Evening star., 1924-12-07
SPECIFICATIONS FIGHT
FOR RIGHTS is PROBLEM
Outbreak Against Great Britain by Egypt
Forerunner of What Other Large Pow
ers, With Possessions, Must Face.
BY FRANK III. SIMONDs.

that which is. relatively speak
Ing, local. concerning Egypt and
Britain. and that other aspect which
HAS Importance for most of the world
and for all of the nations Gncluding,
of course, the United States) which
ma themselves possessors of lands
and peoples far from the home ter
ritories and seeking separation.
on the local side one may say at
the outset that, despite blunders and
errors of policy, the rule of what we
call the western nations, that is, the
civilized countries, in most if not all
of their colonial possessions, has
brought benefit to the lands thus
governed and a varying degree of
prosperity along with fairly general
order.
Whether one considers the British in
India and Egypt, or the French in
Tunis and Algeria, the Dutch in their
East Indies or the Belgians in the
kongo, in every case civilization has
replaced a varying degree of barbar-
ism, and the material conditions of
the populations affected have been
enormously improved. Our own ex-
periments in the Philippines and
Porto Rico are but further examples
of this fact.
Demand for Freedom.
Yet, along with this unmistakabIe
amelioration of the material condi-
tion of the various peoples there has
gone another phenomenon, which has
ominous significance for the future.
The peoples whose material condition
has been benefited by foreign rule
have in almost all cases begun also
to enjoy a degree of education, and
with this has come the steadily
mounting desire and demand for COM
plete independence.
Now the question which is posed
for the world-and 1t may easily be
the dominating political question of
the next half century at least-is how
the great powers with native popu-
lations under their control-and par
ticularly Great Britain and France,
although Holland, Belgium, Italy and
the United States are also affected
are going to face this problem and
meet the demand of millions of men
and women for freedom.
Divided Into Two Classes.
We have interesting evidence sup
piled to us by the history of Europe
In the last century, indeed up to the
moment of the final liquidation of
the World War. The outstanding cir
cumstance in the political history of
Europe in the nineteenth century
was the rise of subject nationalities
When the Napoleonic wars had ter
minated and the congress of Vienna
had made it's decisions, Europe was
divided between free and subject
races
Thus Poland was finally doomed to
partition and suffering, the iniqui-
ties of early treaties were all re-
peated in the Vienna settlements
Italy, which had had a brief and in
complete experience in liberty. was
returned to it's old state with the
added burden of Austrian tyranny
in Venice and Lombardy. The Bel
gians were put under Dutch rule, all
the Balkan races We're continued
under Turkish rule: in a word that
doctrine of elf-determination, which
was later to be invoked in the Paris
conference of 1919, was neither
honored nor recognized.
Battle for Liberty.
Yet hardly was the ink dry upon
the various treaties which expressed
the decisions of Vienna than the
Greek instruction opened that al
most endless number of battles waged
10y subject nationalities for liberty.
The Greeks. the Serbs. the Ruma-
mans, the Belgians, the Italians in
big wars and little wars and as
consequence of wars, achieved inde-
pendence. while the Poles, the Czechs, |
'tiCl ItdlldIlSi IuIHdnldHS ana SERBS
found in the liberations already |
achieved the inspiration for new |
hopes, destined to find ultimate real |
laation as consequence of the |
World War.
From Napoleon to the latest Ger
man kaiser, then, during the century |
between Vienna and Paris; every |
monarch and every nation which
flung itself in the pathway of the |
rising tide of nationality was beaten. |
Austria was ultimately destroyed, |
Germany and Hungary mutilated, |
Russia shorn of her border prov
inces. A century ago Europe meant, |
at most. five nations; Britain, Rus |
Sia, Prussia, Austria and France, the |
rest counted for nothing, but today |
Europe, In our cotemporary phrase, |
has been "balkanized," Austria has
disappeared, Prussia, become Ger
many, and Russia are temporarily in
eclipse, Britain France and Italy are
great powers, but n dozen smaller
states, including Poland, Rumania,
.iugoslavia. Czechoslovakia, Belgium,
Holland, the Scandinavian countries
exercise an influence hardly conceiv-
a BILE even a few years ago.
Represent seIf-Determination.
Now it is clear that nationality has
in the last hundred years surged
over every barrier and broken down
every frontier which was raised as
dam against it. Today in Europe
the existing frontiers represent the
application of the principle of self
determination, resistance to which
supplies the most conspicuous circum-
stance in the history of 10 decades in
many countries.
Oddly enough, however, while we
have seen in Europe for a full cen
tlry the triumphant OF devastating
march of this principle of self
determination, the nations of Europe
have been busily engaged in express
ing the opposite principle, that of
subject races upon the maps of Asia
and of Africa. While the continent
of Europe was finding race freedom
for it's well nigh innumerable tribes,
some of these tribes, at least, were
busy subduing races south of the
Mediterranean and east of Suez.
Britain in India, France in North
Africa, Holland in the East Indies
have successfully created empires
whose populations, areas and poten-
tial wealth obviously constitute the
most important assets in the future
of the coUStries. Yet, very dimly at
first, but with startling and even
terrifying clarity in recent years,
there has been raised the question is
to whether the doctrine of self-de-
termination could be halted at the
Bosporus and Gibraltar or would in
time spread from Europe southwark
and eastward and open on two other
continents all the disputes and strug-
giles which had shaken Europe.
Seek to Avoid CaIamities.
In the face of the approaching
storm the European nations estab-