ABSTRACT
Public opinion, guided by a natural and very sound instinct, is more likely to think that action strange to European ideas may nevertheless be justifiable if it be performed by a native authority rather than by an alien authority. Direct Rule therefore, has a tendency to centralise authority and to render it difficult to introduce measures beneficial to the natives but strange to European ideas. Indirect Rule has an exactly contrary tendency. Under Indirect Rule the native can and does fill not only positions of great responsibility but the highest positions, positions which place him in the social scale on equality with the King’s representative himself. Under the system of Indirect Rule, the European officer, by his influence in guiding and controlling the native leaders, if his work be properly performed, can wield an enormous power for good in the destinies of the section of which he is in charge.
