340 Extracts from Addresses
implies, between the British and the German natures, was the cause of
the unstinted loyalty that sprung up even in the most obscure and remote
parts of the British Commonwealth, and had no little part in the defeat
of the German Empire.
You mentioned one of my sons to-day in your kindness. He happens
to be a member of the splendid body of empire builders in “The Indian
Civil Service.” Before the war he was assistant commissioner in charge
of a large district in Burma—far up the Irrawaddy. As usual, in his
dealings with the people he made use of their own system, which is patri-
archal. And, soon after the beginning of the war, the patriarch re-
sponsible for a wide and hilly region, rarely visited by any British com-
missioner, had come down to report on the state of his “dominion”—
its roads, its villages, their lighting, their defence, the health of the
people, the amount of crime, and to pay the taxes and receive such help
as was required and could be given. The business of State, to use grand
terms, being over, the old man and the assistant commissioner sat and
chatted. “Is it true, ‘thakin’” (the Burmese for “Sahib”), said the old
man, “that our King is having trouble with some German dacoits?”
“Quite true!” was the reply. “Well,” said the old man, “I have five
guns in my district and I can put a dead shot behind every one of these
guns ; and I shall be delighted to lend them to King George.” The guns,
as my boy said, would carry about fifty yards, with a double charge of
powder, and they were as dangerous at one end as they were at the other.
(For civilized business men are not civilized enough not to cheat primi-
tive people.) But if the range of the guns was very short, and the num-
ber of gunners was but five, there was a loyalty there, in that remote
district up the Irrawaddy River and amongst the hills of the border coun-
try, like the pulse-beat of a vast empire whose heart was sound, because
its spirit was just and generous.
Through the colleges and universities of America and their intercourse
with our own, the two nations will, I believe, be won more and more to
make the same just and generous spirit dominant throughout the world
for all time to come. Then, indeed, there shall be a lasting peace.