president's address. 17 



Liberia and Haiti may be recalled. Whenever in intimate 

 relationship with the black, the white man must exercise a benevo- 

 lent guidance, in conformity with the claims of universal humani- 

 tarianism. 



Many arguments could be adduced showing the impossibility 

 of the Indian, the Malay and the Eur- African being isolated, and 

 leading their lives apart from the European; though segregation 

 is sometimes suggested for the Indian in Natal. In pressing 

 segregation it must not be overlooked that from the earliest days 

 the native and the coloured have been deemed a necessary factor 

 in the industrial machinery of the country. 



The second possibility, namelv, that all the races in South 

 Africa should blend together and form a more or less uniform 

 people has been suggested, and some writers maintain that this 

 will be the final state of the various races and nations at present 

 making up the world. The idea of a physical, mental, and 

 spiritual homogeneity of all peoples is but a delusion, and its con- 

 templation is an absolute abhorrence to any Nordic white living 

 in a settled community of blacks, where racial attitudes have had 

 time to crystallise. One may see a suggestion of it in new 

 countries on first opening-up, and also in seaport towns where 

 racial regard is looselv held. It raises the whole question of the 

 permanency of racial barriers, so ably discussed by Dr. Keith in 

 his paper "Nationality and Race/' To the present writer the 

 modern tendencv in all settled communities of different racial 

 elements is wholly against the breaking down of the barriers of 

 race. With education and enlightenment, racial and national 

 determinism, in the restricted sense of the term, is unauestionablv 

 spreading. Mr. Stephen Graham in his book, "Children of the 

 Slaves," sees no evidence of fusion between the black and white 

 of the Southern States of America. Race-blending has. indeed, 

 the approval of writers like Sir Sidnev Olivier, but on the truly 

 unsatisfactory ground that it improves the inferior race. 



The third possibilitv, that each group will retain its racial 

 distinctness and vet intermingle in the ordinary affairs of life is 

 that for which South Africa offers the greatest support. Not onlv 

 is it the general arrangement at the present time, but the whole 

 tendencv appears to be in the direction of its accentuation; group 

 or racial solidarity is on the increase, as the various peoples settle 

 down and begin to realise themselves as a fixed community. 



In many respects racial consciousness is in process of making 

 and also of re-making in South Africa, and many intermediate 

 stages are offered to the sociological enquirer. Moreover, the 

 really big question is presented as to how this racial solidarity will 

 relate itself to South African nationalism, for upon this hangs the 

 future of South Africa as a nation. Is the solidarity of the 

 various races to be of such a nature that it will be subversive of 

 South African nationalism ? The whole question requires most 

 thorough examination. We can but touch the fringe of it later. 



As regards the Bantu it is manifest that as a result of his 

 close relationship with the European his racial conscience has 



