The Washington times., 1915-05-30
BRITAIN'S HOLD ON THE EAST

One is SCTuCk Wltn wonder Dy tHe
fabric of the British empire, which
holds together islands and continents
and peoples as with one will and
one purpose at a moment when some
thought, as England's enemies be-
lieved, the empire would be sun
dered.
1t is not difficult to reason why
the English-speaking elements, or
even the Beers, should prefer. to
stand by the mother state; but the
same will not obtain in the instance
of the millions of Mohammedans
and Hindus. The Sheik ul Islam
proclaimed holy war, against the
British: few save the Turks re-
sponded to it. Moslems in India
went to the British colors to do bat
tie against their co-religionists.
The secret of Britain's power over
her subjects in Asia and Africa is
not entirely military. She began
laying the foundation of it centuries
ago. Following the Portuguese
around the Cape of Good Hope after
the ascendancy Of the Ottoman
Turks threatened the land routes to
the East, the Englishmen began to
establish trading posts in India,
finding some of it's richest regions
under the rule of Mogul dynasty.
The Mogul power, which was cstab-
lished in 1926, was not uprooted
entirely until 1861.
The Portuguese in 1880, when
their crown was united with that
of Spain, possessed a monopoly of
the East's trade, but the union with
Spain, the enemy of England and
Holland, permitted the latter to cap
ture Portuguese ships, and Portu-
gals interests in India were ire
parably ruined when the union with
Spain came to an end in 1640. In
the seventeenth century the Dutch
ruled the seas, and rapidly built up
a monopoly of the spice trade. Their
commercial policy was not sound,
and was doomed to succumb to su-
perior British methods. The dis
possession of the Dutch began with
Give, and ended with the wars with
France in 1907, during which the
English captured all the Dutch pos
sessions in the East, though later
readjustment restored some of them
to Holland. The Dutch ceded to the
English, however, all their estab-
ments in India, and then began in
earnest the process of shaping the
new India according to the ways of
western civilization.
The most effcacious instrument
was the pax britannica, which took
out of the hands of native princes
the conduct of foreign affairs and
control of the military. Princes
who ruled wisely were supported by
the powerful overlord; others were
displaced and their territories made
British provinces. The people, who
had been oppressed from time out
of memory, and subjugated by
hordes pouring through the north
western passes ever since the eighth
century, tasted of benefcent rule.
The transformation was not i'm
mediate, but it has been accom-
plished, and the three hundred mil
lions of people inhabiting India feel
no impulse to revolt. Some two
hundred and fifty millions of them
are under the direct rule of the
British; more than twice the num-
Der that were under the sway Of
Rome when that empire was at its
acme.
The British have taken to their
Eastern subjects all the benefits of
western ideas, and have not inter-
fered with their religious beliefs.
1t does not appear to the Moham-
medans and Hindus what they would
gain by revolt. The British have a
habit of making short shrift Of up