CLAIMS TO COLONIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 78, 1 April 1936, Page 4

CLAIMS TO COLONIES

CONSULT THOSE WHO KNOW

There are coloured peoples who have learned to admire and respect fpreign control and prefer it to that of their own nationals; there are others who do not possess the character and qualities necessary for the successful government of large populations, writes Sir Frank Swettenham in a letter to "The Times." A discussion of these and other matters of Colonial policy and practice is very desirable if it deals with realities. Unfortunately in such inquiries. the people who know are seldom invited to speak, and the report then drawn becomes an incomplete and probably misleading document. When it comes to the methods employed by different Powers in dealing with primitive peoples, the system —French, Dutch, British, or any other —is; of far less importance than the character, temper, and ability of those who are charged with the working of it. That conviction must be shared by all those who-Have held high responsibility in any country where a large proportion of the inhabitants are coloured and native to the soil.