KIPLING SPEAKS

Evening Star, Issue 22070, 2 July 1935, Page 6

KIPLING SPEAKS

WARNING TO ENGLAND WORDS OF PROPHETIC FIRE Something of the prophetic lire which inspired his pre-war poem, ‘ The City of Brass,’ animated the speech which Mr Rudyard Kipling made at the dinner of the Royal Society of St. George at the Connaught Rooms recently. Mr Kipling spoke of the fashion in which England had cnt down her defences while her opponent armed for “ a fifth campaign the development of “ State-controlled murder ” and “ State-prescribed Paganism ” in a vast area of the Eastern hemisphere; and England’s own belated awakening to her defencelossness. He closed with an eloquent expression of faith in the national genius for recovery led by the traditional example of the Royal House. Proposing the toast of “ England and the English,” Mr Kipling said: “ 1 am, unfortunately* a producer of fiction, but outside office hours 1 plead guilty to an interest in facts. Will you allow me just to run through a few facts which may be of interest to onr England of to-day? RACE WEAKENED BY WAR. “ First, let it he granted that when men are dead they cease to live, and, as Solomon says, ‘ Neither have they a portion any more for over in anything that is done under the sun.’ Great Britain’s quota of dead in the war was over eight hundred thousand when the books were closed in ’2l or ’22. It would be within the mark to say that three-quarters of a million of these were English. “ Furthermore, a large, but unknown, number died in the next few years from wounds or disease < directly due to the war. There is a third category of men .incapacitated from effort by the effects of shock, gassing, tubercle, and the like. They carry a high death rate, because many of them burned out half a life's vitality in three or four years. They, too, have ceased to qount. “All these men' wore of average physique, and, but that they died without issue, would have continued our race. The selective elimination of so many men of one typo, and their replacement by so many persons of another typo and their_ children, led to an extensive revision of all standards of English thought and action. Now, there were a number of persons who, for various motives, had dissociated themselves from the war at the outset. Those, however, were all able to answer to their names at the close of the hostilities, and to rejoin the national life with a clear field before them.

SHIUKHIIS’ SKLF-JUSTIHOATIOX. “ Still, they wore not happy. There is a necessity laid upon man to justify himself to himself in order that he may continue to live comfortably with himself. So it was iu exact accord with human nature that, very shortly after the war, a theory should have sprung up that the War had been due to a sort of cosmic hallucination which had infected the nations concerned with a sort of cosmic hysteria. “ This theory absolved those wlio had not interested" themselves in the war, and/- by inference, condemned those who had, thus supplying comfort and moral support where needed. Naturally, the notion boro fruit. For this reason, Most children and all nations, when they have hurt themselves, instinctively run indoors and ask to be told a pretty tale. So it was with ns, and so, to us, too, a tale was told. (You may remember wo were all a little fatigued at the time.) “ A little later —in ’22 or ’2d—on the heels, you might say, of Rachel mourning for her children—our electorate Was enlarged .by the enfranchisement of all Englishwomen over 21. This gave renewed impetus to our national ideal of an ever-rising standard of living, and the removal of want, discomfort, and the accidents of life from the lives of all our people. To this end we built up, and are now building, gigantic organisations, to control and handle every detail of those lives. MARGIN OF SAFETY REDUCED. “ But, as I shall try to show, we chose—ive chose not to provide that reasonable margin of external safety without which even the lowest standard of life cannot be maintained on this dangerously congested island. The world outside England had other prooccupations. Like ourselves, ■it had dealt—had been compelled to deal—with an opponent whose national life and ideals were based on a cult —a religion, as it now appears—of war,_ which exacted that all his nationals should bo trained, at any Cost, to endure as well as to inflict punishment. “ In this our opponent was excusable. ’ He had won his place in civilisation by means _of three wellplanned wars waged within two generations. He has been checked somewhat in Ids fourth _ war, but, soon after the close of it—in ’24 or ’2s—seemed to bo preparing for a fifth campaign. In this also onr opponent was excusable. His path was made easy for him. “ Stride for stride with Ids progress toward Ids avowed goal wo toiled, as men toil after virtue, to cast away a half, and more than a half, of onr defences in all three elements, and to limit the'resources of their supply and renewal. Tin's we did explicitly that wo might sot the rest of the world n good example. But through all those irrecoverable years a large part of the World outside England liad not been idle. “ To-day, State-controlled murder and torture, open and secret, within and outside the borders of a State; State-engineered famine, starvation, and slavery as requisite; State-imposed godlessness, or State-prescribed paganism are commonplaces of domestic administration throughout States whose aggregate area, is between one-fiftll and one-fourth of the total land surface of the Eastern Hemisphere. * ABSENCE OF PROTESTS. “ These modern developments have been accepted in England without noticeable protest, even from quarters usually quick to protest. Nevertheless, the past year or so has given birth to the idea that onr example of Statedefended defencelossness has not borne much fruit, and that wo have walked far enough along the road which is paved with good intentions. It is now arranged that, in duo time, we will take steps to remedy our more obvious dofiicioncies. “ So far, guild : but if that time be not given 1o"us- if the attack of the future is to i’'* no the same swift ‘ all-in ’ lines : - our opponents* domestic admriis'l i'ns, it is possible that, before vc ,--e aware, our country may have joinc I those submerged races of history ’ who passed their children through fire tp Moloch in order to win credit with their .gods. “ And yet, the 'genius of onr race

fights for us in the teeth of doctrine! The abiding springs of the English spiritare not of yesterday or the tiny before. They draw from the immemorial continuity of tho nation’s life under its own sovereigns. That—behind and beyond all.—is onr strength and hope. It is in that hope that T ask yon to drink to England and the English.”