Seven Lectures on the United Kingdom for use in India

THE component parts of the British Empire are so remote and so different from one another that it is evident that the Empire can only be held together by sympathy and understanding based on widely diffused knowledge of its geography history resources climates and races. It is obvious that if this knowledge is to be effective it must be imparted to the coming generation. In other words it must be taught in the Schools of the Empire. In the Autumn of 1902 a Committee was appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to consider on what system such teaching might best be developed. The Committee came to the conclusion that children in any part of the Empire would never understand what the other parts were like unless by some adequate means of visual instruction; and further that as far as possible the teaching should be on the same lines in all parts of the Empire. It was decided to make a beginning by an experiment on a small scale and for this purpose to invite the three Eastern Colonies of Ceylon the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong to bear the expense of a small book of Lantern Lectures on the United Kingdom for use in the Schools in those Colonies. Other parts of the Empire were afterwards invited to have editions which would be suited to their own special requirements prepared at their own expense and up to the present date editions have been issued for the Eastern Colonies for the West Indies for West Africa for Mauritius and for India. Editions are now in preparation for Canada and for South Africa. The lectures contained in this little volume are identical with those prepared under the foregoing scheme for use in India. It has been represented to the Committee that it would be stimulating to children in the United Kingdom to have presented to them an account of their own land as seen from the point of view of children in another part of the Empire. The effort on the part of English children to imagine themselves in the position of Indian children should tend to arouse and impress a valuable feeling of political sympathy. The Committee however have always had in mind the preparation of illustrative lectures on the Colonies and India as well as on the United Kingdom. The experience which they have now gained has convinced them that if this part of the work is to be done as well as it can be done it is advisable to have the illustrations prepared on a uniform system by a highly skilled artist or artists specially commissioned for the purpose. They were so fortunate as to interest Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales in their work and through her powerful and gracious support and that of Lady Dudley and a Committee of ladies who were good enough to collect a sum of £4000 for the purpose they have been able to make a beginning of a work which will take some years to complete. The Committee desire me to record their warm gratitude to Her Royal Highness to Lady Dudley and to the Committee of ladies for making this part of the undertaking possible. During the past year an artist Mr. A. Hugh Fisher has been travelling through India collecting material for the Committee and it is hoped that before another twelve months have elapsed a course of lectures on that country well illustrated by means of the lantern may be published. Ceylon Somaliland and Cyprus have also been visited and Mr. Fisher is now in Canada and will presently go to the Far Eastern Colonies. Other parts of the Empire will be dealt with successively and in the course of three or four years the Committee intend to have available for purchase by public educational authorities and others a complete survey of the Empire uniform in method.