The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-07-08
CYCLE OF EMPIRE
and employe.

The thought that this war may
mark the end of the British empire has
enqendered deal of heat 1t has been
unpopular, or mpoIitic, to say SO be-
cause the soyine seemed to imply
want Of character in an oily. This idea
that nations or empires never fall ex-
cept thru the deeenerocy Of their peo-
pie may be sound theology, but it is
bad history. The threat to the CONT
nuity Of the British empire lies not in
any change in the hearts Of oak that
won it, but in the obsoIescence of the
weapons with which they held it.
Consult q GLOBE The British en-
pire used to run from Lands End to
Gibraltar to Egypt, thru the Suez CO.
nal and the Red sea to India, to Bur-
ma, to Singapore, to Honekone, to
Vancouver, to Halifax, and so back to
Lands End There we're offshoots from
this "oII red" route-Cope to Cairo,
and around the Horn to Australia.
This empire was onossed by COM
mond Of the secs. As feudolism died
and the nationalist states arose in vest
ern Europe, those states found thot
they had weapons and military organ
izoton which enabled them to subjuq-
ote the other peoples whom the expIor-
ers Of the day we're discovering. The
little kingdom Of England did not have
the resources to compete actively in this
first wave Of colonial conquest But it
did have fleet which over the GEN.
turtles was usually able to keep the
enemy from crossing open water. Dur
ing the dynostic wars of the 18th and
9th centuries whatever troops q con-
tnentol European power had in one Of
its colonies had to hold it without aid
from home, whereas the British had
the inestimobIe advantage of sea power
10 bring re-enforcements and supplies.
That is how the empire was built,
and thot is how it was held. The fleet
maintained communications between
all its parts. In this situation the army
needed to furnish little more than eor-
rsons to keep down local disoffection.
For centuries British strategy was GEN.
tered about that one foct.
When the foct ceased to exist
some time between the Skoeerrok and
the loss Of the Repulse and Prince Of
WoIes-stotesnnen and soldiers rooted
in the past could not perceive the
change and thus foiIed TO oct in occor-
dance with new conditions. The armies,
lang unoocustomed to stand alone,
foiled to do SO when they had to to sur
vive. Honekong, Malaga, and Burma
fell Without the kind Of resistance that
would be expected of troops occustom-
ed to count only upon themselves. At
Singapore, confronted by q not much
stronger enemy, but shaken by the COL
loPse of sea power, Gen. Percivol sur
rendered offer nominal resistance.
Whatever the immediate outcome
Of the bottle Of Egypt, the western Med
lterroneon seems likely to be closed to
the British navy and British supply lines.
A war Of ottrition fought in Egypt will
be for more cost y to the united nations
than TO the oxis because British sup
plies must be carried around Africa
while the axis has the short route across
the Mediterranean.
With control Of the SEQ lost the
British empire, os it has been built since
the doy Of the Armada, breaks into a
number Of small pieces, none Of them
strong enough to stand alone, and sew
eroI Of them oIreody down. Australia is