New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-05

troll, there would be the destructive march
OF disease which has SO often swept over
ASIA and Europe in the past ages By our
hold on Egypt, and now on Arabia, we have
put a check on the fertile hotbed of infec-
ton at the Mecca pilgrimage. The powerful
Gordon and quarantine between Mecca and
the West has been the warden of Europe:
and the supply of Muslin doctors and SAM
tarians to the pilgrims at Mecca has fairly
taken that danger in hand since we super
seeded the Turks in control
another legitimate reason for tutelagc
Is the prevention of worse things happen
ing No nation can look unmoved on being
excluded from free intercourse and trade
with others. So far every other nation
than the British has followed a policy of
more or less exclusion from it's dominions
II the only way in which we can prevent
walls rising around is by putting our
own loot down on the ground and keeping
1T there, while we do not exclude Others we
are simply acting as an agent for general
trade. What benefits us likewise benefits
our pupils, as occupation by other nations
would mean that the natives would have to
pay far more for all imports. Such are the
more selfish reasons for tutelage, which
nevertheless seem justifable
I'VE must also take into account the ne
cessties of the pupils, and how thew are
met. First, there is the great risk of in
vasion. Nothing but the British occupation
prevented the Mahdi from desolating Egypt
down to the as badly as he desolated
his own land; nothing else has prevented
the Turk from reducing Egypt to plumber
Can we suppose that the vigorous fighters
OF Central Asia would have left India uu-
plundered, under whatever nation thew
might have been led if we had not been in
possession? The pax Britannica does not
go with desolation but with & more flourish
ing state than each land has known before.
Another difficulty is the protection of i'm
provldent races from usury and extorton
The rebellion OF Arabia against the Khedjye
IN Egypt was mainly fed by the usury and
legal appropriations of South European
squatters. One of the tasks of British adj
mlnlstratlon has been to check this by land
banks and by the law which renders five
acres of land unmortgagabe. No debt can
deprive a man of land enough to live upon:
he may fool away his fortune, but he cam
not be left without means of support. This
difficulty Of improvident peoples has been
the curse of many lands, and is. no doubt
the basis of the anti-Semitism of Eastern
Europe. 1t has never been met so bene-
fcially as in Egypt.
another function Of tutelage is in the
prevention Of internal disorder and an
archy In Egypt the skilful Coptic minority
is overcome by the Muslin majority. The
protection of this minority from persecu.
ton is duty to the welfare of the country
linn burns in the foulest invectiye in news
papers, and it is we'll known that massacre
of Copts was planned just before the Brit
lsh occupation. In India it is only the force
OF neutral power which keeps the peace.
olstrlct magistrate heard from a runner,
who rushed in afternoon, that the old
fcud over cow-killing had broken out. and
that Hindu and Muslin were at each others
throats forty miles away. He called ont
his guard, rode ali night, and nabbed the
combatants in their beds before dawn
Swift justice saved what would otherwise
have expanded into local war. Such ia
the benefit to all parties which results from
an impartial and active administration.
The great struggle of Western admins
traitors, however, is in reducing the corrunt
tyranny of native officials In some conn
tries anything is better than purely native
administration. In India, the native is such
an adept at false witness that it takes much
astuteness to unravel it; and one vounp
magistrate attained great popularity BY
simply giving his judgments by pure chance
lot. He was actually as often against the
rich as for them, and he was very much
liked because no influences could sway him