76 ANCIENT AND MODERN IMPERIALISM
I need not, however, dwell on this branch of the subject at any length ; for, although the idiosyncrasies and the special aptitudes of the different European nations count for something, the real truth is that, in a broad general view of modern Imperialism, this aspect of the question may be regarded as a detail. So far as I know, the only European people which have shown any considerable powers of assimilation in dealing with the indigenous races of Asia and Africa, are the Greeks. Mr. Hogarth, in his work entitled " The Nearer East," says, truly enough: " The Greek excels all [others], being a Nearer Eastern himself."1
his place, unshakably confident in their country's destiny. Hard things are said at home of the English subaltern. You do not know him, you cannot judge him aright, till you have seen him on the North-West Frontier " (Review in the Spectator of March 6, 1909, of Count von Konigs-marck's " Die Englander in Indien").
The insufficient recognition sometimes accorded to these young men by a small section of their countrymen finds, I trust, some compensation in the high value attached to their services by those who, like myself, have seen them at work* They constitute, in my opinion, the flower of the youth of England. No other nation possesses Imperial agents to compare with them.
1 ce The Nearer East," p. 277. Mr. Hogarth goes on to say: tf There is no people which so easily obtains the