It is absolutely necessary to the good government of the
Empire that such use of official power should be treated with the utmost rigour, and that our administrators in tropical countries should be made to know that such action, happily very rare indeed, when brought home to them, can never be for- gotten or condoned. It is nothing but a confusion of the issue to point out that immoral relations between black women and white men are common. The two offences cannot for a moment be com- pared for heinousness, and we agree with Mr. Balfour in thinking that no amount of indignation at the wickedness of the act and the weakness of the Colonial Office can be too great. What makes the matter worse is that the offence of corrupting a girl under age is punishable with imprisonment by the Indian penal code, which applies in East Africa,—a code which the official in question was bound to administer. A short time ago another man, not an official, was for a pre- cisely similar offence tried, condemned, and sentenced under the code. It is therefore impossible to plead that the official did not realise the serious nature of his offence.
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