4th January, 1936.
His Honour,
The Administrator of the Northern Territory.
It has been freely suggested in the Southern Press, from time to time, that the Chief Protector of Aboriginals in the Territory should be a trained anthropologist. This suggestion has recently been revived locally by a rumour, purporting to have originated in Canberra, that Dr. Donald Thomson, now on his way to the Federal Capital, is to take over the duties of the Chief Protector.
Without desiring in any way to infer that I give credence to this rumour, it occurs to me that it may be opportune to state my views on the recommendation so frequently featured in the Southern press.
Notwithstanding the anthropological bias which the Southern Press is so prone to give the so-called aboriginal problem, the fact remains that the problem is not one of devising means whereby a futile attempt may be made to conserve the aboriginal tribes as museum specimens, but is one of solving the problem of adsorbing the aboriginal to the white community so that he may become a definite social and economic unit within the civilised state.
It is doubtful whether any pure scientist, with an anthropological bias, would be the best officer for giving effect to such policy however invaluable his intimate knowledge of native social organisation, ritual and culture might be in an advisory capacity.
The problem is one of conflicting racial relationships, and the officer administering the policy should be no less appreciative of the white viewpoint than of the black. It would appear that an anthropologist, as a pure scientist, might be so unduly influenced by academic interest in the native culture, as to under-rate or over-rule the factors of antagonism inherent in the white community.
On the other hand, as I have already stated, should the Commonwealth decide to proceed with the policy such as was outlined in my memorandum of the 7th October, 1935, the services of a trained anthropologist, in an advisory capacity, would be invaluable.
Cecil Cook
(C.E. Cook)
Chief Protector of Aboriginals