THE LUST OF CRUELTY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Most reluctantly I write again on this subject. Is there no difference between sending a gunboat to the mouth of the Congo to stop slave traffic, and a naval demonstration off Antwerp (the Belgian Government are, and were, responsible for the Congo State), or, again, sending a fleet to blockade the mouth of the Tagus ? The former was legal at any time if you could prove slave traffic. The latter propositions woald mean European war. I know my Spectator as well as any of your readers, but, as far as my recollection serves, you never advocated such a possible catastrophe.
You advised a blockade of the Peruvian coast line. Could anything be more futile ? Shut the front door and leave the back door open! Will you advise the British Government to blockade the mouth of the Amazon, and search ships coming down the river for Peruvian rubber? It would require a brave Government to undertake this. The crimes of Putumayo are indescribably horrible, but you will not improve matters by advocating a policy which might, and probably would, end in universal war. That would be the greater horror. Peru is distant, and people with an imperfect knowledge of geography think that a threat of the " Big Stick " will reform in a decade a huge country thinly populated, without easy means of travel, and peopled by a mixed multitude.
That is not so. These relatively young countries are strug- gling to the light as surely as did the Government of Cromwell, who committed greater atrocities than were ever dreamed of in Putumayo ! These atrocities occurred far from the ken of the central Peruvian Government, and everything published recently in the papers goes to show that the Peruvians are alive to their obligations.
To the man who has lived most of his life abroad the senti- mentalist of this country represents the most deterrent agent for progress. All nations are struggling for advancement, and the weaker ones bitterly resent this continuous British criticism, too often, as in this case, accompanied by threats. The more we interfere, after due publicity has been given to the existing evil, the longer will the reform be retarded. Great Britain is not the only country in the world which possesses a conscience, and she has not now the power to wield the " Big Stick." Moral, do not threaten.—I am, Sir, &c., Sutton Lodge, Guildford.
W. LIYINGSTONE-LEARbIONTH.
["Because we cannot usefully or safely intervene always and everywhere to prevent crime we should therefore inter.. vene nowhere." That appears to be Mr. Livingstone-Lear- month's principle. We call it disastrous logic.—En. Spectator.]
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