The establishment of the European licensing system away from the chief towns of the coast is, I consider, impossible for at least a generation—and undesirable if it were possible.
As an antidote to any dangers of over-indulgence in drink among the mass of the people which may exist, the spread of the Mohammedan religion is automatically the most effective, from the purely social standpoint; and this, not because of any special virtue attaching to Islam, but because Islam in West Africa has become an African religion which does not denationalize, and does not produce the social unhappiness which denationalization brings in its train.[16]
FOOTNOTES
[1] With the exception of the articles on Cotton, which appeared in the Manchester Guardian.
[2] Lord Scarborough, I am glad to know, is instituting a movement designed to put up a monument to Richard Lander and Mungo Park at Forcados, one of the mouths of the Niger. The suggestion that a monument should be erected to the memory of Richard Lander at the mouth of the Niger was made last year in the Times by the writer, who had the honour of reporting to Lord Scarborough upon various sites examined in the course of this year, and recommending Forcados as the most appropriate.
[3] The total value of the nett commercial trade of Southern Nigeria amounted to £9,288,000 in 1910, viz. imports £4,320,000, exports £4,968,000. Among the imports, cotton goods amounted to £1,306,812. Ten years ago the total import of the latter was only £605,146. The whole commercial movement has grown enormously in the last few years, the total nett turnover in 1907 amounting only to £6,974,000.
[5] In this connection Mr. Dennett’s paper in the September issue of the journal of the Colonial Institute is very valuable.
[7] February, 1911.