IMPERIALISM

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21826, 4 July 1936, Page 20

IMPERIALISM

TO THE EDITOE OF THE PU3J. Sir,—The greatest hindrance to peace comes from the great imperial powers such as Great Britain. France, United States, and the frustrated imperial powers such as Italy and Germany. When our ancestors, following the call, of gold and adventure, all unconsciously laid the foundations of the British Empire, little did they guess that in so doing they were creating a most difficult problem for their descendants. Of a truth “the fathers have eaten sour grapes (all unknowingly) and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” Few of us expect that the present League of Nations, composed of imperialistic powers, whose very empires are based on the sword, can bring about peace. The only hope is that the peoples of those empires will insist on the spoils of the sword being riven up as far as and as quickly as possible. The most practicable wav of doing this is fur all the imperial powers to hand over all their imperial possessions to a real League of Peoples, a procedure which will at least permit those same imperial powers to disarm. Is man adequate to the problem that faces him? Only time can tell. Nevertheless, there is a possible solution. First, if the individual here and now determines that so far as he is concerned he will try to keep alive in himself the spirit of fraternity with all men, a spirit that shows itself in an absolute refusal to take part in the fratricide of war; in an equally strong endeavour to extend the sphere of human co-operation, especially in the economic activities of men; and in season and out of season to impress on the individual man and woman his and her responsibility to life as a whole, there may be time even yet to “save a remnant.” Anyway, proceeding as we are doing at present, the end is sure. Our children are doomed. Proceeding alon" the way I suggest there is a possibility of their being able to avoid such a fate. Even if we avoid wars of the old type, there is still a problem facing us. The solution of both, however, lies in the character of the individual. The only real human problem therefore is how to make man really Man. —Yours, etc., , N. M. BELL. July 3, 1936.