CHAPTER XVII 



LABOUR 



It is not too much to say that the prosperity of a 

 country depends almost as much on a numerous, pros- 

 perous, and efficient labour supply as on the natural 

 resources that it can command. Though possibly the 

 question may not be quite so acute in a Protectorate 

 such as this as it is in a European country, yet 

 perhaps it is an even more perplexing one owing to 

 the many factors involved. The position is, shortly, 

 that the employers are practically all alien, and the 

 unskilled labourers are the original inhabitants of the 

 land. This position gives rise to a three-sided point 

 of view. Firstly, from what we will call the Humani- 

 tarian point of view — that is from the point of view 

 of the man who, seated in a comfortable arm-chair in 

 his smoking-room at home says, plausibly enough, 

 " What a shame it is to disturb the splendid indolence 

 of the peaceful savage ! He is the possessor, the 

 European merely an interloper. To allow any hardship 

 to be borne by the former to benefit the latter, would 

 be an act of injustice. Let us see to it that no such 

 injustice is done." Then there is the point of view 

 of the settler — " Here am I, a settler in this country — 



you, the Government, invited me — presumably you 



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