470 
AFRICAN EXPERIENCES 
I thank you heartily for myself. I thank you still more 
because I know that what you have done is to be taken 
primarily as a sign of the respect and friendly goodwill 
which more and more, as time goes by, tends to knit 
the English-speaking peoples. 
I shall not try to make you any extended address of 
mere thanks, still less of mere eulogy. I prefer to 
speak, and I know you would prefer to have me speak, 
on matters of real concern to you, as to which I happen 
at this moment to possess some first-hand knowledge ; 
for recently I traversed certain portions of the British 
Empire under conditions which made me intimately 
cognizant of their circumstances and needs. I have 
just spent nearly a year in Africa. While there I saw 
four British protectorates. I grew heartily to respect 
the men whom I there met—settlers and military and 
civil officials—and it seems to me that the best service 
I can render them and you is very briefly to tell you 
how I was impressed by some of the things that I saw. 
Your men in Africa are doing a great work for your 
Empire, and they are also doing a great work for 
civilization. This fact and my sympathy for and belief 
in them are my reasons for speaking. The people at 
home, whether in Europe or in America, who live 
softly often fail fully to realize what is being done 
for them by the men who are actually engaged in the 
pioneer work of civilization abroad. Of course, in any 
mass of men there are sure to be some who are weak 
or unworthy, and even those who are good are sure to 
make occasional mistakes—that is as true of pioneers as 
of other men. N evertheless, the great fact in world 
history during the last century has been the spread 
of civilization over the world’s waste spaces. The work 
is still going on ; and the soldiers, the settlers, and the 
