THE DESPISED
SIR,—Perhaps the subject aired by Mr. Jdsman's healthily outspoken comments is worth expanding beyond the immediate question of the whirlwind Britain has reaped in Egypt. I suggest that during the next twenty years the nemesis threatening Western Europeans, North Americans and all other white skins, and even exceeding the threat of Com- . monism, is that of revenge by the formerly subject lands of Asia and Africa for the cruelties and indignities endured by them in the past.
It is useless to deny that the British and other European nations have flaunted their arrogance in the lands of all coloured peoples. I have worked for British firms among the Chinese, Indians and Negroes in various places, and always I was told that the only thing they respected was harshness. On a number of occasions one's instinctive actions to be friendly or helpful were frowned on as being weak and dangerous. An older member of my family was respected by his wife because he kicked his Chinese servant- downstairs for making a mistake.
For the history of killing and subjugation (inter- preted in Europe as 'keeping law and order' and 'bringing civilisation and industrial development') practised by most European nations (including Britain, France, Italy, Belgium and Holland) through- out Africa and Asia, the present generation of Europeans is beginning to pay the price.
The European, moreover, is noted in all these lands for his obsession with alcohol and sex. So many of those who have gone to live their lives in these great underdeveloped continents have behaved very dif- ferently from the way they would in their homelands. This has neither endeared them to the people they ruled nor served to evoke respect.
A few have earned and held the life-long friend- ship of Asians and Africans. But the majority have engendered resentment and often loathing by their behaviour. The Christian ethics of love and under- standing have not been noticed by Asians and Africans.
Surely, rather than glory in our past and continue to justify discrimination against those whose skins and ways of life are different from ours, the present generation would be wise to try to earn their friend- ship; for theirs is the future, ours is the past.— 37 Drayton Court, Drayton Gardens, SW10
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