8o 



SECTION IV. 

 LABOUR. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Will the White Race Lose the Supremacy of 

 the World throu; 

 Coloured Races ? 



the World through their Treatment of the 



Tropical Life, December, igi2. 



The year now fast drawing to a close, and which will, 

 indeed, have run its course by the tune the bulk of our 

 readers peruse these lines, has been an important and busy 

 one for Tropical Life, and for those engaged in tropical 

 development generally. To use an Americanism, we have 

 often been "hustled" along more quickly than even we 

 cared about, but as the movement has all through been 

 entirely in the right direction, so far as the trade and com- 

 merce of our own Empire have been concerned, we do 

 not complain ; we are, on the contrary, only too pleased 

 that such has been the case. Unfortunately, we cannot 

 say the same for the Tropics generally. Already labour 

 supplies are restricted in comparison to the demand, but 

 instead of doing all one can to increase them, the leading 

 European countries will still further reduce the number 

 'available, unless they speedily mend their ways. 



For this reason we hope that the report on the Putumayo 

 scandal, and the Commission' now sitting to consider the 

 responsibility of the ill-treatment of the Barbadian negroes 

 and Peruvian Indians in the Putumayo district, will call 

 the lasting attention of the public to the need of serious and 

 immediate reform to stop the way the natives are still being 

 exploited and done to death for the benefit of absentee 



^ To the Chairman of which, Mr. C. H. Roberts, M.P., we sent a 

 copy of our August number, calling his attention to the cartoon and 

 leading article on the subject. This was duly acknowledged. We might 

 add that the /Review of /Reviews and at least one other paper reproduced 

 the cartoon. 



