The St. James's Gazette deserves high praise from all true
Imperialists for the way in which it deals in its leading article of Tuesday with the cases of cruel treat- ment of natives by Englishmen, just reported from .Western Australia. In the cases quoted, " indentured" natives were flogged, chained up and kicked, and put into the stocks, "which were of such a nature that they could only be removed by being sawn off." Such stocks are simply instruments of torture; and yet only fines of a few pounds seem to have been inflicted. Two West Australian news- papers, we are glad to see, the West Australian Church News and the West Australian, condemn these acts of cruelty. We entirely agree with the St. James's Gazette in thinking that the censure of public opinion is the best remedy for these atrocities. We trust, however, that it will not merely be home public opinion that will be roused, but public opinion throughout the Empire. A recrudescence of slavery of this kind is not a mere Exeter Hall matter, but concerns the whole Empire.
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