Page:The league of nations and primitive peoples (IA leagueofnationsp00oliviala).pdf/11

 rational or humane principle or purpose, or with any genuine consideration or guarantee of the rights or lives of the natives: it was. as between the partitioning Powers, a hurried scuffle of blackmailings, bluffings, and bargainings, incidentally provoked by the enterprises of De Brazza and Stanley, by gold discoveries and by other advertisements of potential sources of wealth, and precipitated by the sudden decision of Germany to create for herself a Colonial dominion by the same simple methods of seizure as had been the foundation of some of the earlier Empires. The apprehensions of England as to the threatened developments of this policy, the assertion of shadowy traditional claims to vast realms by Portugal, competing activities by France, and international jealousies as to the future of the great interior territories intensified the fever of annexationism; and what resulted was, in fact, an emergency settlement very vicious in important respects and heavily fraught with factors of future trouble.

England had, for some time previous to this outbreak! been justly entitled to claim the best record for humanity and intelligent liberalism in dealing with African natives, and had, in fact, acquired a reputation as the champion of liberty and justice; because, under the impulse of a religious revival that quickened her conscience, combined with the democratic inspiration that produced the political revolutions of the period, she took the lead in abolishing slavery and suppressing the slave-trade.

But if England's record was in this degree good,