Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/15

 The late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, recent British Prime Minister, once gave vent to the aphorism that "good government can never be a satisfactory substitute for self-government." That may or may not be true; but the Malays, be it remembered, never possessed "self-government." The rule of their râjas and chiefs was one of the most absolute and cynical autocracies that the mind of man has conceived; and the people living under it were mercilessly exploited, and possessed no rights either of person or of property. To their case, therefore, the phrase quoted above has only the most remote and academical application; but no words or sentiments, no matter how generous or beautiful, would avail to staunch the blood which I saw flow, or to dry the tears which I saw shed in Pahang when I lived in that native state under its own administration.

If, then, my stories move you at all, and if they inspire in you any measure of pity or of desire to see the weak protected and their wrongs avenged, you may judge how passionate was the determination to make the recurrence of such things impossible whereby I and my fellow workers in Malaya were inspired. For we, alas, lived in the midst of the happenings of which you only read.

Government House, The Gold Coast, British West Africa.