PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 5 



If the science of man stood where we may hope it will stand in 

 the dim and distant future, man would from the past and the sur- 

 rounding present have some grasp of the future evolution, and 

 so have a greater chance of guiding its controllable factors." 



1 have quoted freely from Professor Karl Pearson because he 

 presents a more enlarged view of anthropology which, as I have 

 said, is particularly applicable to us in South Africa, the view that 

 anthropological studies should contribute to the upbuilding of the 

 State by offering a scientific understanding of the peoples within 

 it. 



From the broad aspect of the British Empire, Dr. Arthur 

 Keith is equally insistent upon the importance of the proper study 

 of Anthropology. In a lecture delivered in Oxford in 1919 he 

 remarks: "The problems of Race and Nationality then are by no 

 means new. The far-flung lines of the British Empire and the 

 mobilisation of our popular spirit by means of the press and 

 propaganda have compelled our statesmen, historians, publicists, 

 psychologists, and anthropologists to re-examine the nature of the 

 forces which lie behind racial movements and national agitations. 

 Of the importance of a right understanding of the nature of these 

 forces for the future maintenance and development of the British 

 Empire there cannot be any question." 



I rejoice to think that we are already at the beginning of this 

 newer study of mankind in South Africa, and that before long 

 we shall be making advances in the direction so strongly advocated 

 by Professor Karl Pearson and Dr. Keith. Only within the past 

 two or three months a Professorship of Social Anthropology has 

 been founded at the University of Capetown, and Mr. A. R. 

 Brown has been appointed. I believe it is the first of its kind in 

 the world, and we may well congratulate the University on the 

 appointment. I was in Cambridge when it was first announced, 

 and the anthropologists there, Dr. A. C. Haddon and Dr. 

 W. H. R. Rivers, were keenly interested in its possibilities for 

 South Africa, as was also Professor Henry Balfour, Oxford, well 

 known to many workers here. Again, last year a Native Affairs 

 Commission was appointed as advisory to the Government, two 

 of its members at any rate, Senator Dr. A. W. Roberts and 

 Dr. C. T. Loram, being men of science and interested in anthropo- 

 logical investigation, in both its social and educational aspects. 

 These I regard as happy auguries for the study of Social Anthropo- 

 logy in South Africa, and I trace them to the initiative and wise 

 statesmanship of General Smuts, Premier and Minister of Native 

 Affairs, an outstanding figure among the statesmen of the world, 

 a son of whom South Africa is justly proud. His speech in intro- 

 ducing the Bill to establish the Native Affairs Commission revealed 

 a marvellous grasp of native problems, and a sympathetic deter- 

 mination that the oountrv should do the right thing by the native. 

 In this attitude he follows another great South African, the late 

 Cecil John Rhodes, who in his Glen Grey Act (1894) initiated a 

 sympathetic and, at the same time, a sound policy in native 

 administration. 



