7 2 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



the races in certain areas as to make it difficult to draw a colour 

 line. 



When the condition of the various communities is con- 

 sidered, the conclusion is easily reached that a monochrome race 

 and civilization would be universally desired if such were 

 possible. That cannot be, and the courses open to us await con- 

 sideration. These are — 



(a) The Policy of Segregation which is only partially 

 possible, and which offers no real solution if the resoective races 

 are to live in the same country. It is a theory the real benefits 

 of which can never be realized in practice as long as human 

 nature remains what it is and makes its present demands. 



(b) The Policy of Haphazard, if that is not a contradiction 

 in terms; the continuance of a state of flux, controlled by passing 

 impulses of feeling, personal and often irresponsible, and selfish 

 interests tempered by efforts for betterment, which must be con- 

 tinually frustrated or reduced in value by insincerity of applica- 

 tion. 



{c) The Policy of Antagonism, a state of more or less 

 open conflict, in which each race seeks its own advancement 

 regardless of the feelings of the other, and which can only 

 result in a growing unrest with all the possibilities of disaster, 

 the end of which it is difficult to foresee. 



(d) The Policy of Miscegenation; a deliberate lowering of 

 social ideals to make one race, which is unthinkable, although 

 we are compelled to recognize that it is just here that the most 

 powerful influences are always at work in a bi-racial community 

 to make a breach in the colour line. No discovery of science 

 and no effort of the lawmaker has produced any effective barrier 

 in the way of this where the two peoples live together in the 

 same country. It is one of the facts which have to be accepted, 

 part of the price which has to be paid for the exploitation of 

 countries which once were given over to another race, unless 

 another conception of the sanctity of race can be substituted by 

 individuals for that which at present exists. Deprecate it as 

 we may, there are four distinct forces at work to break down 

 the colour line. There is first Wealth, which, where the -colour 

 line is most attenuated, is a contributing factor in not a few 

 mixed marriages. How it operates is too well known to need 

 comment. There is secondly Poverty, which brings the races 

 together in such a way as to lead inevitably to marriage, and in 

 which the parties most concerned are seemingly quite content 

 to accept the conditions in which they find themselves, notwith- 

 standing the penalties which Society often inflicts. There is 

 thirdly Aff'ection, the genuineness of which there is no reason 

 to doul)t — that imcontrollable and mighty force which ere now 

 has brought dynasties into conflict and devastated the fairest of 

 lands. Then, fourthly, there is the old and yet ever new mani- 

 festation of natural instinct, which, unbridled and often blind, 

 contributes its quota to the number of those who dwell on the 



