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VII. SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE FOREST 
existence round the settlements of the whites a zone 
which is uninhabited. Then the compulsion has to 
be applied in another way. The natives are forbidden 
to move their villages, and those at a distance are 
ordered to come near the white settlements, or to move 
to specified points on the caravan routes or on the 
river. This must be done, but it is tragic that it should 
be necessary, and the authorities have to take care that 
no change is enforced beyond what is really needful. 
In the Cameroons the forest has been pierced with a 
network of roads, which are kept in splendid condition 
and are the admiration of all visitors from other 
colonies. But has not this great achievement been 
brought about at the cost of the native population and 
their vital interests ? One is forced to ask questions 
when things have gone so far that women are impressed 
for the maintenance of the roads. It is impossible to 
acquiesce when, as is often the case, the colony itself 
prospers, while the native population diminishes year 
by year. Then the present is living at the expense of 
the future, and the obvious fatal result is only a question 
of time. The maintenance of the native population 
must be the first object of any sound colonial policy. 
* 
Hi 
Close on the problem of labour comes that of the 
educated native. Taken by itself, a thorough school 
education is, in my opinion, by no means necessary 
for these primitive peoples. The beginning of civilisa- 
tion with them is not knowledge, but industry and 
agriculture, through which alone can be secured the 
economic conditions of higher civilisation. But both 
Government and trade require natives with extensive 
