Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/247

 or Orang Goonoong stands farther removed from the real Javanese than an Englishman from a Dutchman. Such differences often lead to lack of unanimity in judging of Indian affairs. For when Java alone is already so sharply divided into two dissimilar parts, without counting the many subdivisions of the main groups, one may get some idea of the wide distinction between tribes that live farther apart and are divided by the sea. He that only knows Netherlands India as Java can no more have a conception of the Malay, the Amboinese, the Battah, the Alfoor, the Timorese, the Dayak, the Booghie, or the Macassar than if he had never left Europe; and to anyone who has had opportunities of observing the differences between these races it is often amusing to hear the conversations, comical and disheartening at the same time to read the speeches, of persons who obtained their knowledge of Indian affairs at Batavia or Buitenzorg. Often have I been amazed at the courage with which, for instance, an ex-Governor-General in Parliament tried to give importance to his words by a pretended claim to local knowledge and experience. I attach a high value to science obtained by serious study in the library, and I have more than once been astonished at the extensive knowledge of Indian affairs exhibited by some people who never set foot on Indian soil. As soon as an ex-Governor-General gives evidence of having acquired such knowledge in manner, we owe him the respect due to long, conscientious, and productive labour. We owe him greater respect even than to the student who has had to conquer fewer difficulties because, at a great distance immediate contact, he has run less risk of falling into the errors that result from a  contact such as must inevitably have come to an ex-Governor-General.

I said I was amazed at the courage displayed by some persons during the discussions of Indian affairs. For they know that their words are heard by others besides those who imagine that a couple of years spent at Buitenzorg are a sufficient qualification to know India. It must be known to them that those words are also read by