Alcohol and Primitive Races.*

Secretary of theUnited Committee for the Prevention of the Demoralization of Native Races by the Liquor Traffic. INTRODUCTORY.THERE are certain features which are, unhappily, common to the intercourse of the white man with the coloured races in all quarters of the globe.The white man generally thinks first of his own interest, profit, and pleasure, and only in a secondary sense, if at all, of the welfare of the natives with whom he comes into contact.Too frequently the history of this intercourse is a history of exploitation down to decimation.The white man's vices have, it is to be feared, destroyed more lives than even his firearms.This represents a double offence: it is an offence against our common humanity, and it is injurious to trade; for either to decimate or to cripple destroys both actual and potential customers for the white man's goods.Such a policy pays in the present at the cost of the.absolute loss of the future.It would need a treatise to discuss this subject in all its bearings, and it is possible only to touch upon the more outstanding features in a brief paper of this kind.My object is to inquire into the extent and consequences of the introduction of European distilled spirits amongst primitive peoples, as shown chiefly during