Papers on Inter-racial Problems: Communicated to the First Universal Races ...

will be found written by an eminent person belonging to it. Thus the Occidental reader of this volume has the unprecedented opportunity of learning what Oriental scholars think of the contact of races. It is to be hoped that at the Second Universal Races Congress a much larger number of the general and scientific papers will come from Oriental

sources.

The particular opinions expressed by the writers in this volume are personal, and do not in any way commit the members of the Congress. The organisers adhere to their original statement that "whilst wholly sympathetic towards all far-sighted measures calculated to strengthen and promote good relations, the Congress is pledged to no political party and to no particular scheme of reforms." To this should be added, in order to prevent possible misunderstandings, that the contributors speak in their individual capacity, and not as official representatives. These necessary limitations, however, do not detract from the significance and importance of the contributions embodied in this volume.

The Executive Council takes this opportunity of expressing its deep gratitude to the many writers of papers who have contributed to the value and success of the Congress by putting at its disposal their rich stores of knowledge and experience. It desires also to acknowledge the valuable services rendered by the translators, Mrs. Boyce Gibson and Mr. Joseph McCabe. And, last but not least, the Executive cannot forbear tendering its sincerest thanks to the Senate of the University of London for having generously granted the free use of halls and rooms for the meetings of the Congress.

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INTRODUCTION

To those who regard the furtherance of International Good Will and Peace as the highest of all human interests, the occasion of the First Universal Races Congress opens a vista of almost boundless promise.

No impartial student of history can deny that in the case of nearly all recorded wars, whatever the ostensible reasons assigned, the underlying cause of conflict has been the existence of race antipathies-using the word race in its broad and popular acceptation-which particular circumstances, often in themselves of trivial moment, have fanned into flame.

In the earliest times it took the form of one race attempting to subjugate and indeed enslave another; but even in modern wars, while questions of frontier, the ambitions of rulers, or the rivalries of commercial policies, may have provoked the actual crisis, it will be found, in almost every instance, that the pre-existence of social and racial enmity has in reality determined the breach which particular incidents had merely precipitated.

As civilisation progresses and the Western world more fully recognises its ethical responsibilities, it may be hoped that such influences will become an ever-diminishing force; but the modern conscience has to-day, in addition, other and quite new problems to solve in face of the startling and sudden appearance of new factors in the Eastern Hemisphere.

In less than twenty years we have witnessed the most remarkable awakening of nations long regarded as sunk in such depths of somnolence as to be only interesting

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to the Western world because they presented a wide and prolific field for commercial rivalries, often greedy, cruel, and fraught with bloodshed in their prosecution, but which otherwise were an almost negligible quantity in international

concerns.

How great is the change in the life-time of a single generation, when, to select two instances alone, we contemplate the most remarkable rise of the power of the Empire of Japan, the precursor, it would seem, of a similar revival of the activities and highly developed qualities of the population of the great Empire of China!

Nearer and nearer we see approaching the day when the vast populations of the East will assert their claim to meet on terms of equality the nations of the West, when the free institutions and the organised forces of the one hemisphere will have their counterbalance in the other, when their mental outlook and their social aims will be in principle identical; when, in short, the colour prejudice will have vanished and the so-called white races and the so-called coloured races shall no longer merely meet in the glowing periods of missionary exposition, but, in very fact, regard one another as in truth men and brothers.

Are we ready for this change? Have we duly considered all that it signifies, and have we tutored our minds and shaped our policy with a view of successfully meeting the coming flood? It is in order to discuss this question of such supreme importance that the First Universal Races Congress is being held. The papers, so varied in their scope and treatment, which have been communicated by individuals of eminence from many distant lands, will testify to the worldwide interest which the examination of these grave problems has aroused, the wise handling of which would remove dangers and possible causes of strife which, but for skilled guidance, might conceivably convulse mankind.

WEARDALE.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

CIRCULARS ISSUED BY THE CONGRESS EXECUTIVE . xiii

OFFICERS, EXECUTIVE, HON. VICE-PRESIDENTS, AND

HON. GENERAL COMMITTEE.