The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-05-05
"A LIBERAL
SCUM is AT
THE WORLD

IMPERIALISM & CIVILIZATION.
By Leonard Woolf. Harcourt, Brace
& Company. 1928. So.
Reviewed by SCOTT NEARING.
IMPERIALISM and civilization are
both vital issues. There is no other
possible justification either for the
publication or for the review of
Leonard Woolf's Imperialism and Civ
ilization.
The book is divided into six sec
tions. The first deals chiefly with
Europeanization of the world since
1915; the second Conflicts of Civil
ization before the 10Th Century"
points out that such struggles are not
new in history; imperialism in Asia"
is the title of the third section; the
fourth section is devoted to imperial
ism in Africa; the fifth section, under
the rather absurd title, "The Inverse
Of Imperialism" gives some descrip-
ton of recent colonial revolts; the
final section suggests a plan for
pumping more oxygen into the
League of Nations.
Woolf's treatment of the League of
Nations is unbelievably naive. After
admitting that it has rather rickety
framework, he proposes that the
League turn its attention "to those
problems of civilization which imper-
ialism has failed to solve" These
League solutions are to come through
mandates. Under the 22nd article of
the League Covenant, a provision is
made for inundated territory. If this
provision "were honestly applied,
adopted, and accepted, it would, be-
lieve, rapidly wipe out MANY of the
most disastrous effects of imperial
ISM"
By what means?
at might still be possible for the
League itself to confer the benefits of
the mandatory system on nations now
in the difficult position of China and
Persia ct should be principal
task of the League Commission to
work out such a system, in fact code
of native rights in Africa"
What is this League of Nations
upon which Mr.. Woolf is relying to
Hconfer" benefits on Africa? What
but combination of the same preda-
tory powers that have been consis-
tently plundering Africa since 1882 +?
Have these powers had a change of
heart in recent times?
Not at all Mr., Woolf himself
states: "as everyone knows, the allied
powers which signed Tire treaty imme-
diately broke the pledges given by
them in this section. The manufactures
in Asia, Palestine and Iraq were sell
ected without consulting, sometimes
against the wishes of the comnnuni-
ties. Inundated territory has been
treated as part of empires and the
pledge with regard to advice and as
sistance has been ignored. In Asia
the French have subjected a colonial
people by the ruthless use of French
armies"
After this thorough-going admis-
sion of imperial perfidy, Woolf is still
able to write "a League of Nations,
honestly anxious to put into practice
the principles enunciated in Article
%. 80" Such a League of Nations
has as much reality as dry water.
Leonard Woolf should know some
thing about Imperialism. He wrote
"a sketchy book dealing with the sub
ject eight years ago. In the early
pages of Imperialism and Civilization
he describes in few vivid para.
graphs "the ruthless world conquest
on scale such as previously was I'M
known in human history" between
1915 and 1914. In his 4th section in
Imperialism in Africa he writes, SIM
perialism is primarily the attempt to
solve the problem of conflict between
civilizations"
Imperialism is the exploitation of
weak, undeveloped non-industrial ter
ritories by strong, industrialized
armed empires. These empires-Bri-
tain, France, Japan, Italy--control the
League of Nations.
The League of Nations will not
"cure" imperialism. A proletarian
revolution will.
Liberalism might present a case for
the League of Nations and the en-
pires. Mr.. Woolf has failed to do it.
He has written a book which begins
and ends nowhere. Between the two
covers there is a great deal of non
sense and chop logic interspersed WITH
occasional flashes of understanding
which Justify the assumption that
Mr.. Woolf knows, better.