SOCIALISM AND THE EMPIRE
Most British Socialists object to the Empire on various grounds, and
desire its downfall and dissolution. According to their views Great
Britain should, in the first place, give up her non-self-governing
colonies. Let us take note of some Socialistic pronouncements to that
effect:
"Governments have no right to exist except with the consent of the
governed, and the British have no more right to dominate other peoples
than other peoples have to dominate us. What we can only hold by
maintaining an alien garrison had better be given up. The people of
these islands would not be losers, but the gainers by such a
course."[476] "Is it possible for a self-governing people to rule a
subject race, and yet keep its own love for liberty? Neither the
Greeks nor the Romans could do it, and we are not doing it very well
ourselves. The reason is obvious. No nation can play the part of the
despot (even the benevolent despot) abroad and that of the democrat at
home."[477] "Socialists should oppose the creation of empires on this
simple ground--that empire-building is accompanied by terrible misery
and suffering for those subject races, as they are called, which are
the chosen victims sacrificed on the altar of cupidity and
pride."[478] "A people gain power and influence in the world in
proportion as they solve for themselves the great problems of
democratic self-government. We shall do more to civilise Africa by
civilising the East End of London than by governing from Cape to
Cairo."[479] "It is not only impossible for one nation to civilise
another by governing it; it is wrong that it should attempt to do so.
Conquest may have opened up one civilisation to another in times long
antecedent to the steam engine and a world commerce, but to-day its
only effect is to crush out and level down all national life to the
dead uniformity of an alien political routine."[480]
"What is the attitude of Socialism towards backward races, savage and
barbaric peoples who are to-day outside the civilised world? The
position of Socialism towards these races is one of absolute
non-interference. We hold that they should be left entirely alone to
develop themselves in the natural order of things; which they must
inevitably do or die out. It is the duty of Socialists to support the
barbaric races in their resistance to aggression."[481] "It is the
duty of International Socialists, the only international
non-capitalist party, to denounce, and wherever possible to prevent,
the extension of colonisation and conquest, leaving to each race and
creed and colour the full opportunity to develop itself until complete
economic and social emancipation is secured by all."[482] "Duty, like
charity, begins at home, and if the civilisation of the blacks is to
be purchased only by the destruction of our own democratic spirit, the
balance to the world is of evil, not of good. There is another view of
Imperialism expressed with brutal candour by Mr. Rhodes when he said
that the flag was our best commercial asset, that trade follows the
flag. Trade does no such thing. Trade follows business enterprise.
Imperialism is, indeed, a policy of industrial deterioration, and by
impoverishing the skill of the country and encouraging the worst
forms of financial capitalism, must crush out every budding hope that
labour has of becoming economically and politically free."[483]
The foregoing extracts should suffice to show that there is among
British Socialists a strong desire to abandon the non-self-governing
colonies.
The attitude of the British Socialists towards the great
self-governing dominions is not much more favourable than it is
towards tropical colonies. Their attitude is one of hardly disguised
hostility, which appears to spring partly from jealousy of the
colonists, partly from hatred of the British capitalists who have
invested money in the colonies. The loss of British capital invested
in the colonies would probably be greeted with jubilation by the
Socialists. "The well-to-do sections of society in Great Britain have
found a secure and profitable outlet for their capital in loans and
advances to the colonists alike as organised communities and as
individual property-owners. But the drain for interest and dividends
to England on this account is heavy, and is severely felt at times of
depression, such as that which Australia as a whole has been suffering
from during the recent seven years of almost continuous drought. It
seems tolerably certain, therefore, that this comparative handful of
colonists, eleven millions in all, of which only four millions in
Australia, will in time to come, and as the Labour party and
Socialists gain strength, repudiate, or at any rate reduce, these
onerous obligations. It is also probable that with regard to
Australia, as the white population does not increase and England's day
as a colonising power proper is practically over (having no longer any
agricultural population to send out as emigrants), this huge territory
will not be permanently left at the sole dog-in-the-manger control of
its present handful of inhabitants. We may expect, at least, that
Australia will not be permanently able to retain its position without
an infusion of entirely fresh blood, and should other peoples require
an outlet in that direction, the present preposterous policy will have
to be abandoned."[484]
Socialists seem, on the whole, to be opposed to the federation of the
British Empire. "The Labour party approaches Imperial problems with
the politics of the industrious classes as guide on the one hand, and
the internationalism of its nature as guide on the other."[485] Its
"internationalism" apparently prevents it from approving of any
practical scheme of Imperial Federation. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, M.P.,
of the Labour party, has not expressed actual hostility to the Empire.
