panas, on one of the spurs of the Gedei, nearly six
thousand feet above the sea, he has a country house set in a great
English park. Wherever he is in residence he maintains a degree of
state scarcely inferior to that of the sovereign herself. The residents
are paid from five thousand dollars to nine thousand dollars according
to their grades, the assistant residents from three thousand five
hundred dollars to five thousand dollars, and the _controleurs_ from
one thousand eight hundred dollars to two thousand four hundred
dollars. Though officials are permitted leaves of absence only once in
ten years, those who complete twenty-five years' service in the
Insulinde may retire on half-pay. Even at such salaries, however, and
in a land where living is cheap as compared with Europe, it is almost
impossible for the officials to save money, for they are expected to
entertain lavishly and to live in a fashion which will impress the
natives, who would be quick to seize on any evidence of economy as a
sign of weakness.
Netherlands India is ruled by a dual system of administration--European
and native. By miracles of patience, tact, and diplomacy, the Dutch
have succeeded in building up in the Indies a gigantic colonial empire,
which, however, they could not hope to hold by force were there to be a
concerted rising of the natives. Realizing this, Holland--instead of
attempting to overawe the natives by a display of military strength, as
England has done in Egypt and India, and France in Algeria and
Morocco--has succeeded, by keeping the native princes on their thrones
and according them a shadowy suzerainty, in hoodwinking the ignorant
brown mass of the people into the belief that they are still governed
by their own rulers. Though at first the princes, as was to be
expected, bitterly resented the curtailment of their prerogatives and
powers, they decided that they might better remain on their thrones,
even though the powers remaining to them were merely nominal, and
accept the titles, honors and generous pensions which the Dutch offered
them, than to resist and be ruthlessly crushed. In pursuance of this
shrewd policy, every province in the Indies has as its nominal head a
native puppet ruler, known as a regent, usually a member of the house
which reigned in that particular territory before the white man came.
Though the regents are appointed, paid, and at need dismissed by the
government, and though they are obliged to accept
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