MR. BALFOUR AND THE "SPECTATOR" AND THE EAST AFRICAN SCANDALS.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR." J
Sxn,—In your issue of July 31st you devote much space to the debate on the Colonial Office Vote, and you congratulate Mr. Balfoui" on taking so strong a line" about the conduct of an East African official. You write : "Mr. Balfour insisted, as we 'hive always done, that the essential point was not the question of immoral relations (I have underlined the salient words), but the criminal misuse of official power." With the greatest respect, may I be allowed to say that I am sure that neither you nor Mr. Balfour realise what harm such words may be likely to work to the cause of morality in all classes of society the world over ? Are we to take it_ that immorality, unaccompanied by a tyrannical use of magisterial authority, is a thing that does not much matter? Surely the .trials that beset people residing in remote and tropical places are so severe that the utmost influence of the Government, the Press, and public opinion ought to be directed towards the encouragement of a good life, as being Christian, reasonable, and affording a sure foundation upon which to UMW our IMperial prestige and influence. In the Times of duly 29th I read that the Professors of the proposed Uni- Versity in China " will not be required to submit to any religion:1 tests, but must be men in complete sympathy with Chiistian ideals." Has not a country which makes the Coronation of its Sovereign an impressive Christian service the right to say to those who are to be sent to represent the Crown abroad : Do you accept the Christian standard? But, as we have already tried to show, the words used by yourself and :Mr. Balfour may be employed to strike at morality generally. Would such words find a place in a syllabus of Moral instruction or in a code of religious education ? Should We like our masters to teach such sentiments in our primary Or secondary_ schools ; or would they be welcomed, shall we say at Eton. or Sandhurst or the Universities ? It may be Said that too mach has been made of a few words ; but 'if the nation is indeed to find and follow a " new way of life" 'it will have :to study and to fight the horrid slaveries, traffics, and Consequences of " the social evil," and in its moral crusade it will need all the lift and leadership that the Spectator and Mr. Balfour can give it.—I am, Sir, &c., St. Jude's Vicarage, Whiteclaapel, E. E. C. CARTER.
. , [We should have thought that it was quite clear that neither Mr. Balfour nor the Spectator wished to treat the Awe of sexual morality involved as unimportant. What we feel, however, is that it is impossible—all experience proves it—to make inquisition into the private lives of officials, and attempt 'to enforce an absolute standard of sexual purity. Such attempts end, as a rule, in the manner depicted by Shakespeare in Measure for Measure. But though the State cannot bold a Puritan Inquisition, it can and ought to punish with the utmost sternness any use to vile ends of the power and authority it gives its instruments. It can hardly punish too severely in such instances.—En. Spectator.]
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