In fact, he has even declared: "Socialism did not intend to re-write
history. It accepted the facts of life, and one of these facts was
that we were responsible for the Empire, and, whether we liked it or
not, we had to rule that Empire. He was overjoyed the other day to
find that at Stuttgart their Dutch and German and French friends were
fully aware of the fact that, if Socialism was to play the proper part
that belonged to it, it must devise a colonial policy."[486]
Nevertheless, Mr. Macdonald's views do not appear to be very
practical, as will be seen in the following pages.
"These free colonies, though of enormous extent, count for little in
the matter of population. Their wealth is out of all proportion to
their numbers, as their pretensions are out of all proportion to their
power. That they will play any very great part in the future of the
world, either federated to the mother country or in any other way,
seems exceedingly improbable."[487] "Imperialism is crudely
ineffective. Imperial Federation would give the colonies a fuller
sense of independence and liberty, and thus far would benefit them.
But Imperial Federation is not approved on this account, but because
it is supposed to be a way of uniting the Empire. That, it will not
do: it will very likely do the opposite. In whatever form it comes, it
will give to the independent interests of the colonies new importance.
We shall then hear less of the Empire and more of Canada, or New
Zealand, or South Africa, and a great danger will arise that a purely
sectional view of Imperial interests may secure the support of the
might and the arrogance of the whole Empire."[488] "Canada has almost
claimed that it is a right of self-governing States to be allowed to
make treaties for themselves. When that happens, the colonies might as
well sever themselves from the mother country altogether. For under
present circumstances the authority which makes treaties is the
authority which ultimately controls armies. To give any of our
colonies the power to embroil us in war, or to determine our relations
with European Powers, is to give the first shattering blow to Imperial
solidarity."[489]
Nearly all British Socialists passionately oppose the retention of
India. They never tire of condemning British rule in India, and of
endeavouring to incite the native races to rebellion. According to the
assertions of Socialists, the British Government has "manufactured"
famine and plague in India, and its rule is the worst, the most cruel,
and the most pernicious form of despotism which the world has seen.
Mr. Hyndman says: "India is the greatest and most awful instance of
the cruelty, greed, and short-sightedness of the capitalist class of
which history gives any record. Even the horrors of Spanish rule in
South America are dwarfed into insignificance in comparison with the
cold, calculating, economic infamy which has starved, and is still
deliberately starving, millions of people to death in British
India."[490] "I charge it against the British Government, at this
moment, that the economic condition of India is much more horrible
than ever it was. I declare that the despotism of Russia is more
apparently cruel, but the actual economic effect of the British
Government's rule in India is more desperate than anything in the
situation in Russia."[491]
Mr. Hare also speaks of "famine made by Government"[492]--India
suffers from two great evils: famine and the plague. India is very
densely populated. The natives live chiefly upon rice, and rice
requires an enormous quantity of moisture. If rain fails, there is
famine, and no Government can prevent it, though it may alleviate it.
Therefore all rice countries--China, India, Japan--are periodically
stricken by famine. It is difficult enough, and taxes the resources of
a country to the utmost, to feed in a barren country an army of
500,000 men who are closely assembled. It is impossible to feed a
population of 60,000,000, even if funds and stores of food are
unlimited. With the most perfect system of harbours, canals, railways,
&c., the distribution of food for 60,000,000 people offers
insurmountable obstacles. Plague is caused by infection, and may be
stamped out by the observance of those sanitary rules which Indians
refuse to observe. Cases of plague are not reported to the
authorities, but are hidden from them, so that the sanctity of the
home may not be defiled by the entrance of a medical man.
