Professor Coupland, the new occupant of the Beit Chair of
Colonial History at Oxford, has printed his inaugural lecture on The Study of the British Commonwealth (Clarendon Press,
2s. net). It is an eloquent plea for a subject which has received far too little attention in schools and colleges, and which, in wider spheres, is too often treated in a narrow and prejudiced spirit. Nationality and colour are two problems to which tho author directs attention. He lays stress on the steady growth of the principle of trusteeship as the basis of our colonial policy from Burke's day :- " It was no unpractical dreamer, inexperienced in realities, who said that the essential points of a sound Imperial policy admit of being embodied in this one statement, that . . . our relations with the various races who are subjects of the King of England should be founded on tho granite rock of the Christian code.' These words were written by Lord Cromer."
We have to carry out the trust, and, to do that, we must under- stand the history and conditions of the many peoples within the Empire.
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