SIR JOHN KIRK AT HOME. 
23 
in these Zangian regions I need not dilate, as they are 
questions involving political feelings of some acerbity 
at the present time, and would therefore be out of place 
in this book. But I might further recall to my readers 
that it is to the personal exertions of the British Agent 
and Consul-General that Zanzibar owes its line of tele¬ 
graph, its mail service, its hospital, its observatory, its 
standing army (officered 
and commanded by Eng¬ 
lishmen),its horticultural 
development, its pro¬ 
jected sanitary reform, 
and possibly also the 
scarcely less precious 
introductions of lawn- 
tennis and afternoon tea. 
The British Agency 
and Consulate-General 
in the town of Zanzibar 
is a handsome Arab 
house standing towards 
the southern end of the 
city, and just overhang- 4 - 
illg the sea, which at Small MtSpe and Outrigger Canoe. 
high tide lashes its protecting wall. The style of 
exterior and interior is purely Arab, or, to use a more 
while ardently admiring all British officials who have hut one single- 
minded purpose, viz. that of straining every effort to secure peculiar 
advantages for the power and commerce of their own country, I 
am hypocritical enough to think it immoral and unjust when the 
same object is held in view by the servants of foreign powers— 
France, Russia, Germany, and the like. From their point of view 
they are acting quite rightly and deserve every credit from their 
fellow-countrymen for their determined efforts to thwart our healthy 
appetite, which must seem like greediness to them. Every one for 
himself. Self-denial only creates selfishness. 
