging a white man. The truth is that Britain has long been peculiarly sensitive over any imputation that native rights were being set aside in the interests of the white man. This has been instanced lately in the case of the Kenya goldfl'clds, where the action of tho local authorities in dispossessing the natives without adequate compensation, led to considerable agitation in Britain against such policy. The Colonial Office has frequently acted as a protector of the natives against the exploitation of the man on the spot, and many have been the protests against its interference.

j Without going further afield than our own country wo can see how jealous the Home authorities can bo for tho honour of Britain. To the Maoris the Treaty of Waitangi was the sheet anchor of their liberties and territorial ownership. It dealt a staggering blow to land-jobbers and land-sharks, and was described by the New Zealand ComjKMiy as "a praiseworthy device for amusing apd pacifying savages for the moment." Lord Stanley, however, would have none of their objections, and he declared that any change in tho interpretation of the treaty at that stage would have been inconsistent with justice, good faith, humanity and policy. Could he have had his will, Sir George Grey, the Governor and therefore the representative of tho British Government, would have greatly reduced the land confiscation programme of his Ministers during the Maori wars, and thereby have prevented a good deal of subsequent trouble. As regards the Australian natives, Lord John Russell laid, it down a hundred years ago that "you cannot over-rate the solicitude of His Majesty's Government on the subject of the aborigines," but tho people of Australia have not lived up to this declaration.

Much of this feeling in Britain for tho native races and the depressed of other countries can be traced to the ideals of Wilberforce and the Evangelicals. If Government departments or Colonial governments have acted with harshness, real or apparent, they have always been liable to bo criticised by the Anti-Slavery or Aborigines Protection Society. It is not suggested that this attitude at home has always been justified, but the sentiment behind it has worked for justice. In South Africa the British treatment of natives has stood out in contrast with Boer practice; indeed, British solicitude for the native was one cause of tho original Boer trek. There the colour problem is acute, and tho flogging- of a white man by a black man, even if the white man deserves punishment, is in the eyes of most South Africans, one surmises, an action very damaging to Em-opean prestige. No doubt the acting-High Commissioner had prestige in mind when he suspended and banished tho offending chief, who had exceeded his powers, but prestige must not be cultivated at the expense of justice. Tho overriding action of the Colonial Office appeai-s to be in accordance with its best traditions.