COLOUR AND EQUALITY
RACIAL PROBLEMS OF THE WORLD. Sir Frederick Eugard, a distinguished colonial administrator, who has to. his credit important pioneering experiments in the government of native races, analyses the racial problem in the April number of tiie "Journal of Philosophical Studies." He begins by pointing out that colour itself is no guide to racial demarcation. Tho problem is one into which sentiment again lias many origins, being traceable partly to the desire of races enjoying social and political ascendancy to preserve their status. Is the colour prejudice intuitive or acquired ?" he asks. And it is a natural law tending to restrict miscegenation between races of opposite types, which Mr Lothro,p Stoddart tells us are incapable of amicable fusion, and give rise in Mr. Dubois's phrase to 'warring heredities?' Does it operate between the coloured races themselves, as, for instance, between Chinese and Indians and the negro l-ace, or between the yellow and .brown races?" There is no accurate and reliable evidence, ho thinks, on any of these points, and any opinion given will arise simply out of the varying personal experience of private individuals. Colour prejudice is largely a matter of personal eccentricity. Generally speaking, "intcr-marriage needs no legislative restriction; it is repugnant to individual instincts." But the social barrier is no necessary bar, Sir Frederick thinks, to mutual sympathy, understanding and goodwill.
Dr. Morris Ginsberg, whose paper on the same subject follows that of Sir Francis Lugard, concludes that there is no biological and psychological evidence to warrant a belief in the natural and permanent superiority of the white race. Intelligence tests do certainly show a marked superiority in favour of the whites, but mental development cannot ,bo isolated from the very wide differences in early training and opportunity open to the two races. In seeking for a formula governing the exploitation of the resources of the uncivilised lands, Dr. Ginsberg thinks that anw thought of inferiority and superiority must bo laid aside. The original owners have claim to such resources as they can use for their own development. In the interests of humanity the more competent intruders may claim these resources, which are essential to their particular skill—their particular inventions and organisations.
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Shannon News, 7 September 1926, Page 4
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366COLOUR AND EQUALITY Shannon News, 7 September 1926, Page 4
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