Foundation Of Another Empire

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 12 (Supplement)

Foundation Of Another Empire

8y... ' ! ■ Walter Lippmann

America's most famous publicist looks al the consequences of German and Japanese conquests.

IT is useless to underestimate the magnitude of the Japanese ' victory in China. ' With the 'conquest of Canton the.Japanese are • able to close all the doors to China. Communication by sea is now completely .under Japanese control. ■■■'•. ' There remain; only as: exits .and entrances to - what is left; of an-indepen-; dent China .the overland" route from French Indo.-China: arid a long, and not very practicable highway through Central Asia to Russian Siberia. The French, door-will soon-lie closed because the Japanese have, the power to compel the French to .close it. The Russian door, even if it remains open, is a mere crack in the iron ring that China, at the : mercy of Japan.- -■ Even though: thevChinese continue to offer some-active r and even more passive', resistance, the Japanese have won the war, and the operations from now on are likely, to ibe.not much naore than the mopping up. that follows any great victory. The." consequences • of the victory are enormous. China, which has been the centre of. formidable resistance to the advancing Japan, !will become a vassal contributing to the power of the Japanese.-Empire.. •- was once a liability of the first order has been changed 'by. the conquest:into an'asset of incalculable value.' ; \ "British. . ..." Shattered" ' In Eastern Asia, where, live one-quarter of the population- of /tlie globe,' -the Japanese are supreme. The Russians are helpless, the French" are intimidated, ; the British position is shattered, and the Americans are-withdrawn, though we are still entangled in; the The : strategic foundations' - of . one.; .of-the greatest empires of history, have been, it would seeni, securely. established.... ; j'!." There is a .view, widely held, in .Great ci Britain, and. to some. degree also ini ] America, that 'the-opening of. Eastern- j Europe to German -conquest; and of China 1 to Japanese conquest \rwill -divert,- pre-.i occupy, and even satisfy: the conquerors;'i for a long -time; to come. It is held .'that >1

: —Copyright having bitten off so much, the conquerors . .will -require a long, time to chew and L to digest' it, andVif it does not choke i'y.-themynt' will \at;;least keep jtliem; .quiet L ; and- well fed for , : a generation. This is what Mr.- Chamberlain and those who ' think as he does have in mind when they ■ say that, though the price' has been a i big one, they have bought it with peace s in their own time. [ In the last analysis this theory rests on an idea which has 'been current since. ' the war, that the world is divided into ;'satisfied a"nd unsatisfied nations, into: 1 the' -haves and havej-nots) and 'that' the " aggressiveness of. the have-nots will subside when they, too, become the post's essors of great empires. If the theory 'is- correct, it. is one.< in which Americans might find a great deal of comfort. For if Japan can be satisfied for a generation by letting her have China and, perhaps, Russian Siberia, if Germany can be' 1 satisfied for Hitler's lifetime by letting him have a free hand in Central Europe, the Balkans and the Ukraine, then later on, if the appetite for conquest is still strong, the United States can still enjoy security in this' hemisphere while the British Empire is being •distributed. There is, however., ground for think-v ing that the fashionable theory of .haves; 1 and have-nots is a half-truth. .It is.-" undoubtedly half the truth to say that: . inadequate .opportunity for the con-; 1 gested populations of Germany and*" Japan • and Italy • has generated the < dynamic_ energy which inspires .their'" rebellion against the constituted order < of the world. But it does not follow that the energy once generated will* < subside when all reasonable grievances* - 3ave been redressed. ; . The 'French Revolution did not subside' i grievances *of 1789 liad'-been .remedied.- The' Russian Revolution; did i not)6ubside v when the' peasant's, working,] meiuand : soldiers obtained, the land and 1 the. peace ' which 1 they' demanded .when j they -inadeHhe Revolution/of." ;• And j v.erv convincing reason for 3 'thinking: * that Hhis •• revolution 'against 1