Nevertheless, Socialists never tire of preaching: "If there is one
disease which is more directly the outcome of poverty than any other,
it is the plague."[493] "Just think of 250,000 people dying of
manufactured black plague in one month. It is not the people of
England who benefit by our murderous despotism in India. It is not the
working classes who would suffer if India were relieved from its
present frightful oppression. If the present trade is beneficial, it
is beneficial to the wealthy rather than to the workers."[494] "If
ever there was a population in the history of the world possessed of a
remarkable climate, with a fruitful soil, with all the opportunities
for making wealth, and having been the source of wealth to the peoples
who have traded with them for centuries, the population of India is
that people and Hindostan is that country which ought to be supremely
wealthy."[495]
Socialists have done all in their power to arouse the hostility of
Europe and America against Great Britain by denouncing British
misrule, cruelty, and tyranny in India. "I rejoice, as an Englishman,
that I have done my share for nearly thirty years to expose in Europe,
America, and Asia the systematic rascality of my aristocratic and
plutocratic countrymen."[496] "I appeal to this International
Socialist Congress to denounce the statesmen and the nation guilty of
this infamy before the entire civilised world, and to convey to the
natives of India the heartfelt wish of the delegates of the workers of
all nations here assembled that they may shortly, no matter in what
manner, free themselves finally from the horrors of the most criminal
misrule that has ever afflicted humanity."[497]
Socialists unceasingly work for the overthrow of British rule in
India. Theirs is a larger humanity. They wish to bring about a rising
of the Indian population, and they seem to care little if the 250,000
British people residing in that country are incidentally
exterminated. Their hatred of the "capitalist" Empire is apparently
greater than their sense of humanity and duty towards their own
countrymen.
At a recent Socialist meeting in connection with the unrest in India,
Mr. Hyndman submitted the following motion: "This meeting of the
citizens of London expresses its deepest sympathy and admiration for
Lajpat Kai, Adjit Singh, and the Sikh leaders at Rawal Pindi,
Amritsar, and Lahore, now undergoing imprisonment without trial, at
the command of Mr. John Morley and the Liberal Government, and sends
its cordial greetings to the agitators all over India who are doing
their utmost to awaken their countrymen of every race and creed to the
ruinous effect of our rule, which, by draining away _35,000,000l._
worth of produce yearly from India without return, has manufactured
poverty upon a scale unprecedented in history and is converting the
greatest Empire the world has ever seen into a vast pauper warren and
human plague farm. This meeting further records its fervent hope that
this infamous British system which crushes all economic, social, and
political life out of 230 millions of people will ere long be
peaceably or forcibly swept away for ever."[498] Proceeding, Mr.
Hyndman said: "I may mention I have just finished a pamphlet on India
I have written for the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart,
which is going to be translated by the International Socialist Bureau
into German and French, and I will take care it is translated into
some other languages--Eastern languages--including the Japanese
language."[499]
Attempts to incite the native Indians to rise in rebellion and to
massacre the British garrison and the British people residing in India
are not restricted to Mr. Hyndman. We read in the leading Socialist
monthly: "The maintenance of British rule in India means that the
working people of Great Britain are engaged in helping their
masters--the class which robs them--to plunder the unfortunate people
of India of over thirty millions sterling every year. We desire to see
the people of India, as of every other country, not only possessed of
national independence and political rights, but of social and
economical liberty and equality. We assert the right of the Indian
people to manage their own affairs, and ardently desire the
destruction of British rule there."[500] From the official organ of
the Independent Labour Party we learn that that party also "has
declared itself wholly in favour of constitutional government in India
and the social emancipation of the poverty-stricken Indian people. We
believe that Mr. Hardie has had that purpose solely in view, and the
party will stand solidly with him in conveying to the Indian people
the strongest expression of the sympathy and support of British
Socialists in their struggle against social and political
oppression."[501] If British subjects are murdered in India by the ten
thousand, we may thank our revolutionary Socialists.
Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., of the Labour party very sensibly
recommends with regard to India: "The Government should win the
confidence and assent of the people."[502] He then continues: "The
immediate reforms necessary are a lightening of India's financial load
by relieving it of the Imperial burdens which it now unjustly bears,
and a readjustment of taxes; the extension of local and State
self-government and further opportunities for natives to be employed
in public offices; the freeing of the press."[503] It is easy to
formulate a policy by expressing generous abstract sentiments. Is Mr.
