PRESIDEXT's address SECTION E. 391 



wise in keeping the natives to simple and natural clothing, and what- 

 ever improvements may be discovered in the prevention and treatment 

 of phthisis will be adopted in the islands. 



Other indigenous affections, such as elephantiasis and the native 

 ulcers and skin diseases, have not yet been sufficiently studied. It 

 behoves us. Governments and peoples, to support our School of 

 Tropical Medicine, and to endeavour by strenuous and purposeful 

 scientific reseaich to understand and to stamp out these scourges. 



But upon their direct relations to the whites depend mainly the 

 future of these races. In North America the Indians, hunters and 

 warriors, have nearly died out. In the West Indies, cruelly over- 

 worked by the Spaniards, they have entirely vanished. In South 

 America, where they were more settled and cultivated their lands to 

 some extent, they have survived. Treatment by the whites was less 

 harsh, especially in Brazil, and there seeiiis to have been established 

 an order of things under which the peons live in some comfort. In 

 Java, a vast native population sui-vives undei' Dutch rule, and the 

 land is tilled more completely than in any other part of the world. 

 The African negro and the Indian coolie increase and multiply 

 under adverse conditions. How will the Polynesian fare under white 

 control 1 



The policy of the British, German, and American Governments 

 has been mainly directed to reserve the lands for the natives, and 

 this policy seems to be wise as well as fair. Settled in villages, and, if 

 uecessary, compelled to work for themselves, the natives will have the 

 best chance of surviving, and of developing theif lands for the general 

 benefit. To rob the villages of their able-bodied men, to draw them 

 away to work on distant plantations, is to sap the verj^ life of the 

 village communities. These will sooner or later, and not so much 

 later,- be wiped out. 



Let us suppose this done. Apparently, white men cannot work at 

 n-anual labour in the tropics. Failing the natives, the planters must 

 import negi'oes or coolies, Hindoos, Chinese, Japanese. Is the pre- 

 sence of the Hindoo coolie in Fiji an unmixed blessing? Are we pre- 

 pared to replace the mild natives — and all the natives have become 

 mild who have been handled by the missionaries, who consider their 

 interests and win their confidence — by large settlements of negroes 

 or Hindoos, or men of the yellow races. I hardly think that Queens- 

 land will allow this immigration on a large scale. I hardly think 

 tliat Australia will countenance such immigration into New Guinea. 

 In Queensland, since the aboriginals are unavailable, the problem of 

 cultivation of the tropical lands has become an extremely difficult 

 one, and I have no pronouncement to make. The care of New Guinea 

 is different, and there, I think, we cannot too strongly urge the 

 maintenance of the village system as completely as possible, that 

 there be no necessity or opportunity for a large immigi-ation of 

 undesirable aliens. 



It remains, lastly, to consider the relations of the white nations 

 to one another and to the yellow races. In 1892 it seemed as if war 

 was inevitable between Germany and the United States over Samoan 

 affairs. War ships in equal numbers anchored opposite to one another 

 oft" Apia. The dogs of war faced each other <?narling. But a bolt 

 from the blue smote them. In a few hours all were sunk or on the 



