It may be that I am entirely unfitted to deal at any great length with that most complicated, most difficult of all problems, the negro question. The problem is a matter which must be left to the consideration of statesmen who, guided by the experience of years of personal contact with black men, are entitled to be considered as experts. But the negro question is one which forces itself upon the notice of all people who visit any country where, numerically, the black man is predominant. The British West Indian islands each and all are at once both British Colonies and black man’s countries. Where black people are so pre-eminently strong, it is impossible for the white men, no matter what their race, to undertake the work of government unless by the express desire of the black men, or because of the crass ignorance and weakness of the negro race. How comes it that less than twenty thousand white men rule three quarters of a million coloured people in Jamaica? That is the question--pregnant with possibilities--that confronts one after a stay in that fascinating island of the west. The cause must inevitably be found in the weakness, the ignorance, of the blacks. The negro is not fit to govern--therefore he must not govern; so say the English, and in accordance with the dictates of that creed have the English framed their West Indian laws. And undoubtedly it is good that it should be so. The negro is not fit to rule; he is not capable of efficient self-government. But how long will the negro himself believe that he is incompetent? Will he, or will he not, in the future--the near or distant future--ever come to think that home rule is his birthright. Already many negroes hold that opinion as individuals. Will the coloured race ever think so collectively? Will the coloured class ever call for freedom in tones of absolute, organised unison. If so, what will happen? I have already recorded the opinions of a coloured man in this direction; I have also shown the ideas on the subject common to the majority of white men. The one, thoroughly representative of his class, appealed for greater freedom. In cool argument he suggested that absolute political freedom was the birthright of man, black or white. He claimed Jamaica as his own country, the fatherland of his race. He was convincingly in earnest. His country was as dear to him--just as much his very own--as England ever was to Englishman. He was absolutely serious. The other man, the Englishman, seemed more forceful, but less convincing. The white man’s argument was more desperate. He even suggested bayonets as a hedge for [Illustration: EVENING AFTER RAIN, JAMAICA]