Macdonald aware that "the lightening of India's financial load" would
mean its transference to English shoulders, that the granting of
self-government and the freeing of the press might lead to a position
which would put before this country the alternative of a war of
repression in India or of its abandonment, and that the abandonment of
India would ruin Lancashire?
We have taken note of the destructive part of the policy which
Socialists wish to pursue towards the Empire. Now let us take note of
their constructive proposals, though these are not nearly as numerous
as their destructive ones.
Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., of the Labour party, is dissatisfied with
Imperial administration in its present form. He would democratise it
and replace the present Imperial Governors by labour men and Socialist
agitators and orators. "The Crown cannot be the custodian of an
Imperial policy, though it may be an Imperial link--and even in this
respect its influence is greatly exaggerated at home."[504] "The real
difficulty lies in securing the confidence of the Imperial States for
whatever authority is to be custodian of the Imperial standard.
Downing Street is ignorant of colonial opinion and needs. Above all,
Downing Street is the surviving symbol of the era of the British
'dominions' and the real 'colonies.' The Imperial States will not
repose confidence in Downing Street, therefore Downing Street cannot
remain the custodian of Imperial standards. What is to take its
place?"[505]
"The failure of our Empire, except to produce mechanical results, such
as keeping warring tribes at peace, is largely owing to the fact that
the Empire is governed by the most narrow-visioned of our social
classes. National pride may be a valuable possession, but when it
becomes a consciousness of racial superiority it ceases to be an
Imperial virtue. Thus it is not only in its origin, but also in its
present administration, that the Empire in a special sense is a
perquisite of the rich classes, and the influence of the Labour party
on Imperial politics must be to democratise the _personnel_ of the
Imperial machine. A trade union secretary could govern a province
_prima facie_ better than the son of an ancient county family or
someone who was a friend of the Colonial Secretary when he was passing
time at Balliol. We honestly think that the colonies appreciate our
aristocracy, but the colonies laugh at our amiable illusions."[506]
Is Mr. Macdonald sure that the dominions and colonies would welcome a
change, and that "trade union secretaries" in their very narrow circle
of activity might not become even more "narrow-visioned" than our
present pro-consuls? At the same time it cannot be doubted that all
labour leaders and Socialist agitators will highly approve of his
proposals to make all vice-royalties and governorships their
"perquisites." Apart from a few not very practical proposals,
Socialists follow not a constructive, but a purely destructive, policy
with regard to the Empire, which in their eyes is merely a capitalist
institution. Pursuing consciously or unconsciously a policy of
revolutionary anarchism, they would break up the Empire and even Great
Britain herself. Therefore many Socialists advocate the legislative
independence of both Ireland and Scotland, although some preach,
"'Home Rule' _per se_ will not rid Ireland of Lord Deliverus and the
gang he represents; the remedy for Ireland's distress, as the early
leaders of Irish discontent perceived, is release from the grip of the
brigands who stole the nation's heritage. In other words, the real
object of the Irish movement is Socialism; their cause is ours, and
our paths lie side by side. But they too have been tricked and led
astray by the old political will-o'-the-wisp, the seeming angel of
'Liberty' translated in their case to 'Home Rule.' For many years now
they have pursued this shifty light through the arid desert of
politics, and unless they can come to a clear understanding of their
own original purpose again, and join with their English Socialist
comrades to find a way out of our common difficulties, they are like
to abide in that dreary desert for ever."[507]
Whilst the vast majority of British Socialists are unpatriotic,
anti-national, and anti-Imperial, and would act as traitors to their
country, the powerful Socialist party of Germany is strongly, one
might almost say passionately, national and Imperial. Many German
Socialists are enthusiastic supporters of the German Navy League, and
they would not hesitate in depriving, if possible, and if need be by
force, Great Britain of those colonies which her Socialists desire to
get rid of.
