nts of contact
between the Asian town and the European city which has been superimposed
upon it. The missionary, the Salvation Army outpost, perhaps the
curiosity-hunting tourist, may go forth into the bazaars; but the
European community as a whole cares no more for the swarming brown
multitudes around it than the dwellers on an island care for the fishes
in the circumambient sea."[103] And what is true of the great towns
holds good for scores of provincial centres, "stations," and
cantonments. The scale may be smaller, but the type is the same.

The European in the Orient is thus everywhere profoundly an alien,
living apart from the native life. And the European is not merely an
aloof alien; he is a ruling alien as well. Always his attitude is that
of the superior, the master. This attitude is not due to brutality or
snobbery; it is inherent in the very essence of the situation. Of course
many Europeans have bad manners, but that does not change the basic
reality of the case. And this reality is that, whatever the future may
bring, the European first established himself in the Orient because the
West was then infinitely ahead of the East; and he is still there to-day
because, despite all recent changes, the East is still behind the West.
Therefore the European in the Orient is still the ruler, and so long as
he stays there _must_ continue to rule--justly, temperately, with
politic regard for Eastern progress and liberal devolution of power as
the East becomes ripe for its liberal exercise--but, nevertheless,
_rule_. Wherever the Occidental has established his political control,
there are but two alternatives: govern or go. Furthermore, in his
governing, the Occidental must rule according to his own lights; despite
all concessions to local feeling, he must, in the last analysis, act as
a Western, not as an Eastern, ruler. Lord Cromer voices the heart of all
true colonial government when he says: "In governing Oriental races the
first thought must be what is good for them, but not necessarily what
they think is good for them."[104]

Now all this is inevitable, and should be self-evident. Nevertheless,
the fact remains that even the most enlightened Oriental can hardly
regard it as other than a bitter though salutary medicine, while most
Orientals feel it to be humiliating or intolerable. The very virtues of
the European are prime causes of his unpopularity. For, as Meredith
Townsend well says: "The European is, in Asia,