AMERICA AS COLONISER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1912, Page 17

AMERICA AS COLONISER

A CANDID FRIEND. Mr. W. Morgan Shuster (the American who had to quit the post of Treasu-rer-General in Persia because he collided with Russo-Brilish diplomacy) was at one time a member of the Philippine Commission, and his eight years' experience in the archipelago gives weight to the friendly criticism of American policy which he contributes to the African Times and Orient Review. The average American citizen is not much concerned about his duties in the Far East, but he has undertaken a portion of tTie "white man's burden" and must accordingly accept thp gratuitous advice of his friends. Air. Shuster writes more in sorrow than anper when he reflects :—: — "We have so many big and important things on hand in America at the present, time that it is perhaps useless to expect that our people will, as a whole, devote the care and serious attention to the Philippine problem that it merits. We adopt an attitude something like that of the highly-paid carpenter who has no time to pick up the nails which he drops. But whether we choose to face them now or not, there are some very serious difficulties about our leap into the colonial sea, in so far as pertains to the Philippines, and as time passes they will become more pressing and patent to all." Mr. Shuster then proceeds to regret the lack of experienced colonial administrators, the tendency to include Philippine policy in the realm of party politics, and further deplores a system of administration which is too costly for a poor nation. He completes his category of complaint by a few home troubles :— "We have constantly preached to the Filipinos about the corrupt and tyrannical Spanish officials from whom we rescued them, and about the chaos and dishonesty which would result if we should turn the government over to them, the Filipinos. ' We. in other words, are the holiest people, divinely commissioned to look after their finances. Yet in the first few years of our civil government there so mapy American officials were guilty 'of defalcation and embezzlement that "the matter became a seripns topic for discussion and semi-official apology, and the exaggerated moral effect on the Filipinos will not be lived down for many years." fc Mr. Shuster is certainly the candid friend, and thus admonishes his old colleagues :— "At all events, we must guard against, permitting our officials to view their career in the Islands as a mere holiday spectacle, or a mere stage on which petty princes may strut and roar only as real kings can do in the larger theatre of our country. One can see government there in embryo and in the making. Let us, then, see no embryonic dictators, however agreeable the role to those who may be temporarily performing it." It is not all "blame, blame—praise never," for the critic pays tribute to the success already achieved :—: — "We seem to have realised the necessity of the firm and permanent planting of certain cardinal principles, to which general assent has apparently been given. Such are the doctrine of complete separation of Church and State, of the independence of the judiciary (though there is still some room for improvement), of free public, schools, of the purity of the ballot-box wherever suffrage is granted, and of the constructioh of permanent highways and public buildings."

Mr Charles T. Bateman has juefc published a shilling life of General Booth. Me has been afforded special facilities by the chief of the Salvation Army to gather together biographical and historical matter of unique interest, thus enabling him, with the help of hie own excel- tional personal knowledge- gained by travelling with the General and f in other ways, to c6mpile a thrilling lifestory correct in detail and comprehensive in ecope and entirety.