The proceedings of the German Colonial Congress, which met in
Berlin at the end of last week, contained much matter of interest to British students of colonial administration. Especially important were Dr. Marensky's remarks last Saturday on our policy towards the South African natives. He charges our missionaries with having unduly encouraged native aspirations, presumably because they have taught that in the sight of God the soul of a black man is equal in value with that of a white. We have no sympathy with the critic on this point; but there is a certain force in what he says as to the need of caution in bringing coloured races within the pale of our civilisation. He prophesies a vast Ethiopian movement which will menace European authority in South Africa, when the emancipated native becomes the victim of agitators of his own race. The danger is a real one, and must be faced, though its existence should not deter us in our efforts towards the enlightenment of the native and in our fair dealing towards him. A nervously repressive policy, in our opinion, is more likely to lead to such an event than a broad and liberal attitude towards native claims, joined with an unfaltering assertion of white predominance. The recent Ethiopian movement in South Africa, inspired from America, has largely died out, because the various Governments refused to be scared by any such bogey, and kept unswervingly the course which they had found from past experience to be the wisest.
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