DEFENCE OF EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 235, 4 October 1937, Page 6

DEFENCE OF EMPIRE.

SIR NORMAN ANG-ELL'S BOOK.

In his latest publication, "The Defence of Empire" (Hamish Hamilton, London), Sir Norman Angcll, the eminent British Socialist, upholds his reputation for clear, courageous and original argument and convincing presentation, though there will be many who will not subscribe to his philosophy or concede some of his assumptions. In the opening chapters he deals with the old Conservative and acquisitive Imperialism that considered human sacrifice as ennobling if made in the interests of territorial extension. He traces developments from the iron rule of Empire builders several decades ago to the present Commonwealth of Nations, consisting of free and selfgoverning peoples with one common bond, the British Crown. This process he terms "de-Imperialisation," the turning of subject dependencies into independent sovereign States co-equal with the Mother State. This process of disintegration, he claims, cannot proceed any further without jeopardising the ideal of freedom for which the Empire as a Commonwealth exists.

"No one who can weigh events at all," he says, "believes for a moment that the present looseness of the Commonwealth will he its final form, that it will crystallise in that form. It will either follow the disintegrating tendency of the time and dissolve completely, with not even the vague general understandings that now bind it, or it will strengthen the integrating tendencies (for the two tendencies exist and fight each other by steady growth towards greater union)."

Post-War British Policy. Having defined what he means by Imperial defence, Sir Norman passes on to review and analyse British policy since the war. He alleges that old-fashioned Imperialists, under Conservative leaders, have pursued a line of retreat or surrender. "A new John Bull," he ■writes, "has come into being. Surrenders which before the war would have been described by British Imperialists as acts of supine treachery are now applauded and welcomed." He deplores this alleged degeneration, as exemplified in Manchuria, Abyssinia, the Bhine and in Spain, and attributes it to an all-pervading' fear of Communism which exists among' Conservatists and capitalists. He argues, in effect, that under Communism, typified in Bussia, the capitalist has less to fear than under the Fascism of Italy, Germany or Japan. Most readers will find this difficult to believe. Russia, too, he considers, is less anti-God than some Fascist countries.

In regard to the Far East, the author strongly criticises the failure of Britain to accept the offer of co-operation with America to stand firm against Japanese expansion and aggression, and deals at length with the "cold shoulder" given the gesture of Mr. Henry T. Stimson, American Secretary of State in 1934, when the United States was not only prepared to co-operate with Britain and other States in resistance to Japan, hut took the lead in initiating policies of this description, going far beyond the League proposals. "But the British Government turned the whole thing down—coldly, curtly, refusing, in effect, further co-operation." Japan, he said, at once seized on the break hetween American and British -policy as offering encouragement to further acts of aggression and shattering of treaties, while China, on the other hand, suffered most severe discouragement in the loss of assistance she had so relied upon. Italy and Abyssinia. The'"retreat" before Italy also is severely criticised, and the author emphasises the encouragement given Italy, and how it was exploited by the Hoare-Laval proposals and the avowed determination of British statesmen that Britain should not be drawn into a war "on behalf of Abyssinia." Sensing the strength of public opinion in the United Kingdom in this direction, Fascism rode roughshod over a helpless and defenceless nation which had even been denied the right to purchase arms. Sir Norman concludes by outlining his own views of foreign policy. It is the familiar line—described by some as an old mirage—of a grand alliance, or Popular Front, against dictatorships, "the nucleus of which will be Britain. France. Russia, Czechoslovakia, drawing in later Poland. Yugoslavia and 'Rumania."

"The Defence of the Empire" is a useful contribution to current discussion of the international situation and Britain's part in it.