Colonial Agricultural Production

Abstract

THE history of emigration and settlement contains little which our own or any other colonizing State can contemplate with much satisfaction, when considered in relation to the native populations of the countries colonized. For long years the natives were at best sources of cheap labour for the enterprises initiated by the colonists, and it would be no exaggeration to say that any consideration for them, any recognition of their organisations and social institutions, or any feeling of responsibility for the improvement of their economic condition, are things of very recent growth. The idea of trusteeship for backward peoples, always present in our best administrators, was not generally recognized by British public opinion until well into the present century. Even to-day, it could not be said that the interests of those controlling the capital invested in plantation agriculture are always pursued with due regard for the native communities upon whom they depend, almost exclusively, for manual labour. The importance of the Colonies, however, in our national economy is even greater to-day than it was before the great changes in the commercial structure of the British Empire and its relations with other countries brought about by the War. The problem is how to develop their great latent resources in the interests alike of the Empire and of the native populations, and this, in the main, is the problem with which Sir Alan Pim deals in his new book, which is published under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

Colonial Agricultural Production

The Contribution made by Native Peasants and by Foreign Enterprise. By Sir Alan Pim. (Issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.) Pp. ix + 190. (London, New York and Toronto : Oxford University Press, 1946.) 10s. 6d. net.