304 PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 



70,000 white troops against a population of some 250,000,000 ? 

 Permanent conquests of large and populous territories are only 

 made possible by the just government of the conquered. 

 Appro- But, it may be said, highly civilised nations do things which 

 Pt the terH- ' lt ' IS P oss ^le to regard as utterly reprehensible, not only with 

 tory of impunity, but with great advantage to themselves. They take 

 t ^ le ^ anc ^ ^ barbarians from its owners, and then it often happens 

 that the barbarians are unable to withstand their firewater and 

 their diseases. It is difficult to defend this appropriation of 

 huge tracts of territory on principles of abstract justice. The 

 Great Powers negotiate and divide among them what belongs 

 to others. Everyone's claims, except the owner's, are considered. 

 And thus many picturesque peoples pass away, while others be- 

 come half-Europeanised, and, being exposed to novel conditions, 

 adapt themselves to them in ways that are not admirable. But 

 though these appropriations are often indefensible, yet they only 

 hasten an inevitable process. It is impossible to put a stop to 

 all trade between civilised man and savages, and it is trade and 

 intercourse, the introduction of the vices of civilisation without 

 its virtues, that begins the process of exterminating or unmanning 

 the savage. Moreover, I believe Europeans have not cut off any 

 stock that showed promise of a noble development. The Duck- 

 billed Platypus is as capable of developing into one of the 

 nobler mammals as the native Australian of evolving a civilisation 

 of his own. I believe that in no part of the world has the Euro- 

 pean invasion nipped in the bud any promise of noble things. It 

 maybe that this thought has been in the minds of many educated 

 and humane people, and has prevented their feeling against the 

 appropriation of the territories of savages from becoming very 

 strong. 



But perhaps there has been a more powerful motive in the 

 hope that they would adopt Christianity and conform to civilised 

 ways of life and thought. Often we must divide the nation into 

 two : one half appropriates, the other finding the appropriation a 

 fait accompli insists on good government. If all this is borne in 

 mind, it is very difficult to feel that England, the greatest appro- 

 priator of the savage man's property, has thriven by injustice. 



