The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-12-08

tutcd the Dulk Oh ner empire.
The destiny of all the English
speaking democracies that have risen
now from being British colonies tt
clear, They will go. on to nationhooG
their links to Great Britain, contin
ually less formal and legal and more
and more strongly sympathetic, will
be supplemented by their attraction
toward America due to affinity and
a common character. All the mis-.
ch.ef-makers in the world cannot,
think, prevent the Dutch English. of
South Africa. the English French OF
Canada, the English French Of Aus
tralia, the English Scotch of New
Zealand, the Americans, this new
emancipated Ireland and Britain be-
ing drawn together at last by all
their common habits Of thought and
speech, and even by the mellowed
memories of their past conflicts, into
conscious brotherhood of independ
ent but cooperative nations. The
day has come for the irish to rec
ognize that the future Is of more
value than the past.
Even without any other States, this
girdle Of English-speaking States
about the globe could be a great pre-
dominant association. Within this
English -speaking circle of peoples, a
whole series Of experiments in sepa-
ration, independent action. readjust-
ment, cooperation and federation
have been made in the last century
and a half and are still going on. of
the utmost significance In the problem
Of human association. No other series
Of communities has had such expert.
ences. No other communities haze
CO 10 oryu rkfnd IN fhaQa
matters. The German coalescences
have been married by old methods of
force, methods which have usually fail
ed in the English cases; and Spain and
Latin-America are at least half a cen
fury behind the English speaking
world in the arts and experience of
political cooperation.
India Another Matter.
But when we turn to India we turn
to something absolutely outside the
English-speaking world girdle.
One of the many manifest faults of
that most premature project. the
League Of Nations, was the fiction
that brought in India as a self-govern-
ing nation. as IL she were the same
sort of thing as these self-governing
western States. 1t was indeed a most
amazing assumption.
India Is not a nation, nor anything
like a nation; India is a confused va
riety of states, languages and races
and, so. far from being self-governing.
her peoples are under an amount of
political repression which Ia now per-
haps greater there than anywhere else
in the world. Politically, she is a
profound mystery. We do not know
what the political thoughts of these
people are. nor, indeed, whether they
have in the mass any political con.
cepts at all parallel to those of the
western civilizations.
The Indian representative at the
Washington conference, Srinavastra
Sastri, is obviously British nominee:
he is not SO much a representative as
special Indian gentleman; we do
not know what national forces there
are behind him, or indeed IL there is
any collective will behind him at all
But 1t would be hard to substitute for
bin anything very much more repre-
sentative.
Representation There Impossible.
What constituency is there, what
electoral college, to send any one?
India is not, in fact, so constituted
to send a real representative to a
conference or an association Of ma
tions at the present time. She is a
thing Of q different kind, a different
sort of human accumulation. She
belongs to a different order of crea-
lures from the English speaking and
European states and from Japan.
She is rs little fitted to deal on equal
terms with them as a jungle deer,
let us say, Is to join a conference Of
the larger cetacea in the North Polar
seas.
India is far less able to play an
effective and genuine part as a
member of an association of nations
even than China. She has no real
democratic institutions and she may
never develop them. or she may
never develop them in forms familiar
to European and American minds.
We American and English are too
apt to suppose that our own demo.
cratic methods, our voting and cleo
tons and debates and press cam
paigns and parliamentary methods,
which have grown up through long
ages to suit our peculiar idiosyn.
crasies, are necessarily adaptable to
all the world. In India they may
prove altogether misfitting.
India, were she given freedom Of
self-government, under the stimulus
Of modern appliances and modern
thought, would probably produce an
entirely different series Of institutions
from those of Europe. institutions
perhaps equally conductive to free
dom and development. but different
In kind. And, China also, left with
untrammeled initiative, may invent
methods Of freedom and cooperation
at once dissimilar and parallel to
Western institutions.
Using China as Precedent.
But the mention Of China brings us
back to the possibility OF applying the
precedent Of China to India. The dis
cussions and perplexities Of the last
two or three years which have
illuminated in the Washington Confer
ence have slowly worked out and
made clear the possibility Of a new
method IN Asia. This Is the method
OF concerted abstinence and with
drawal, the idea OF a binding agree.
ment of all the nations interested in
China and tempted to make agsres-
sions upon China, to come out of and
to keep out OF that country while [,
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