CHAPTER XIII - THE CROWN COLONY SYSTEM

Summary

Wherein it is set down briefly why it is necessary to enter upon this discussion at all.

Now, you will say, Wherefore should the general public in England interest itself in this matter? Surely things are now governmentally administered in England's West African Colonies for the benefit of all parties concerned.

Well, that is just exactly and precisely what they are not. The system of Crown Colonies, when it is worked by Portuguese, does, at any rate, benefit some of the officials; but English officials are incapable of availing themselves of the opportunities this system offers them; and therefore, as this form of opportunity is the only benefit the thing can give any one, the sooner the Crown Colony system is removed from the sphere of practical politics and put under a glass case in the South Kensington Museum, labelled “Extinct,” the better for every one.

I beg you, before we go further in this matter, to look round the world calmly, and then, when you have allowed the natural burst of enthusiasm concerning the extent and the magnificence of the British Empire to pass, you will observe that in the more unhealthy regions England has failed. I say she has failed because of the Crown Colony system—failed with them even during days wherein she has had to face nothing like what she has to face to-day from the commercial competition of other nations.