The New York herald., 1921-07-03
RITISH CONTROL PASSING TO THE DOMINIONS

to the House of Commons but by imperial
statesmen responsible to their separate
Parliaments situated Ia al least three conti-
nents. And in the second place the funda-
mental fact in this imperial policy will be
the pursuit of american friendship and
American partnership.
Beyond there lies one grave problem, tx
gravest which imperial craftsmanship has TO
face the problem which in varying phases
is found in Egypt in India, in Mesopotamia,
wherever the British administrators fnd
themselves confronted by a native race
newly conscious of it's own nationalistic.
racial or religious entity and seeking either
independence or equality. British rule in
India, founded upon the conception of justice
and of prosperity bestowed by a superior
race, has manifestly broken down precisely
the superiority of race is challenged. The
material benefits bestowed upon India by
reason of British rule have proved and are
proving in the present hour insufficient to
balance the revolt which is spreading against
the treatment of native as native, against
the conception of caste and the prestige of
the ruling race, which so deeply underlies
British colonial administration in native
states
To-day India, Egypt and Mesopotamia are
in the balance: the British evacuation of
10th Egypt and Mesopotamia is at least a
matter of public discussion. Ireland is, after
all, domestic problem of the United King
dom, despite it's wider repercussions but in
the native colonies lies the one hitherto
insurmountable obstacle to the transforma-
ton of the empire universally recognized to
be necessary if it is to survive present
difficulties and contemporary disturbances!
Difficult for Dominions to Aid
In Problems of Native Colonies
And in these native colonies it is difficult
to see how the overseas dominions can
assist the mother country, save only when
the problem passes. it may, from the
hands of the administrator to those of the
soldier Here. too, new question would be
raised-the question as to whether the over
seas dominions would spend their blood and
treasure to maintain British rule in India
when the profit would be exclusively British
This is one more difficulty in the way of the
transformation which is to-day the objective
of imperial craftsmanship.
But turning back a moment from the
details to the central fact, this imperial con-
ference, which has taken place before our
own eyes and filled even American news
papers with the echoes of it's sessions, must
rank as one Of the great incidents in con-
temporary history. 1t marks deliberate
and reasoned effort to transform the struc-
ture and character of the Oldest and greatest
empire now in existence, the largest the
world has even seen. No one can question
that the world war has shaken the structure
to its foundations and demonstrated the
nescapability of that transformation.
Nor one mistake that at the very
moment when the huge experiment is be-
ginning there has been frank declaration
on the part OF all the representatives of the
many British commonwealths scattered
about the seven seas that the first article
in the new constitution of foreign policy
must at the least provide for the absolute
avoidance of all rivalry out of which war
might spring and at best an association
which would constitute a reunion of all the
separate fractions of the Anglo Saxon tribes.
Sooner or later consciously and unmis-
takably, American policy and American
will have to respond to this
gesture. for it is not only clear that we must
presently produce foreign policy of our
own, but also our attitude toward the British
Empire must be the first and most important
detail in that new policy.
Copyright, 1921, by Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.