The Government of Colonies -
BY C. DELISLE BURNS.
roLomAL government is alien despotism. The
,despot may be benevolent ; and in accordance With the principles of the Mandate Systeni, we have agreed that he should be so. But if he is an alien, not his virtue but his knowledge is in question. How can anyone ignorant of the customs and traditions of a people govern that people well ? Such a question clearly implies that governinent is an art which grows out of the whole of a culture and not a fixed system Which can be applied to any social unit. It implies that good government must be self-government, if self- government means law and administration natural to given circumstances.
,. But in the nineteenth century great numbers of non-Europeans in the tropics came. under, the domina- tion tion of different European peoples ; and Europeans felt so confident of their competence in those days that the practice and theory of European government were merely adapted, in the most superficial manner, to fit an entirely new situation. The fundamental !problems of colonial government were quite unknown to the traditional political thinkers, from Plato to Rousseau and Hegel. Administrators from Europe carried their habits abroad, and critics of the methods used in governing non-European races depended upon much too abstract a view of the nature of the problem. Now a great change has occurred. The practitioners are less self-confident and the critics less ignorant of the 'relevant facts. But the change has come gradually. England is justly proud of her administrative skill in colonial areas in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Her colonial officials had prevented such exploitation as had occurred in the colonies of certain other European peoples ; and it was generally believed that the justice of her administration was more highly valued by non- Europeans than the intimacy of social contact which other administrations had developed. At the close of the century, those who were concerned with colonial problems seem to have believed that the English had nothing. to learn from the French, the Belgians or the . Dutch. The- German colonial system, was new and very largely artificial. In any case, it was not regarded as Successful, except perhaps in the organization of public health ; 'and: 'our administrative_ tradition had left that and education in the hands of the missionaries.
'Noiv we lade an entirely different situation, and the future of British colonial government requires careful and vigorous thinking. We cannot rest upon our laurels. The difficultieS are greater and our ideals are less simple. We cannot now regard tropical areas under our juris- diction as " estates " to be worked for our benefit, although the Ottawa Conference seems to have been ignorant of the issues in non-self-governing areas under British jurisdiction. The peoples of those areas are no longer so submissive to European guidance as they were. Again, advances have been made in methods and ideals outside our jurisdiction. We cannot afford to neglect the advances made by the Dutch and the French during the past twenty years in their colonies.
In all colonial areas some progress has occurred since the War, first under the influence of the Mandate System. The establishment of Mandates is an admission that the government of non-Europeans by Europeans is a matter of interest for the whole world ; that no nation in control of tropical peoples can justly use such control mainly for its own advantage. In reference to certain parts of East Africa it has been laid clown as a principle of British policy " that- the interests of the African natives must be paramount, and that if and when those interests and the interests of the immigrant races should conflict, the former should prevail." Secondly, we now admit that an understanding of native traditions is essential as a basis for colonial government. Anthropology has ceased to be the measurement of skulls and the arm-chair analysis of travellers' tales. It is now an interpretation of ritual concerning sex, marriage, death, agriculture and tribal authority, made from studies in the field with a view to governmental and educational problems. The uncontrolled anthropologist may advocate the preservation of barbarism in order that he may have more to study. But the colonial administrator can use the anthropologist's knowledge without accepting his policy. Thirdly, government in non-European areas is no longer conceived simply in the terms of police and the maintenance of order. It is now closely concerned with the promotion of health and education. The methods of our own services in European countries for public health and education are themselves experimental ; and obviously the best methods of education in non- European societies arc still more difficult for Europeans to discover. But, on the whole, it is agreed that native traditions must be intimately associated with the cduca-
tional and health-promoting services under our juris- diction.
• So much progress has been made within the past twenty years in colonial administration that it seems unkind to suggest that we have, so far, only touched the very edge of the problem. But if England has certainly done much in the past which is deserving of praise, there is all the more reason to hope that we shall be able to make a still more difficult step forward in the future. The central principle which alone can excuse despotism is that it should promote its own disappearance. Some of our traditionalists fifty years ago found it difficult enough to accept the inevitable in the growth of nation- ality in the Dominions : but nobody now doubts that " Dominion status " means at least independence of the control of London. It will be still more difficult for many who have an intimate contact with non-European tropical peoples to grasp that we cannot long continue to control them according to our conceptions of what is good for them. The Mandates clause in the Covenant avoids the issue. It says that " the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust " ; but it does not say who is to be the judge of that well-being and development. An experienced Colonial Governor, however, Sir Donald Cameron, has plainly stated in Principles of Native Administration, 1930, that the Mandatory principle implies that our policy should aim at the time when the peoples
over whom we now exercise jurisdiction should " stand by themselves."
This clearly does not involve any disregard for non-native interests ; but it does mean that despotism should end. The form of government which should take its place has still to be. discovered ; and its discovery should be the aim of our administration, for all• govern- ment is experimental and the best government educates the governor as well as the governed. Under the general guidance of this principle we have to extend to social and occupational subjects the body of colonial law. That law is still in most colonies at the stage at which law was in England before 1832 ; but a committee now exists to study this problem. Again, we have to provide for 'a much greater part to be played by non-European officials in the administrative system. We in England can learn from the Dutch and the French in this matter, without making their mistakes ; for colonial government is now a problem in comparative international studies. Further, land-tenure, taxation, property-rights and many other details important for government have to be much more closely studied : nobody now believes that European individualism embodies the whole of human nature. It would be disastrous to allow under primitive conditions, for example, in Africa, the scramble for individual wealth to promote among non-Europeans the evils it has caused among us.
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