EAST AND WEST

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 May 1931, Page 10

EAST AND WEST

BARS OF SUPERSTITION. LONDON, March 20. 1 A corresporiderit writing to the “Daily Telrigraph” asks whether the Asiatic’s “hitter sensei of injustice and woUnded pride” because he is “treated as ait inferior arid defraffed from Social intercourse With us,”’ is' hot an aheient fallacy? “As ah Englishman, an unofficial civilian, who has Spent hearty eight ye’afs in different parts of the Middle arid S'ar East,” fee writes, “it has been iriy experience ttthi the better type of Asiatic rarely, ff ever, hankers after ririy such intercourse, and this for' rorisons similar, to those which make thd Britbii hesitate before eiteridirig ;it.

“A strict Moslem in the home of a Briton! fetiglit wsell bo excised effibrirrrissment bf being . asked to' sit at meat With a woman—-and an unveiled woirian at that. The Ehglishriidri eating ri.t the table oT a high caste Hindu might well be forgiven a Certain amount of humiliation at the realisation that every piece Of plate that his hands rind lips have touched will be broken when he leaves the house, and that his host will spend the night undergoing “purification” ceremonies at' the temple to Cleanse himself of his guest’s corruption. “In countries where even barristers-1 at-law believe fitmly in the existence and power of the Evil Eye, there' are I all kinds of social ‘breaks’ that an Englishman can make. If he compliments the child of the house upon its looks, he will have done his host the grave disservice of attracting the envious' attention of the - gods. If evil befalls the child afterwards, the blame will be laid at the innocent.door of the English guest. . “These are not the beliefs of a> few fanatics. These are beliefs held by the great majority, though not all Will confess them to the sceptical Euro“Mixed marriages too, are equally frowned upon fry Asiatic arid European. The person who believes that the Englishman crinfers any honour upon an Asiatic frittily by marrying into it is under a grave deKiSiriri. The better the family the greater the disgrace conceived, arid as often as not the woman is disowned altogether. “This is the' reverse side of the shield of the social intercourse question Some of out sentimentalists might find it worthy of a little study.”