TREATMENT OF UNCIVIILSED NATIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 1628, 9 December 1879, Page 3

TREATMENT OF UNCIVIILSED NATIONS.

! At a late meeting of the Social Science Congress of England, tho. Telegraph rev ports.that Mr F. W. Ohosson introduced ■the-Bpeoial~ question as to •whetherifc isTi' legal or moral duty for a civilised nation, to observe towards an uncivilised race laws or principles which tho latter either ignores or. persistently neglects. He pointed out that this question was one whioh manifestly belonged to the sphere oi practicatpolitics, because hardly a day passed without our being painfully reminded of the extent and variety of our responsibilities m connection with uncivilised races subject to the Crown or with neighboring independent tribes. After pointing out that great authorities on international laws had' conceded, to 'those races -certain -natural- and inalienable rights, the speaker urged various reasons m support of his propoßitionf-rthat it was 'our duty to observe towards , uncivilised ' countries.! Europea n. fuloa_ of conduct without reforence to tho practice- of tho natives themselves. He contended' that .if we had recourse to a mere policy of repression we should exhibit n profound distrust of our own principles,' and at the same time [confess that] civilisation hopelessly, broke down precisely m thoso circumstances m which it was •most desirable that its superiority should bo clearly established ; that wo could not j ustlyL place an .uncivilised people who had not enjoyed our advantages m the position of criminals who broke the law with a fullknowledge of their culpability ; that we were called upon to exorciso ,forl)earanco towards them, because we visited their countries uninvited," nnd—thereforo at our own rhk ; that tho groat superiority of our arms and tho easo^vitli Which m war wo could kill largo numbers of natives were additional reasons . why wo should exhibit somo dogt-oo of generosity and aolf-control m our intorcourao with thorn, and that this policy was also called for bocausor;tlioro had notoriously been occasions when quarrels were forced upon the natives by tho ambition of tho officials or tho cupidity of settlors. Ho ktfoW that tho advocates of the opposite systoin argued that when uncivilised men committed murder or outrage tho best way to prevent a recurrence of it was to inflict sharp and punishment upon the offenders ; but, on the other hand, experience showed that reprisals inevitably provoked equally sanguinary acts of vengeance, and thatr.ovon ' after tho lap3o of yoars the slumbering Bpirit-'of revungo might : wreak itself upon perfectly innocent persons. He further contended that before -we puraued towards savages B policy of blind retaliation, it'WaV;incumbent"upon lis'to' instruct them, . at. all events, m the ujemontary principles upon which our' ideal of international comity wcro based. To prove that this was not a chimerical notion', ho referred to tho fact that m thoi Mauri wur uf IbGU our aoldiotB; by thoir

example, taught the natives. to practice tW rirlar of •- civilised warfare ; - and ' ho alflo itrtitaneed cmr ©Isperienco m ]$jV and Smith' Africa, remarking that thoJKulus had repeatedly shown their amenability to moral influence, and, m his opinion, especially sb-whbrij'bn the evo of the battle of Ulundi, Ootbwayo, m answor to tho requestof Bishop Coleriao, sent into Lprd Oholmsford. " tho sword which Princo Louis Napoloon wore when ho. was killed. Ho c,ondctnnod the .wholesale destruction of native villages, as well as tho extensivo confiscation of native lands, which too often marked the progress and termination -of- -wars with, uncivilised races. Ho urgedthat the progress of discovery and ''tho certainty that, m Africa especially, tho advocates of. forco jwould not do slow to discover pretexts for involving our own andothercouutriesinnewschenios of aggression and conquest rendered 'it extremoly desirablo that the ' jurists, 6f Europe and America should endeavor ■to frame a codo of international law which, if .adopted, would be a guarantco that un-civilised-States would not m time to corao be •' subjected to an uiiduo amount ;of responsibility for their ignorance of-Euro-pean, u.sfiges. ...He ventnr.Qd to submit that jurists shouldcoiisidor .also whether travellers who do not- -bear -the commission' of any Government or public- authority ought to be pormittodj even" m the pursuit of geographical FosoaTCh,. to ehgago, on their own' responsibility. in. a system of private war -with- tho ..inhabitants: of countries -which-they-had- thought proper to exiiloro; ■ r . • :