CHAP. XVIII OUR HOPES FOR EAST AFRICA 383 



joined in the recent " scramble for Africa," England alone has 

 so far gained materially from her African possessions. 



With Canada crippled by the competition of the United 

 States, and Australia passing through a serious commercial 

 depression, South Africa is to-day the most flourishing of all 

 our colonies. As it has only attained this prosperity after 

 seventy years of steady work in a healthy invigorating climate, 

 it would be absurd to be disheartened by slow progress on the 

 Equator. But if we cannot reasonably anticipate an immediate 

 return for our expenditure, we may hope to brighten the lives 

 and secure the greatest happiness of the greatest number of 

 the downtrodden inhabitants of our East African dominions. 

 England may at once put a stop to the horrors of barbaric 

 tribal warfare, as well as to the cruelties of slave raids, 

 and by the gradual substitution of free labour for the present 

 wasteful system of domestic slavery, arouse more enterprise, 

 independence, and intelligence among the people. If England 

 only continues her work in this region also, she will change 

 chaos to order, transform swamps into fields, and irrigate 

 deserts into gardens. Having found the inhabitants ignorant, 

 oppressed, and poverty-stricken, she will give them industrial 

 training, fixity of tenure, and freedom from disturbance. And 

 when Britain's services to human progress are finally added up, 

 the civilisation of her East African possessions will be counted 

 as not one of the least important of her contributions to the 

 happiness and order of the world. 



