The name is absent

A League of Learning        291

will be acknowledged—even by Germany and even now—to
have more political genius than any other European nation.
That political genius which you have, too, turns back and
has its very simple roots in a keen sense of “fair play,” as
we call it. It manifests itself in the Englishman’s games,
and even in a street fight. “Give the little chap his chance,”
you may hear the Cockney cry, and you like him for it. It
is a consequence of this spirit that in our political dealings
with native populations we have persistently, and on the
whole consistently, been faithful to the notion that the best
thing we can do, even for ourselves, is to govern for their
sakes. Government for the people is worth having even
when it cannot be, as yet, government by the people. Had
the commercial dealings of our “business men” been as clean
as the political dealings of our civil servants, I could be end-
lessly proud of my country’s history. But the stain of the
sharp business man’s intercourse with crude natives is deep
and nauseous. We are trying as a political people to edu-
cate India and all our other dependencies into self-govern-
ment. We want them to walk freely on their way to their
highest good as soon as they can do so. We are likewise
free from all selfish ambitions in regard to the war. We
went into the war as clean in spirit as yourselves; and I do
not know that it is possible to say more. We want also, as
you do yourselves, to come out of it with clean hands. If
we have to be still in future responsible for a wide empire,
as no doubt we shall be, and if we have to guide and guard
lower forms of civilization than our own, we will try in the
future, as in the past, to govern for the sake of the governed.
Whatever promise of growth their ruder civilization offers,
we want to make the most of it. We desire to make the best
use of all the good that lies in their simple customs, their
quaint traditions, and their religion, rather than supplant

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