UNKNOWN

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13432, 10 March 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

UNKNOWN

(By Francis Stopford.)

Germany will never comprehend the fealty of India in the war. She looked 1 1) see the smouldering sedition of which -lie read so much in the English papers hurst into furious flame, and the "unpopularity of British rule." which German missionaries never wearied of emphasising, blossom into red rebellion; instead oi which, as wo know, both princes iiml peoples of than great em|;.re ilocked to our standard. Now thai the victory of the Allies is M'on to lv certain, aiid it is realised thai Gorman dominion outside Kuropc is at an end, India occupies herself with peaceful schemes of progress and prosperity, and it is not the war that troubles her, but the liost and most profit abk- way in which her immense 1 lunula can be utilised when trade ::!i(, commerce resume their norma' < OlU'se.

. Why sliould these things her ask the Germans. () nt > reason undoubtedly is to '• . lound in the way in which all dark>.;iuned races have been treated wher- < vi'r the German Hag has flown. U\ '■■>■> repeat a story told to me recently k.v an American friend, a journalist ' Ho was in India during the Grown 1 mice* visit, and was given an internew. Ihe conversation turned on the management of native race., with especial J'orerence to American problems in the Philippines. The Grown Prince related thw incident to the American loiinianst as typical, of the German system ot Colonisation. A German settler in one of the Pacific w-nnds had a finr field of yarns or sweet potatoes. He was much 'troubled ny thieves from a neighboring native village. One day he took four villagers <• u thru- heads, off, and put them on stakes at each corner of the potato field and there was no more stealing. "That r-' the German way to teach black men honesty, , said the royal looter of French chateaux, with cordial approval In German East Africa also pilfering was put down by indiscriminate slaughtj r. And the white race who acts fik e this is surprised that it is not hailed as a triend and deliverer by dark-skinned rcces!

Here is another illuminating anecdote. Some thirty years ago I lived in a part of India where the feminine rnshion of clothing was graceful, but ('TTCTe-d'inel.v scanty above the wai.«t. A .v.-'i-t:, German came to this town to study trade conditions; he was quite a decent follow. He was greatly shocked nt the fluttering R i,jps of muslin that aid duty as bodices. "Ach wass!" ho Tied "if Germans ruled India they would make a.l these women wear chemises!"' T laughrd. What else could •a Hnton do?

A little time later I had to spend a week-end on a pepper estate some 20 miles or so in the jungle. There was noi European nearer than the town itrelf. I asked the German to come out with me. He would have liked very much, but he was sorry he could not because he had sent his revolver to be ovraned. Again I laughed, for a walk-ing-stick was the only lethal weapon a Bnton ever dreamed of carrying in that part of the world unless he was out alter snipe or big game. This has often struck me as an exact illustration of German mentality in regard to subject races. Thoy would; iorce on them their own manners, speech, and behavior, and shoot them down at sight if they object. The British system, on the other hand, is to interfere as little as possible with private habits or customs;" we do not care a jot what the people wear or worship as long as they pay their taxes, practise humanity, and do not riot. And we do not carry revolvers. ''Render unto Ca?sar the thing 9 that are Caesar 9 and unto God the things that are God's" is the British rule. But. the Germans say: "There is no God but Ca>sar, and unto him you shall render whatever it pleases him to demand." But cue may ask, Do German missionaries lie when they declare British rule to be unpopular among the masses of Hindustan? They do and they do not. It is a half-truth.

Leaving aside all political aspirations, which only affect a very small though extremely influential section, it has to be remembered that British rule in India has synchronised with the introduction of machinery, which has deprived! multitudes of villagers of their ancestral means of livelihood. It was just the same at one t'ime in the British islands; an identical process is going on in China and Japan. Machinery would have found its way into, India sooner or later, even if an Englishman had) never set foot on the Coromandel coast or landed' a single bobbin on the island of Bombay. - But is it human nature to expect either an individual or an administration to bo* popular among the poorer classes of a community from whom it has taken all unwittingly and by force of circumstances the home industry that had been handed down from generation to generation ?

Thirty or forty years ago a common gibe among Anglo-Indians used to be that if British rule came suddenly to an end the only trace of it that would remain would be empty beer-bottles, Railways, canals, and other productive works have dulled the point of this old jest, but it is still true that, apart from the English language, which, in distinction to the German system, we never attempted to impose, India in habits and; customs has changed but little under British rule.

If you go to a French settlement, whether on the Indian Ocean, in the China Seas, or on the edge of the Sahara, you are at once conscious that you are on French territory. By some subtle method the atmosphere of Paris has been introduced'. It is the first remark of every stranger to any portion of the French colonial empire. But the Briton this newer of impressing his social personality on other peoples; he keeps himself to himself, sticks to his own ideals, and, inasmuch as does not interfere with other folks' style of living, expects his own not to be interfered with.

It is very easy to pick holes in this mode of conduct, and to denounce the lack cf sympathy it engenders; all we can say is that it has worked well so far. We have made mistakes in India and we have done our best to rectify them; we shall continue to make mistakes, but we shall never be ashamed to learn. This one truth remains, that in eome way or other our system of government" embodies an ideal which makes a strong and equal appeal to peoples belonging to vastly different races, creeds, and civilisations.