Labour 87 



the inhabitants of Europe and America as of the natives 

 themselves. 



The whole question makes one ask, How long will the 

 present rate at which primitive races are being extermi- 

 nated be allowed to continue? Will it go on, and even 

 increase, until it brings about the economic and com- 

 mercial doom of the Tropics and with that a permanent 

 check to the prosperity and prestige of the white race ? 

 And, then, will such a check to the white race induce and 

 enable the yellow and tinted races, owing to their ability 

 to work the Tropics, to be placed at an advantage over the 

 whites and so be able to assume the military and economic 

 domination of the world ? 



These are great queries and since they are so no 

 thinking man can allow the book mentioned in the 

 footnote ' to pass him by because no thinking man can 

 deny that the Tropics to-day are a stern necessity to the 

 reputedly civilized nations of the temperate zone, or that 

 an abundant native population, a far larger one than exists 

 at present, is an equally stern necessity if the so-called 

 civilized nations are to continue to satisfy their ever- 

 increasing demands upon the foodstuffs and raw materials 

 that the Tropics can alone produce for consumption and 

 manufacture in Europe, America, or Australia. 



Going back to the old, old story of the goose that laid 

 golden eggs, one is apt to compare the black and brown 

 natives of the Tropics to the goose, as without their help 

 we can no more expect to obtain from the Tropics that 

 which we need, than we can expect to obtain even an 

 ordinary goose's egg if these useful though noisy birds 

 should cease to exist. In spite of this, whilst wise men 

 and women have, from time immemorial, taken care of the 

 geese and seen to it that their numbers increased in pro- 

 portion to the local demand for their eggs and flesh, nothing 

 has ever been done to assure a continuous and increasing 

 supply of native labour for the Tropics. It must be owned, 

 on the contrary, that much has been done to kill off the 

 supplies that already existed, this, too, in spite of the fact 

 that the Tropics, through these persecuted people, have 

 always truly given us eggs of gold, or their equivalent, 



' "Savage Man in Central Africa." A Study of Primitive Races in the 

 French Congo, by Adolphe Louis Cureau, Guuveriieur Ilonoraire des 

 Colonies. Translated l)y E. Andrews. 351 pages. 18 plates. 9 illus- 

 trations in text. Price 12s. 6d. net. Weight 32 oz. Tropica/ Life 

 Publishing Department. Also see p. 16. 



