similar to that initiated by the late Lord Salisbury for dealing with immigrant coolies from India.  By an Order in Council dated October 17, 1912, it has been provided that repatriated “servicaes” should receive a grant of land and should be set up, free of charge, with agricultural implements and seeds.  This is certainly a step in the right direction.  It is as yet too early to say how far the plan will succeed, but if it is honestly carried out it ought to go far towards solving the repatriation question.  Mr. Smallbones would appear justified in claiming that it “should be given a fair trial before more heroic measures are applied.”  The repatriation fund, which appears, to say the least, to have been very badly administered, ought, without difficulty, to be able to meet the expenses which the adoption of this plan will entail.

[Footnote 105:  Mr. E.W.  Brooks subsequently wrote to The Spectator to explain that “the letter in question was in no sense an official letter from the Society of Friends.  It was the product of one small meeting of that body, which appears to have been misinformed by one or more of its members, and was in no sense a letter from the Society of Friends, which, on the subject of Portuguese Slavery, is officially represented by its Anti-Slavery Committee, of which he is himself the Honorary Secretary.”]

XXV

ENGLAND AND ISLAM

"The Spectator,” August 23, 1913

Amidst the many important remarks made by Sir Edward Grey in his recent Parliamentary statement on the affairs of the Balkan Peninsula, none deserve greater attention than those which dealt with the duties and responsibilities of England towards Mohammedans in general.  It was, indeed, high time that some clear and authoritative declaration of principle on this important subject should be made by a Minister of the Crown.  We are constantly being reminded that King George V. is the greatest Mohammedan ruler in the world, that some seventy millions of his subjects in India are Moslems, and that the inhabitants of Egypt are also, for the most part, followers of the Prophet of Arabia.  It is not infrequently maintained that it is a duty incumbent on Great Britain to defend the interests and to secure the welfare of Moslems all over the world because a very large number of their co-religionists are British subjects and reside in British territory.  It is not at all surprising that this claim should be advanced, but it is manifestly one which cannot be admitted without very great and important qualifications.  Moreover, it is one which, from a European point of view, represents a somewhat belated order of ideas.  It is true that community of religion constitutes the main bond of union between Russia and the population of the Balkan Peninsula, but apart from the fact that no such community of religious thought exists between Christian England and Moslem or Hindu India, it is to be noted that,