RACE PREJUDICE IN THE FAR EAST 



979 



invitation to Windsor. When he goes 

 back home he may enter no white man's 

 club; if he be fortunate enough to be in- 

 vited to a white man's function, no white 

 woman will dance or associate with him, 

 and if by any luck he should marry a 

 European, he, his wife, and his children 

 become outcasts. 



Although native troops, like the Sikhs, 

 have shown undying loyalty to the Brit- 

 ish flag, and on frequent occasions have 

 exhibited courage in the highest degree, 

 no one of them ever has or ever can 

 achieve the Victoria Cross. 



I have no thought, in saying this, of 

 criticising British rule in India. I do 

 not question that it has been of enor- 

 mous benefit. Neither do I doubt that 

 under the administration of Lord Mor- 

 ley there is the most sincere desire to do 

 all for India that the cause of humanity 

 or Christianity may dictate. And I am 

 also quite ready to say that the problem 

 is a difificult one ; that "the white man's 

 burden" is one not easy to bear. I know 

 that attempts to do justice are often mis- 

 understood by the natives, are construed 

 as evidence of fear. I know that the 

 Bengalis, who are responsible for most 

 of the unrest in India, are a silly lot, 

 whose lives and property would not be 

 worth a groat were British protection 

 withdrawn. I know that the beneficent 

 British supremacy has been made possi- 

 ble only by the religious divisions among 

 the natives. But this is all the more rea- 

 son why the greatest care should be ex- 

 ercised not alone in India, but through- 

 out Asia, why the line of cleavage should 

 not be permitted to pass from a religious 

 to a racial one, and the danger that it 

 may do so grows with every hour. 



Oil the one hand, there is a very per- 

 ceptible loosening of the bonds of re- 

 ligious caste; not infrequently today 

 high-class Brahmins not only shake 

 hands witli Moslems and Christians, but 

 even sit at table and eat meat with them. 

 On the other hand, there was startling 

 evidence during the recent war of the 

 secret racial tie that binds all Asia. We 

 are accustomed to think and speak of 



India as a British possession, forgetting 

 that after all only five-eighths of its area 

 is British, while there are over 600 na- 

 tive princes and chiefs, each governing a 

 state, which is more or less independent. 

 Some of these princes are enormously 

 wealthy. So far as they have any re- 

 ligious bent, they are Hindu, or Mah- 

 ratta, and in this respect not at all at one 

 with the Japanese, who are either Shinto 

 or Buddhist. Yet while the war was on, 

 it was not uncommon for a rich Maha- 

 raja to call at Government House and 

 ask if it would be regarded as an un- 

 friendly act for him to buy Japanese 

 bonds. Of course, the viceroy was 

 forced to say it would not, since Britain 

 and Japan were in treaty alliance. Of 

 course, these investments were made 

 through London banks, and the extent 

 of the transactions will never be known. 

 We do know, however, that there was 

 a mysterious absorption of Japanese 

 securities, which never could be ac- 

 counted for by either the London finan- 

 ciers or our own. 



What I feel is that the danger of 

 Asiatic ethnic solidarity is immensely ac- 

 centuated by the attitude of certain of 

 the British themselves. It goes without 

 saying that the younger son of a British 

 nobleman, who does not succeed to his 

 father's estate and does not go into trade, 

 but who finds the only outlet for his 

 activities in the army or navy, the 

 church, or in the Indian civil service, be- 

 comes far more of a snob, and therefore 

 far more of a danger when dealing with 

 natives in Asia than he would be per- 

 mitted to be at home in England. And 

 the harm that one such person can do it 

 may take an army to undo. 



I have spoken thus freely respecting 

 the conditions in India because I feel at 

 liberty to do so, since my mother was 

 born under the British flag, and I have a 

 very large number of relatives in the 

 British army, navy, and church. But I 

 should be wholly lacking in fairness if I 

 did not ask your attention to similar 

 cases of race prejudice in which we are 



