Evening star., 1935-09-01


Unprepared to act alone, unable to
enlist French and Soviet assistance
and employ the League as an instru-
ment of British policy. the present
Baldwin cabinet has found itself faced
by the necessity of choosing between
surrendering to the Italian policy and
persuading the United States to put
its considerable moral and financial
influence behind Britain and par
ticipate in, or at least support, en-
-bargoes upon loans and supplies which
must seriously hamper If they do not
halt Italian action. Not impossibly. SO
British craftsmanship reasons. the
sight of the two great English-speak-
ing nations squarely aligned against
him might stop the Duce even at the
present eleventh hour.
New Propaganda Campaign.
| Hoping therefore to obtain Amer
lean support and thus to exercise an
Italian menace to their emperial Sc
curity, the British have launched
new campaign of propaganda in the.
United States. Where In 1914 they
asserted that the duty of the Amer
lean people to democracy made their
participation in the World War as an
ally of Great Britain inescapable, they
are now arguing that duty to world
peace requires us to take similar
stand today. AS yesterday we fought
to make the world safe for democracy
and incidentally to help defea. the
German threat to Britain, so today
we should act to serve the cause Of
world peace and thus incidentally to
| protect British interests in East Africa.
Now the American people ought to
see very clearly what the actual Sit
uation is. 1t is natural enough for
the British to believe that whenever
they are threatened the cause of
democracy or of world peace is SINH
larly menaced 1t is instructive for
them to see their own interests as
identical with right and justice and
to discover responsibility and duty
impelling the American people to
support them, whenever they are in
trouble. But it is just as essential
that the American people should per-
ceive for the future exactly whittier
all this sort of thing leads.
If the cause of democracy, like that
OF world peace. is dependent upon the
preservation Of the territorial integ-
rity and the naval security Of the
British Empire, then it fo lows natur-
ally that the United States should be
prepared to support the British when
ever their position is challenged by
rival imperialism, either Italian or
German, and whether in Africa or
Europe. The job thus to be under
taken, however. promises to prove con-
siderable, because within the British
Empire has been assembled upward of
one-quarter of the territory of this
planet. And inevitably less fortunate
nations-notably the Germans, the
Italians and the Japanese-are bound
in the future to challenge the fairness
of this division.
Did Empire Building Early.
In principle, too. there is no reason
why. If our duty to peace demands
that we accept responsibility for the
perpetuation Of British imperial in
terests, we should refrain from under
taking similar responsibilities on be-
half of similar French and Soviet
rights. If peace and the status quo
are anywhere to be conceded to be
inSeparable, then we are bound to be-
come the allies of stated imperial
isms everywhere against the inevita-
BILE attack of nations which, having
failed to do their empire building be-
fore 1919, are now forbidden by treaty
law to follow the example of the more
forehanded countries.
The single difference between today
and the Fashoda situation of 1898
lies In the fact that there was no
law against acquisitive Imperialism 40
years ago, and there are all sorts OF
laws now. All of these laws, however.
patiently operate to the profit of those
countries who did their colonial shop
lifting before the covenant Of the
League and the Kellogg pact were for
mulated and ratified. And the more
considerable countries which today
lack such possessions as Great Britain
acquired in South Africa and France
in North Africa just before the whistle
blew-namely, Japan, Germany and
Italy-have repudiated their sigma
lures to these documents upon the dis
covery of the implications these have
for themselves. AS consequence. the
Soviet Union is now threatened in
Siberia, Great Britain in Ethiopia and
France in Austria.
Japan, Italy and Germany have al
ready broken the law, they have al
ready done violence to world peace
and they manifestly intend to 60 on.
Does our duty to the cause of that
peace compel us to defend 1t at the
sea frontiers Of Great Britain OF along
the lines of communication between
the parts of an empire on which the
sun never sets, whenever these are
menaced by the late but vigorous i'm
perialiSms? II so, then we must pro-
vide ourselves with the military and
naval means for carrying out this
colossal task. Actually we must be
ready to underwrite the security of
Britain on three continents and to be
consistent we must accept the same
responsibility for France and Soviet
Russia.
World Peace Not ut Stake.
If, moreover, British propaganda
can now establish the principle-as
it is obviously striving to do-that
British imperial interests and peace
are one and inseparable with world
peace, then the Anglo-American al
lance which Stanley Baldwin has
been urging is inescapable. For to do
our duty for peace we must also serve
British imperial interests. But ac-
tually in the Ethiopian affair it is
not question Of world peace which
is at stake, but purely matter Of
British security. A young imperialism
is challenging q mature imperialism
and necessarily that involves a dis
turbance of the status quo.
Before the World War, when British
and French imperialisms came to col
lision at Fashoda and German and