Evening star., 1927-09-18

argued, spread over the whole keyboard of
the world We could never sound uniform
note Canada, New Zealand inCurably
divergent except in the idea of a common
peace and that uniformity in diversity was
our asset
We had the confidence of foreign states
in our tropical and other raw product pos
sessions because stood-in those days-nOt
for monopolizaton, but the open door. The
less assertive we were the more possible it
would be for other kindred powers to work
with us and work out forms of cooperation
with us IN our task of coaescing and evolving
into a worldwide civilization.
That sort of idea about the empire was very
prevalent in those days of 90 years ago. Kip
ling went about calling upon Americans and
Germans and. indeed, all Europe, to take up
the white mans burden'-and at the time of
its first issue that memorable burden was in
tended to be something quite other than
mere bundle of loot.
The Rhodes scholarships another fossil
Of good intention which remains to from
that age of potential incorporation. Amer
cans and Germans at least were to be made
like.minded with the British-at Oxford! The
idea of the eventual amalganation Of the EN-.
pre with other powers in some comprehensive
world control was indeed constantly cropping
up This involved no more thought of over
coming or conquering other competitors than
did the big series of bank and industrial ANAL
carnations that have occurred in Great Britain
since the war. 1t was pool we had in mind.
X X x
The empire was seen as the pacific precursor
Of a practical world state. Our raw material
possessions were part of the common
estate of the human race. our share in trus-
teeship; navy as a world police that might
be at last as denationazed as the knights
Tempar.
These expansive possibilities what at
tracted me to that club and that, IL l may
name him. was what attracted Mr.. Bertrand
Russell, who also one of our 13.
But against us we found from the outset
a group of empire patriots. who were all for
the empire of the clenched fist. They were fierce
fellows who believed that life was a violent
struggle and that what one had In the world
had to be held savagely against all comers.
They did not want to unite the world, they
wanted to subdue it to their conception of what
was British. Whatever was British was right.
Kings lords and commons, remarkable
othograph, Ascot and the Derby, cricket and
the boat race, the faithful Sikh and Simla and
the navy The outer world had to admire.
serve our purposes. and carry itself humbly
toward us.
They were, in fact, glorified natonalists;
their imperialism merely nationalism dis
tended, intolerant of rivalry. Our tiercest mem
ber at every feast prepared minds for war
with Germany. He things quite simply;
I had to prepare for a fight. Education. eff
cheney of production these imperialists of the
clenched fist saw only necessary evils forced
upon us by German competition Their atti-
tude to the empire was what might call
the united services attitude, a pose of unques-
tioning devotion. 1t is the exact parallel of
the devotion that surrounded the German
Kaiser in his glorious days. 1.-The empire, right
or wrong" they said. Whatever it was, what
ever it became, whatever it did,
Mai ly a nd w how cd IN riff
wall and indeed, every sort of wall about this
divine reserve of the earth, great armies and
overwhelming fleet and outside it nations
poor divided and incapable of disturbing 1t
possible. That the nationalist imperial
ist idea as distinct from the cosmopolitan i'm
perialist idea that Russell and l embodied.
One evening when I was absent and the
attendance was exceptionally low there was
great dispute between Russell and four of the
nationalist imperialists. They were ready,
they said, to die for the empire commit any
informality to it, Russell said there
quite number Of things on which he
put higher valve than the empire, and that
il it came to choice these cases he would
be against the empire. But that night the
talk grew heated, and Russell, without waiting
for the next meeting and reinforcements,
signed. and we saw him more. Which was
a pity. because great charm of those dis
cussions was the depth of the crevasses we
found between us, and Russell was certainly
the center of the deepest crevasse system of all.
This incident, however, did pose for ME
quite plainly what is. after all. the essential
question for all of us, far as our political