SAVING THE WORLD

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4883, 13 August 1936, Page 2

SAVING THE WORLD

COURSE FOR BRITAIN. COLONIES AND ARMS. Britain can save the world. No other race can do it. France cannot do it because the French lack a world outlook. They are more insular than their island allies. Also, thej lack stability of government and an independent press. In France a Government seldom lasts for a year. There have been 96 Governments in 65 years. Her press can be bought. Moreover (writes Mr. D. Kirkwood, M.P., in the Sunday Mail), France is obsessed with a terror of Germany. She is so much

concerned with saving herself that she has not the mind to save the world.

Germany cannot do it, because German is financially bankrupt, dependent on British finance, and because she is still a suppliant seekingredress of her supposed wrongs. No nation with a grudge can save the world.

Italy cannot do it because she is poor and lacks the raw materials that are necessary to independence in an industrial era. No nation that is dependent on others can save the world.

Russia cannot do it because for 20 years her energy must be concentrated on building up her own vast country and the millions of her own citizens.

America cannot do it because the centre of the world’s danger is in Europe. America is too far away. Besides which, she is not interested

in Europe so much as she is interested in the Far East.

Britain can do it, because the modern industrial imperial world is her creation.

It was Britain that gave steam and machinery to the world and taught the world how to use them. What Germany has given in chemistry, Britain gave in machinery. Britain built battleships before other nations thought of them. Their first battleships were built in Britain, and much of the material in their modern battleships is obtained from Britain. I myself wrought on the first ship of the navy of Japan. We had 200 Japanese students encamped in John Brown’s yard while we were building the Ramillies, learning how to do it. The industrial revolution began in Britain, and has still its centre in Britain.

Riches of the Nation.

Being a nation of manufacturers, traders, and financiers, Britain is the richest nation in the world. Modern finance is a British product. There is not a nation in Europe that could exist as an industrial nation without British credit.

Britain for centuries has been mistress of the seas, the ocean police of the world. She had to be, because she had and has the dominant mercantile marine. This is partly due to the payment in goods which she receives from her financial loans and partly to the fact that Britain is a world Power. Britain is splashed red on the map of the world. The modern system of Emiper, made up of independent dominions, administered Crown colonies, mandated territories, and the great Em-

pire of India, is a British invention. Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Belgium and the United States have had empires, but none of them resembled our system. Britain gave to the world the method of government by representative democracy and the two-party machinery, Government and Opposition. No other nation has operated that method. They have tried to improve it, and have landed themselves in unstable Governments or dictatorships. These things, machinery, finance, world imperialism, and democracy Britain invented, and in them she still leads the world. She led the world also inthe abolition of slavery world also in the abolition of slavery Her next great gift to the world must be peace. Europe is to-day an arena of dog-fights. Britain must make it civilised.