1G2 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



by means of Mandates, added largely to our responsibilities in this 

 respect. We, of all nations, cannot disregard this fundamental duty 

 of dispatching our pro-consuls fitted to undertake on our behalf these 

 great responsibilities. 



But the burden we have undertaken extends not only to backward 

 peoples; we have been called upon, in one form or another, to govern 

 or to advise the Governments of peoples who have, or have had in the 

 past, a civilisation little, if at all, inferior to our own, and to whom at 

 one time we have been indebted, directly or indirectly, for much of the 

 culture that we now enjoy. The civilisations of these regions are 

 infinitely more complex, and, as is always the case in civilised areas, 

 the people are not homogeneous, but are divided into numerous sections, 

 differing in language, religion, and social customs. In these i^egions 

 we meet with anthropological problems of infinite difficulty and com- 

 plexity, on the solution of which depends the peace and well-being of 

 the population. And yet our representatives go to take up their duties 

 in these lands with little or no previous training, and it is only a marvel 

 that errors of tact, due to ignorance, are not more common. 



In these civilised regions race consciousness has been growing fast 

 during the last half -century, and errors of tact and manners, which 

 were submitted to in former times, though not with a good grace, are 

 now actively resented, and the old methods of government are dis- 

 credited. It may not yet be too late to remedy this evil, if no time is 

 lost in giving a full anthropological training to those who are sent to 

 administer these regions. 



But we are not only an Imperial people, governing and administer- 

 ing these regions with alien populations ; we are also a wandering and 

 adventurous people. The nomadic spirit of our ancestors is still alive 

 within us; our ships, like those of the Vikings of old, are to be seen 

 in every sea. So it comes that our people, whether travelling for 

 pleasure or for purposes of trade, or serving in the Army or Navy, 

 will be found in all lands and all climates from the Arctic circle to the 

 Equator. 



All these wandering Britons come in contact with the inhabitants 

 of the lands they visit, creating various impressions, sometimes good, 

 more often bad. Had they a fuller knowledge of the customs and 

 opinions of the people they visit, or even a truer appreciation of the 

 fact that diverse customs and opinions exist and should be respected, 

 we should not have to record the creation of so many bad impressions. 

 Luckily our people, as a rule, have much common sense, and often a 

 desire to please, so this trouble is thus to some extent mitigated; but 

 the difficulties that have arisen and are constantly arising from ignor- 

 ance of the ways of others, from too insular an outlook, in fact, from a 

 lack of appreciation of the anthropological standpoint, are making us 

 and our eovcrnment heartily disliked in nearly every quarter ol the 

 globe. It is to remedy these difficulties, and the danger to the peace of 

 the world which is threatened thereby, that T would advocate an 

 increased study of anthropology by all sections of the community. 

 Herein lies one of the chief means by which our science may become 

 utile to mankind. 



