A PROBLEM OF EMPIRE.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17384, 21 April 1928, Page 4

A PROBLEM OF EMPIRE.

CAN NEGRO MIND DEVELOP EXTERNAL ATTRJBUTES OF COLOUR Is the negro mind capable of development to the highest intellectual level of the while race? This problem of vital importance to the British Empire, which contains 40.000,000 negroes—has been the subject of a tour of investigation, throughout the United States by Brigadier-General Sir Gordon Guggisberg, K.C.M.G., D. 5.0., who retired last year from the post of Governor of the British West African Colony of the Gold Coast, states the Montreal correspondent 'of the Daily Mail. General Guggisberg has always been a strong advocate of higher education of the bjack races. On the Gold Goast he brought into existence the negro university settlement, of Achimota which provides education of all degrees from primary to university standard for the natives of West Africa. A memorial tablet at this institution was unveiled by the Prince of Wales in 1925 during his West African tour.

As a result of his visits to the principal negro educational establishments of the Southern States of North America, Sir Gordon Guggisberg ra profoundly impressed by the rapid growth of real intellectual and scientific ability among the negro race. " In meeting men like Major Moton, the negro head of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and a former secretary of Booker Washington," he said "and many others like Dr Hope, the principal of Moorhouse College, Dr Mordecai Johnston president of Harvard University; Dr Scott, Mr Alan the author, one is conscious of being in contact with a very high quality of mental development. "Nothing but the external attribute of colour distinguishes these men, or Professor Carver —also of Tuskegee, who is probably one of the most outstanding industrial scientists of the United States and has lectured before the British Royal Society—from many of the recognised leaders of European thought." General Guggisberg thinks that the policy of repressing ttie negro, and limiting his share in the political life of the country, as practised 1 in some parts of the Southern Stales, is mistaken, for the reason that it resists tendencies of natural development which must in the end prevail.

Equality of Opportunity. "The best types of negro that I met do not aspire to social equality in America, but claim equality of opportunity," said General Guggisberg. "It is impossible to hold down in permanent subjection a population of 12,000,000 negroes, which is steadily increasing. The wisest course, it seems to me, is to give their legitimate aspirations fair play. " I am not, of course, in favour of a mingling of the black and white races by blood, though none of us knows what developments of that kind may take place in the remote future when Ihe intellectual progress of the mass of the negro populations of the world has caught up with that of the Caucasian race. But the American negro has no desire to intermarry with the whiles, he is content to live as a member of a separate community in the midst of the 100.000.000 white men and women who surround him. "That is an artificial set of conditions, not contemplated by Nature, but an inheritance from Ihe days of Ihe slave trade. The problem of the present day is to make it work. In the Northern Stales, where greater tolerance is shown towards the black race. it is working fairly well. T met many negro leaders of industry in cities like Chicago, who deal entirely with their own people—negro presidents of banks, lawyers, doctors, principals of universities, hotel proprietors, and heads of companies. "I was 'privileged to attend evening gatherings of these people held to meet me. Sometimes I was almost the only white man present. In that mysterious way which prevails among the black race, they had heard that T had shown myself in West Africa a friend of Ihe negro, and they opened their minds to me about the problems of their curiously anomalous existence with extraordinary ability and power of conviction. "My tour in America has left me' convinced that in such purely tropical parts of Ihe British Rmpire as West Africa the right course for our Government to adopt is to develop higher education. The negro race is fully capable of profiling by it, and it will help 1o remove some of the difficulties which our colonial administrators now have to face.

" In the minds of too many people education for the negro is confused with such mischievous and maniacal activities as those of Marcus Garvey, the self-styled ' Emperor of Africa.' Agitators financed by Negro fanatics in the United States have certainly been sent, from lime to time to preach discontent among the natives of both West and South Africa. But the overwhelming majority of the civilised negroes of America have no sympathy of any kind with these fanatic operalions. The excesses of a half-witted minority should not be allowed to prejudice the cause of a whole race."