PROBLEMS OF COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION 401 



for ages have lived in a condition of peacefulness; we cry for the 

 open door, meanwhile plotting all the time to reserve to ourselves 

 the markets over which we can exercise any control; and while our 

 science has made the idea of evolution an ingrained part of our being, 

 we carve up the world into artificial tracts and attempt to impose 

 upon the natives an alien system of social institutions. Such con- 

 tradictions invite the suspicion that we have here to do with a vast 

 aggressive movement of national selfishness, which is simply paying 

 a bare and empty respect to ideas of morality which in practice are 

 totally disregarded. And yet such a conclusion would hardly be 

 just. In the complex system of thought which directs the action of 

 our time, the enthusiasm for the ends and purposes of civilization 

 is more than a mere veil of selfishness; but it remains to be deter- 

 mined how this idea can have any effectual influence in the construct- 

 ive work of colonial administration. 



Like strong personalities, the modern nations are filled with a 

 desire to impress the mark of their genius upon the world. While 

 there are many ways in which this may be done, one of the most 

 obvious is that of gaining followers for their ideas of life and civiliza- 

 tion. Nations desire wealth, and expand their trade; they desire 

 prowess; they create great industries and maintain powerful navies 

 and armies; but in their heart of hearts there can be no truer gratifi- 

 cation than that of hearing their language spoken in a strange land, 

 than having their customs and institutions acknowledged as superior 

 by other races. This leads to the conception --surely not ignoble - 

 that the area of civilization is expanding, and that by the patient 

 efforts of centuries one nation after another will be raised to a higher 

 level of social efficiency and allowed a greater share of social happi- 

 ness. As from the small altar of civilization in Greece the torches 

 were carried to the east and west, even by the armies of Alexander 

 and Caesar, the imperialists hope that this same heritage, enriched 

 by the achievements of many intervening centuries, will henceforth 

 be spread throughout the globe through the peaceful means of eco- 

 nomic development, supported only when absolutely necessary by 

 the arm of force. But we have already seen how unsafe a guide 

 an ideological conception like this will ever be. In order that it 

 should become useful, we must avoid the danger of a vagueness which 

 would include all manifestations of expansive energy under its mantle 

 of approval. We must analyze the forces at work in order to deter- 

 mine which of them are really in accordance with the aims and the 

 character of civilization. We must inquire what our civilization 

 demands, and what constructive elements in a colonial policy may 

 be judged to flow from its character and essence. Our own civiliza- 

 tion is the only criterion we can apply, because, while we may despair 

 of being able to bestow its outward blessings upon alien races, we 



