"Coolies"

SM Stirling, The Peshawar Lancers (New York, 2003).

Is it wrong to print the term "'...stinking coolies...'" (p. 400)? Yes, if the phrase is printed in a propaganda leaflet denigrating foreign workers or immigrants. No, if the phrase is enclosed in inverted commas and attributed to a character in a novel. In the latter case, instead of complaining to the publisher, we merely note that this speaker is racist.

Nevertheless, it was an unexpected pleasure when Princess Sita informed the offending airship captain that he would "'...never, ever, refer to Imperial subjects as "stinking coolies" again.'" (p. 401) Even better, Sita's father, King-Emperor John II, when informed, remarked, "'Damn the man, and may he be reborn as a labor-tenant on his own estate...'" (p. 404)

However, when his heir points out that, "'Those chickens are going to come home to roost, someday, sir,'" John replies, "'With luck, not in my time or yours...'" (ibid.)

The chickens have already come home to roost. There has been at least one "'...suppression of a native uprising...'" (p. 402), in which the offensive Captain Pienaar played a heroic role. John continues:

"'...more often than not, if you leave a problem alone long enough, it solves itself - something governments are loath to learn.'" (p. 404)

The world is full of problems that show no sign of solving themselves! - although they might look fairly remote from the perspective of the Lion Throne.