i the international order of the Old World L is likely to grow less :by what it feeds » upon. ' It is undoubtedly true that' if half 5 of what has been taken by the three great conquerors had been conceded freely 10 years ago, the international revolution could have been prevented. But whereas once much smaller concessions would have been satisfying, they i are now merely appetising. For what s. is now at stake is not tangible things > like territory, and resources to satisfy r: ; ,the 'needs of' . the have-nots, 'but the sovereign-power; of the haves to defend all' their •-possessions. Unsatisfied Conquerors - ■If ; the. rising imperial nations of Europe-, "began -as discontented proletarian,, nations,. they are now at the • stage of their revolution where they have seized the strongholds and are beginning to exercise-a.;dictatorship of the proletariat. : The discontented nations of the post?war.«Settlement have ibecome the unsatisfied conquerors of the present day. . - , ; • . : The, right place to look for light upon , the;-prospects.-of •, the future is in the careers :of-the > great conquerors of history,- of- Alexander, of Caesar and : Augustus, of Napoleon. What do their careers vteach- us' a'bout the prospects that - successful' conquerors' will <at last decide that they-need go no further, and that they will'announce that the period of conquest is" over? ; Alexander the Great conquered an empire extending into India; he died at the age of 35 without settling accounts with?Rome,;and his enn>ire soon disintegrated. The Roman conquests were ..substantially • .terminated by Augustus at a frontier which left no organised , military Power of any consequence within , strilcing. distance of the empire. Napoleon overran the whole continent of his .'empire collapsed because he. coiild '{noiC conquer Russia or Great Britain.', r » I* \ • .1 - , : -

If any lesson is to be drawn from the past, it is that conquerors do not stop voluntarily and consolidate their gains until they have disposed of all rivals to their power.

Democrats who have forgotten how the great conquerors think and must act find it exceedingly difficult to understand the new era in which they suddenly find themselves living. The series of tragic miscalculations made in the past few years were due to the illusion that the age of conquest and empire building was as dead as Caesar, whereas, in fact, we have since 1931 been living in the first years of a new age of conquest and empire building.

The foundations of two empires, potentially as great as any in history, have 'been laid between the peace of Munich and the fall of Canton, and our minds are as yet unahle to keep pace with the speed of world history in the making. But we may get some practical measure of the speed of events when we realise that when-as it takes three years to ibuild a 'battleship, it has taken only about 15 months to conquer China.

Birth Of World Radio

ON an April day iri the year 1897, a foreign-looking gentleman entered the village post office of Totland Bay, Isle of Wight, introducing himself to the postmaster as a Signor Marconi.

He explained that lie had. been demonstrating telegraphic experiments in London to the Postmaster-General. He .had selected as the site of his first tests in?the Isle of Wight the Royal Needles Hotel at Alum Bay, and he needed the services of a. telegraphist. Mr. J. B. Garlick, the postmaster, undertook to be ; the telegraphist.

•In the hotel Mr. Garlick found that Signor. Marconi had built a very crude installation on the billiard table. He tapped out the word "Marconi" in Morse at one end of the table and, to his surprise, a moving bar at the other end of the table, not visibly connected, repeated the word.

After many difficulties, Marconi erected a 168 feet mast and sent a message to a receiver he had installed in the coastguard's cottage on the hill behind Totland Bay.

December 6, 1897, was a great day. There was a South-Western Railway •steamer named the Mayflower, which carried trippers between Lymington, on the mainland, and Totland Bay. Signor Marconi hired the steamer and sent it to sea with an installation on board. When the vessel was 18 miles out he was able to get messages to it. The Mayflower remained off the coast, and she received messages at the rate of four words a minute, mostly sent by Signor Marconi, his assistant, or Mr. Garlick. By November 15, 1899, Signor Marconi was able to establish communication from the Royal Needles Hotel to an American steamer, the St. Paul, which was 36 miles off the Needles.

All this time the first mast was tsianding on the hotel lawn. Difficulties arose with the ground landlord about the rent. Signor Marconi secured a site near St. Catherine's Lighthouse, Niton, and the mast was raised between the cliff edge and a farmhouse. One of the wings of the house was converted into an experimental station, and on February 11, 1901, Signor Marconi accomplished the great feat of transmitting to Cornwall.