348 THE LAND: OF- THE*SLION 
and the captain of the steamer who was with good reason 
proud of his “‘ gang of boys,” told me it was a common sight. 
But then he was a scrupulously fair and also a firm master 
and there was competition among the natives to get a place 
in that “‘gang.”’ I might multiply such evidence of the 
East African’s capacity for work, but any observant travel- 
ler will admit the truth of what I say. 
The native shows every promise that a child can show 
of capacity for a sound industrial education, but as yet in 
German territory alone is any effort being made to pro- 
vide him with it. In British East Africa the native trades- 
man were he competent, would be a godsend. The only 
artificers at present to be had there are Hindi, and very 
unsatisfactory workmen they prove. But the native 
must be controlled before he can be taught. 
The Germans have already in this direction accomplished 
good results. The order and method obtained in their ports 
is in striking contrast to the wild confusion and inefficiency 
so painfully obvious among the natives of the English 
coast line. The German natives, too, are at least as well 
paid and both they and the travelling public gain by their 
discipline. At Tanga there are admirable industrial schools 
where native boys are indentured and kept at their work 
till they know it. But then Germany is quicker to under- 
stand the educational needs of a people than any other 
European nation. 
From all this it follows that the programme of the 
well-intentioned, but very ignorant home-staying phil- 
anthropist, who insists on laying down the law for a people 
of whose actual condition he knows very little, is a mistaken 
and most hurtful policy. He hears of the gross evils attend- 
ing forced labour in the Congo or in Portuguese Africa, 
and at once jumps to the conclusion that the cure for the 
evil is to abolish forced labour in any form. 
There is very little labour yielded anywhere in the 
