The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-07-02

The heart of the British Empire
beats in Asia--I speak, not of the
Commonwealth, but of the Empire.
Russia is not only half Asiatic. She
has been in contact with Asia for
centuries. She has permeated Asia as
no other people established in Europe
has done. The Russian mind knows
how to read the Asiatic mind. Picture
Russia, a Socialist State, freed from
her external foes. thanked by series
of racially akin or political allied -
sometimes both-lesser States not in
Europe only but in Asia, States en-
joying full autonomy, permeated with
Socialist ideas and precepts and prac-
tices radiating from centre where
education and science have been ele-
waited into fine arts, where the treas
ures of knowledge, the accumulated
learning of the ages are thrown open
to all, made acceptible to the humb-
lest citizen. Picture Russia thus-then
look at India, Persia, Afghanistan,
Burma, under present conditions. Need
you ask why British Imperialism
shrinks at the prospect, and fears;
fears unutterably as it scans the
futuref
The claim to command" the Universe
The more so as our Imperialism to-
day is an imperialism, whose unyield-
ing and intolerant side the very mag
nitude of its success in the war has
tended to accentuate-partly through
the intoxication Of victory, partly
through alarm arising out of the i'm
mensity of the added gains secured.
It has become militarist imperialism
as it never was before. 1t has swung
round violently to the old Roman
conception of Empire. Read that
speech of Field-Marshal Sir Henry
Wilson the other day at the Union
Jack Club. "Except in August, 1914
he informed his soldier listeners-our
country and our Empire have never
wanted you more". Whys He told
them in the next sentence. Because,
"our command on sea, on land, and
in the air is being challenged in var
ious parts Of the world" Our CON-
mand. Note the word. We were hor-
rified at the schemes of world con-
quest attributed to the Germans dur
ing the war. Today we. lay claim to
command the sea, the land, the air
in short, the universe BY what right7
This speech is typical of the spirit
which impels our real rulers along the
Roman way-to hold down Ireland by
main force; to dragoon Egypt. 1t makes
possible an unpunished Armitsar;
an attempted absorption of Persia
under the usual hypocritical devices;
and ever extending extension of lab
ilities in Mesopotamia, in Palestine,
at Constantinople, in tropical Africa.
Tt is that spirit which sees in the
ideas which Socialist Russia repres.
ents, a deadly foe; not without war
rant.
The Lords debate.
Read carefully the debate in the
Lords on May 5 last, on the relations
between the Committee of Imperial
Defence, and the land, sea, and air
forces of the Essrr2wn. Observe the ex,
change Of geteii between the noble
Lords participating Crews,
Stanhope, Curzon: an urbane differ
ence on points Of detail, common
mentality of policy, the objectives of
the British Imperial State. Mark the
tenor Of these elecutionary courtesies.
See how they are permeated by tie
same spirit which Sir Henry Wilson,
the soldier, expresses more bluntly.
Note their outlook, the outlook Of
men bounded by the spell Of imperial
tradition, whose one pre-occupation is
that of fashioning such military and
naval weapons as shall surround this
ever growing edifice with triple walls
of steel. No loophole here for a grad.
ual transformation Of the character of
Empire in the direction Of those in.
Vulnerable pledges with which the
orations of our public men are stud
led. "Our" Empire, "our" possession;
to be jealously so regarded. No room
in these calculations for the gradual
emancipation from alien tutelage of
progressively conscious peoples. "If
ever there was time when the work
of the Staff mind was necessary......
it is today" "Who can tell when
the sky will become cloudyi" Thus
Lord Haldane, who quotes with un.
ction Foch's doctrine that war is
"both a science and an art" The
greatest Of the arts, indeedl "Two
thirds Of the War Staff Of the Navy,
is, or ought TO be, work done in