The Merttens Lecturer for 1931 was Mr. Charles Roden Buxton,
and we trust that what he said on that occasion will reach a wider public, now that his lecture has been published under the title of The Race Problem in Africa (Hogarth Press, 2s.). It is necessarily slight, but without being profound it gives a very clear analysis of the situation as it has developed in Africa. The menace of colour and racial antagonism permeates all its pages and heavily underlines the dangers, both cultural and political, inherent in an unintelligent policy of economic exploitation. To Mr. Buxton " the conception of Empire is in eclipse," and he visualises a more generous inter- nationalism under the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, which will ensure " equal rights " for the more back- ward peoples. That is as may be, but is the solution really to be found in a doctrine of " human equality," when Africans themselves do not believe in an equality of status ? For what is meant by our phrase " the brotherhood of man " is very different from the African conception of brotherhood. It is possibly due to Mr. Buxton's mistrust of anthropologists (who are more realistic than he supposes) that he advocates the type of education which will enable natives to sit on legislative councils and so win " a real self-government " unlike anything they have ever contemplated.
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