RACE INTERMIXTURE

Otago Witness, Issue 3618, 17 July 1923, Page 5

RACE INTERMIXTURE

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS. On Tuesday evening, at the meeting of the Central branch of the Labour Party, Mr John Gilohrist delivered a lecture on “Race Intermixture.” In his opening remarks the lecturer said that it was perhaps not a politic subject for a Labour man to take lip, but he was a Socialist and international first and a Labour politician* last. Three great prejudices had hindered and retarted humanitarian progress. Two of these were just about played out —the religious and nationalistic ones, but there remained the third, which had not yet. been fully exploited, and this was race prejudice. It therefore behoved all who had the good of humanity at heart to pay attention to the teaching of science in the. matter of race intermixture. If science condemned p as a bad thing and one leading to retrogression, then the objective of internationalism was going to be difficult of achievement, -■lit did science condemn it? As far as he had been able to learn from reading the most up-to-date books in the Public Library on this matter science did not condemn it. The basic reason for this race prejudice, he believed, was to be found in the teaching of the past, that man had had several origins. This theory, however, had been discarded for the monogenetio or oneness of origin theory. The tests to be applied were those of fertility, virility, mentality, morality, and also spirituality. Huxley had declared that the first of these must be “the prime consideration in setting up the future standard of the race if it is to affect evolution in any positive direction at all.” The lecturer went on to refer to various ethnological works which showed that this first test was met in an ample manner, one instance being the very great and rapid increase of population in South America, despite revolutions and epidemics. The physique of those people was not a poor one, In North America the Franco-Canadian —- a mitxure of Algonquin Indian and Frenchrnan, “yielded to none in energy and physical vitality,” and the Dano-Eskimos in Greenland—a thoroughly constituted race, showed qualities in some respects superior to those of the original stocks. Others mentioned were the Griquas of South Africa —- a mixture of Dutch and Hottentot, with their flourishing communities. The Paulistas of Brazil —a blend of Portuguese and aboriginal, were a most vigorous and enterprising section of the community. To them was due the extension of the Portuguese domain from the Atlantic seaboard to the eastern slope of the Cordilleras. Intermixture had been the rule right uirough prehistoric and historic time, and racial purity had been the exception. Wherever there was an approximation to the latter then infertility and degeneration appeared. Averages were all that could be gleaned front the study of large groups dike the Malays, Mongols, Germans, Sudanese. But averages meant transitions of all kinds, and transitions resulted only from extensive interminglings, which again could la-.e place only between varieties. Man was a species, and the races, however different in outward appearance, were but varieties. 'lhe science of biology was in favour of mixture. In support of this point the lecturer quoted Dr Robert Dunn as saying, “Half-oastes very generally combine the best attributes of the two races from which they originate.” Regarding the quality of mentality in coloured peoples, the lecturer took the natives of India as an example, quoting Professor Wilson and Sir Thomas Munro in regt \i to high standard in this respect. The latter stated that “if civilisation is to become an article of trade between England and India I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo.” Lord Elphinstone in his History of India stated: “No set of people among Hindus are so depraved as the dregs ot our own great towns. Including the Thugs and Dacoits, the mass of crime is less in India than in England. The Hindus freedom from gross debauchery is the point which they appear to most advantage, and their superiority in purity of manners is not flattering to our selfesteem. ’ Colonel Sleeman, who was a resident magistrate in different parts of India, in referring to the inhabitants of the communes or villages away from cities and Government officials, stated: “I have had before me hundreds of cases in which a man’s property, liberty, and life has depended upon his telling a lie, and he has refused to tell it.” Mr Gilchrist wondered if any magistrate in i\ew Zealand could say the same of ourselves.

The lecturer concluded by stating that all the qualities which make for a higher civilisation are found broadcast over the races of mankind; all that is needed is tlieir recognition and application to usher in the new international order. At present under capitalism no Labour man should approve of the wholesale immigration of coloured people into any Europeanised country, as such a course would undoubtedly help the exploiters of labour to lower the standard of living of the whites. When the capitalistic system had, however, passed away, then the free intermingling of the worm’s peoples would undoubtedly take place, and, if we were to believ© science, nothing but good could result. Questions and an interesting discussion followed the lecture, and, the lecturer having replied, the meeting was brought to a close.