4 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY

is not altered that African labour had through many

ages of the world's history a very high marketable value. That this labour still exists, that it is native to an im-

mense area of the tropical colonies, and that it will rapidly increase in volume under the conditions of peace and security introduced by British administration, are factors of great importance in considering the possible development of the resources of these colonies. To construct a bridge between the old system of civilisation and the new, by finding means to organise as free labour the labour which preceding generations could only use enslaved, would be to lead the way in a very sensible advance beyond the first and necessary step of the aboli- ^ tion of slavery.

In speaking of ancient civilisations, I have not men-

tioned the ancient civilisations of the Far East, where in-

dustry is believed to have been first carried to the highest pitch. The industries of the Far East were supplied with other than African labour. From the earliest times

the Chinese have been famed for manual dexterity, and

Eastern industries have been based upon yellow labour. Yellow labour was carried to a far higher degree of perfection than black labour ever seems to have attained, and yellow labour has never been thrown out of employ-

ment. The products of its industries were always largely imported by the nations which owned black slaves. It retains to-day the dexterity for which it was famous in the period of the Pharaohs. But the kingdoms of the East having risen earlier to a condition of cohesion in which they were able to protect their subjects, and having also from a very early period maintained the policy of exclusion practised by Egypt in its greatest days, yellow labour has never been used to supply the slave-markets of the West. Western communities have felt the same repugnance to the employment of free Chinese labour that they felt to the employment of free African labour, and we have had to wait for the present conjunction of events in order to see yellow labour.