THE CONFLICT OF COLOUR e% W EALE /^A:?;. 1 ||^'"-;: 1 WJ^''-^%':'' 1 |^&4;^ " .n. " 1 1 . ;^. ' »-•.•'. -^ '" -, •^(:-~-,. ' t-/ ^, ' 1 4;' 1 "'.•', " H _:i \ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE CONFLICT OF COLOUR THE MACMILLAN COMPANY MEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO THE CONFLICT OF COLOUR The Threatened Upheaval throughout the World BY B. L. PUTNAM WEALE AUTHOR OF MANCHU AND MUSCOVITE; THE RESHAPING OF THE FAR EAST; THE TRUCE IN THE EAST AND ITS AFTERMATH ; THE COMING STRUGGLE IN EASTERN ASIA ; THE FORBIDDEN BOUNDARY; THE HUMAN COBWEB; ETC., ETC THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1910 jUI rights reserved Copyright, 1910, By B. LENOX SIMPSON. Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1910. J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mm*., U.S.A. College Libraiy HT 1521 56?lc. "Die Politik is keine Wissenschafc, wie viele der Herren Professoren sich einbilden, sondern eine Kunst." Bismarck^ speaking in the Reichstag on March 15, 1884. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/conflictofcolourOOwealiala PREFACE The writer submits these pages in the full con- sciousness that they do no more than touch on the fringe of a mighty subject. Yet because that subject — worid- politics and world-movements — has profoundly interested him since his earliest years, he ventures to hope that in these papers some guidance may be found to a general understanding of the growing Conflict of Colour throughout the world. The subject-matter has been cast in as popular a form as possible, so that it may be easily read — the more technical points being thrown into footnotes for purposes of reference. It is necessary to state that a considerable portion of these papers appeared in an abbreviated form in The World's Work in both England and America; and the writer's thanks are due to the proprietors of that journal for permission to republish his studies in their present dress. B. L. PUTNAM WEALE. Peking, China, June, 1910. Vll CONTENTS PACB General Introduction . • i CHAPTER I How Colour divides the World of To-day ... 85 CHAPTER II The Yellow World of Eastern Asia 122 CHAPTER III The Brown World of the Middle East and the Near East 184 CHAPTER IV The Black Problem 228 CHAPTER V General Conclusions 264 Appendix I. : The Chief Colonial Powers and their Possessions 321 Appendix II.: Density of Populations 331 Index 333 IX THE CONFLICT OF COLOUR GENERAL INTRODUCTION The task which the writer has set himself to perform in the pages that follow is at once definite and indefinite. In all matters where diligence of study and an ob- servance of facts has made it seem permissible, he has not hesitated to express himself in uncompromising terms and to draw his own very definite conclusions.^ * The historian Guizot (History of Civilization in France, Elev- enth Lecture) gives a singularly lucid analysis of the duties of the historical writer in the following words : — "Every epoch, every historical matter, if I may so speak, may be considered under three different points of view, and imposes a triple task upon the historian. He can, nay, he should, first seek the facts themselves; collect and bring to light, without any aim than that of exactitude, all that has happened. The facts once re- covered, it is necessary to know the laws that have governed them; how they were connected; what causes have brought about those incidents which are the life of society, and propel it, by certain ways, towards certain ends. "I wish to mark with clearness and precision the difference of the two studies. Facts, properly so called, external and visible events, are the body of history; the members, bones, muscles, organs, and material elements of the past; their knowledge and description from what may be called historical anatomy. But for society, as for the individual, anatomy is not the only science. Not only do facts sub- sist, but they are connected with one another; they succeed each B X 2 THE CONFLICT OF COLOUR But since in geo-politics there exists such a large num- ber of imponderables — factors which, though they are not susceptible of accurate classification and estima- tion, are often more weighty than aught else — in many parts of this detailed enquiry it has been necessary for him to take refuge in generalities and to evade direct deductions. This is perhaps equivalent to confessing that nothing final or decisive can be said about the very matters which are just the most interesting, and regarding which people must always be most curious. Yet though this serious limitation may be admitted as in some degree true, so clear has the conviction become in the writer's mind — after an exhaustive study in one great quarter of the globe — that certain forces are being inevitably ranged against one another as they have never been before, that he ventures to believe that a general consideration — no matter how imperfect it may be — of a subject which most intimately concerns every member of the human race, will be of very wide- spread interest. To the white races in the lands of the coloured peoples, the twentieth century, unlike all its predecessors, can only prove a century of retroaction and redemise; and it is from this point of view that the whole vast question of the conflict of colour will be considered. Though any orientation of politics based on a foregone conclusion is necessarily faulty, it is at least possible, by adopting this method, to avoid that distressing ambiguousness which, because it touches other, and are engendered by the action of certain forces, which act under the empire of certain laws. There is, in a word, an organ- isation and a life of societies, as well as of the individual. This organisation has also its science, the science of the secret laws which preside over the course of events. This is the physiology of history." GENERAL INTRODUCTION 3 on all matters in strictly qualified language, not only fails to give real guidance but actually tends to increase doubt and confusion. The time has come when facts should be boldly met — when men should understand that the world, with all its inherited wisdom, is admit- tedly bewildered by being brought face to face once more with the oldest of problems — the conflict between East and West. The first and main reason for this new state of affairs must be sought for solely in that vast double movement which some too confidently believe heralds the days when men will be inclined to compose their differences peacefully rather than resort to the arbitrament of war. This double movement is simply the modern growth of populations and the modern growth of real knowledge, as opposed to the old knowledge, which was so largely based on tradition and superstition and was therefore so false and so misleading; and because this movement is now so universal, it escapes the close study and attention it surely deserves. The growth of modern populations is alone porten- tous: it is not only marvellous to the statistician, but it actually means that density of population will in future decide to an ever greater extent the grand move- ments in world-politics.' Yet to-day, perhaps because * The writer is, of course, aware that there is an element of weakness in this argument, since it follows that if density of population is soon to become the determining factor in political evolution — a point which he himself constantly insists upon — nations which are standing still, such as France, Spain and Portugal, must sooner or later submit openly to the influence of others, who will pour in their men. This will mean war — not necessarily unsuccessful to the numerically weaker nations. But to put the matter differently and to use a useful simile, Europe 4 THE CONFLICT OF COLOUR they are a little weary, people are far more apt to dwell with melancholy on the solitary instance of a Euro- pean State which seems to have reached the station- ary condition — France ^ — than to reflect on the marvel may be compared to an unequal terrain on which water is steadily collecting in certain places to a greater and greater extent. An overspill is bound to occur on to the higher barren places when the level reaches a certain altitude. The greatest density of population in any European country is to-day about 600 to the square mile, in Belgium, and Belgians are already spilling into France. When Germany reaches that density a similar movement will possibly commence; and though Spain and Portugal are effectively isolated by mountain-ranges, it cannot be doubted that unless they arise from their torpor, their future is sealed. Thus we may really see one day a new infiltration of Germanic peoples over Latin Europe (with the exception of Italy), for it is impossible for populations to attain a density of 2,000 or even 1,000 to the square mile without overspilling on to more empty lands. But all this belongs to a political future too distant to be considered in any practical way to-day. A fresh mixture of Teutonic with Latin blood may cause a repetition of the history of fifteen centuries ago. * Alison, in his History of Europe, written more than half a century ago, has the following informing footnote on this pregnant question of French population (Vol. L, p. 119): — "Now, to show the capability of the soil of a country of this description to maintain an increase of inhabitants, let us consider merely what may be raised from 40,000,000 of arable acres, little more than one half of its arable ground, and considerably less than a third of its total superficies.