324 GOVERNMENT OF SUBJECT PEOPLES 



the production of such a mental attitude on the 

 part of those who have to carry out the practical 

 work of government may lead to weakness and 

 indecision on the executive side of this government. 

 It must be acknowledged that there is this danger, 

 and if the result of education in anthropology were 

 to produce a doctrinaire and academical atmosphere 

 among the rulers of our Empire there would be no 

 one more ready to condemn it than the writer of 

 this essay. 



Such an objection, however, would be due to 

 a failure to realise the mechanism by which the 

 knowledge of native modes of thought and behaviour 

 would be utilised for the promotion of better govern- 

 ment. The formulation of lines of policy based 

 upon knowledge would not be the work of executive 

 officers but of the legislative side of the activities 

 of governors and heads of departments. In order 

 that such lines of policy may be framed it is 

 necessary to know facts, and it is the collection of 

 these facts which would be the duty of the executive 

 officers who come into direct contact with the 

 people. It is just because the collection of these 

 facts, if they are to be facts and not fancies, is no 

 easy matter and demands special equipment and 

 knowledge, that education in anthropology is so 

 strongly advocated in this essay. There is nothing 

 in the collection of facts which should interfere in 

 any way with executive efficiency, and if, as may 

 sometimes happen, junior executive officers are able 