The attitude of German Socialists towards their Fatherland, Empire,
colonial possessions, and native races, may be gauged from the words
of Herr Bernstein, one of her most prominent Socialist leaders: "The
national quality is developing more and more. Socialism can and must
be national. Even when we sing _Ubi bene, ibi patria_ we still
acknowledge a _patria_, and therefore, in accordance with the motto
'No rights without duties,' also duties towards her. To-day the
Social-Democratic party is, and that unanimously, the most decided
Imperial party that Germany knows. No other party is so keen to make
over more and more legislative authority to the Empire and to widen
its competence as the Social-Democratic party. The idea that in a
country there exists a powerful party which is only waiting for war in
order to make difficulties for its own Government, to set on foot a
military strike and such-like, this idea may become the greatest
menace to peace by being a spur to adventurous politicians to work
towards a war with that country. But the home Government knows very
well that the declaration that the Social-Democrats would, in case of
need, give their lives for the independence of Germany against a
foreign Power is by no means a free pass for them to take war
easily."[508]
In another periodical Herr Bernstein wrote: "The advantages of
colonial possessions are always conditional. At a given period a
nation can only sustain a certain quantity of such possessions. As
long as she was ahead of all other nations in productive power,
England could support a much larger amount than any other modern
nation. But the time of her industrial supremacy has passed away, or
at least is nearing its end. Protectionism on the Continent and in the
United States may protract the advent of the inevitable in some
degree. But its hour will strike one day, and when the advantages
which free trade secures her to-day disappear, she would either have,
I believe, to free herself of part of her colonial burdens or lose
more and more of her trade, and with it her regenerative force. So
much for England. With Germany the question is quite different.
Although her rural population is now decreasing, she could, with a
yearly increase of about 800,000, well stand more colonial possessions
than she actually holds, nor would the costs and outlays for her
colonies press very hard on her finances. Where two civilisations
clash, the lower must give way to the higher. This law of evolution we
cannot overthrow, we can only humanise its action. To counteract it
would mean to postpone social progress."[509]
It is sad to compare the sane, manly, national, and patriotic attitude
of German Socialists with the foolish, anti-national cosmopolitanism
of British Socialists, who, parading beautiful motives of the largest
humanity, would not hesitate to sacrifice their country and their
countrymen, their Empire and their colonies.
FOOTNOTES:
[476] Quelch, _Social Democracy and the Armed Nation_, p. 14.
[477] _Imperialism: Its Meaning and Its Tendency_, p. 10.
[478] Norman, _Empire and Murder_, p. 3.
[479] _Imperialism: Its Meaning and Its Tendency_, p. 15.
[480] _Ibid._ p. 7.
[481] Bax and Quelch, _A New Catechism of Socialism_, p. 36.
[482] Hyndman, _Colonies and Dependencies_, p. 14.
[483] _Imperialism: Its Meaning and Its Tendency_, pp. 12, 13.
[484] Hyndman, _Colonies and Dependencies_, p. 8.
[485] Macdonald, _Labour and the Empire_, p. 108.
[486] _Labour Leader_, October 10, 1907.
[487] Hyndman, _Colonies and Dependencies_, p. 8.
[488] _Imperialism: Its Meaning and Its Tendency_, p. 5.
[489] Macdonald, _Labour and the Empire_, pp. 76, 77.
[490] Hyndman, _Colonies and Dependencies_, p. 12.
[491] Hyndman, _The Unrest in India_, p. 13.
[492] Hare, _Famine in India_, p. 17.
[493] Hyndman, _The Unrest in India_, p. 7.
[494] _Ibid._ p. 16.
[495] _Ibid._ p. 7.
[496] Hyndman, _Colonies and Dependencies_, pp. 11, 12.
[497] _Ibid._ p. 14.
[498] Hyndman, _The Unrest in India_, p. 1.
[499] _Ibid._ p. 4.
[500] _Social-Democrat_, July 1907, pp. 393, 394.
[501] _Labour Leader_, October 11, 1907.
[502] Macdonald, _Labour and the Empire_, p. 104.
[503] _Ibid._ p. 105.
[504] Macdonald, _Labour and the Empire_, p. 70.
[505] _Ibid._ pp. 67, 68.
[506] Macdonald, _Labour and the Empire_, pp. 27, 28.
[507] Thompson, _That Blessed Word Liberty_, p. 10.
[508] Ed. Bernstein in the _Sozialistische Monatshefte_, translated in
the _Social-Democrat_, July 1907.
[509] _Nation_, October 12, 1907.