IMPERIALISM-TRUEAND FALSE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4424, 2 August 1901, Page 2

IMPERIALISM-TRUEAND FALSE.

(By Robert H. Bakewell, M.D.) When I sat down to writ© on this subject I first thought of a saying of the late Mrs Lynn Linton, who was one of the very few witty writers of the present century. She said "It is very difficult to administer an Empire, founded by the breach of all the* Ten Commandments, upon tha principles enunciated in the Sermon on the Mount.” After carefully reading through the Sermon on the Mount, it appears to me that Mrs Linton might have used the word “impossible” instead of difficult.

Before commencing the discussion of any subject, it is always well to define one’s terms. What, then, does the word Imperialism moan? It is a now word, which has come into use only within the last few years. Empire and Imperial are words we are familiar with and which have been employed for ages; imperialism is derived from Jie same word—the Latin Imporium ; and means, as far as I can gather from contemporary writings, different conditions in different countries. It France it means the return to power of the Bonaparte dynasty; in Germany, the union of all the Teutonic races into one nation under one monarch, in Rus? sia and Great Britain the consolidation and spread of the dominion of ibe metropolitan power over vast extents of country inhabited by semi-civilisod or barbarous tribes. The word Imperium from which it is derived implies essentially (Ist) a command or order; (2) the right or power of commanding or ordering; and (3) the supremo power, sovereignty, sway, dominion or -m pire-

When we speak as we do loosely cf the British Empire, wo include largo colonies like our self-governing colonies with representative assemblies, which are practically so nearly independent that however much their legislation may bo opposed to the wishes or interests of the metropolis, the latter has no power or authority to. prevent such legislation, although there lingers, it ; s true, a shadowy power of veto in the Crown. The Imperial Pairliament, which bestowed on the colonies their representative governments, could, theoretically, repeal those Acts, and. reduce them to the condition cf Crown Colonies. Strictly speaking, they form parts' of the British Empire ; practically they are separate States, giving their allegiance to one monarch, but acknowledging no effectual power of contrql dy the Mother Country. But India, the Crown colonies, and the military stations of Gibraltar, Malta and Hongkong are in every respect-sub-ject to the Imperium and control of the country which has annexed them by force of arms, and holds them by right of conquest. As far as I understand the word, the modem Imperialism seeks to add to these Crown colonies, and ■does not either desire or seek any extension of those portions of the Empire which have self-government. Egypt, which we are supposed to hold in the interests of- order and good government, forms a thing apart, which cannot be exactly placed. We are under a pledge to leave it whenever that can be done with safety to the interests of its Christian inhabitants, and its European creditors, and we shall begin to evacuate, of our own free will, ecunewhere about the commencement of the Greek Kabends.

it lias been very truly remarked that there is no period of the history of his own country, and a fortiori of the history of other countries, of which a fairly educated man is bo ignorant as of the few years preceding his birth, and those of his childhood and youth. These years have not yet become parts of the 'school histories, because they deal with events so recent, which have given rise to' warm and passionate discussion, or have formed the fighting ground of hostile parties, so that the cautious writers of such histories, in their desire to offend nobody, avoid them. Ton will find people who* can tell you all about the constitutions of Clarendon, who know nothing about the early days of qjueen Victoria’s reign, and would be puzzled if you were to ask them why the young Queen was so unpopular with a certain political party, and asked which party that was. It will be useful, therefore, to take a brief, a very brief survey of the British Empire as it was when the late Queen ascended the throne, sixty-four years ago. She held' under -her rule in Europe only Heligoland, Malta and Gibraltar, besides, of course, the British and Channel Islands. The lonian Islands were under British protectorate, and we had powerful garrisons and fortifications in them, but they were never reckoned as part of the Empire. In the Atlantic we had the Bermudas, the West Indian islands of Jamaica, the Virgin Isles, Barbadoes and the Windward Isles, Trinidad and Tobago. There was also the South American colony, conquered from the Dutch, called British Guiana, and a little-known settlement in, Ceni tral America called British Honduras, one of the most wretched and unhealthy of all the tropical colonies, where, as a former Governor told me, when you go out for a walk before breakfast, you have to look out that the alligators don’t make a breakfast of you. Then there were the recently settled Falkland Isles, St. Helena and Ascension. Canada was very nearly what it is at present, except that it has lest a portion of the present State of Maine, out of which our ambassador was juggled by the American diplomatists, who were too clever and cunning for him. .The Hudson’s Bay Territory, now incorporated with Canada, was then held by the company under its old charter. In Africa, we had nothing either in the North or East Coasts until we came down to the Cape Colony. Natal was not then settled by white men: on the West Coast of Africa there were several small, unhealthy and . very insignificant settlements, inhabited by a few Governs ment officers, who were always either dying or being sent home sick, a few white traders, and the usual population of negroes. The Gambia, the Gold Coast Colony, Sierra Leone, were the chief of these settlements. The Australian colonies were then Crown colonies, and Tasmania, New South Wales (which included at that

time the whole of Australia) and Norfolk Island, were penal settlements. In the East we had Ceylon, Mauritius, the Straits Settlements, and a large pro, portion of what is now the Indian Empire, but which did not then embrace many large and valuable territories (such as th e Punjab, the Kingdom of Oude and Burmah) which have since been am nexed. This bare and bald ■ enumeration, without any description, seems to show a pretty good handful for about twentyifive millions of people, inhabiting a couple of bleak islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, to undertake. But what is it compared with what we have annexed or conquered since? The . United Kingdom, with an.area of 121,068 square miles, and a population cf about 40,000,000, is at the head of an Empire which extends over 11,062,782 square miles, with a population of more than 406,000,000, or more than ten times that of the Mother Country. Since the commencement of the late Queen’s reign, we have annexed or conquered vast possessions in India, Hongkong in China with a portion of the adjoint ing mainland, New Zealand, a vast number ofislimds in the South Pacific, Natal in Africa, and immense tracts in Africa which are either British possessions, or recognised as “within the sphere of. British influence.'’’ “Being within the sphere of British inuuonce” means, as far as I can make out, being within reach of British quick-firing guns and breech-loading rifles, and open to the consumption of British gin. These, with a few missionaries as table delicacies for the consumption of cannibals, seem to comprise the main blessings of civilisation, which we are supposed to confer on the dark skinned inhabitants of Africa. , Our occupation of the Soudan, as far as it goes, is shared with Egypt—a partnership which is very much like that of the lion and the lamb, in the stream, an described by AI-sop. To counterbalance our acquisitions of black and brown people cf various shades of colour, we have entirely lost all “Imperium” over Canada, Australia, and the Cape Colony, to all of which full powers of self-government have been granted. In order to obtain and govern these millions ef square miles, of territory, none ot, which can support a native population of white men, Great Britain has been obliged to denude her white colonies of all British troops, and the saying of an American that the British drum sounds the roll-call from sunrise to sunset round tho globe, no longer holds good. It would be a vain and humiliating task to inquire how all these vast territories have been acquired—all the treachery, the lying, the violence by which they have been wrested from their inhabitants. But one may at least quote a treat orator cf the last century and beginning of this, who lived in a period when men were not very scrupulous, and did not hesitate at doing things which would be vehemently denounced nowadays, if done by poor men. Lord Erskine in his defence of Warren Hastings thus denounces the w.ay in which our Indian possessions of that day had been acquired:—“lf your dependencies Jiave been secured, and their interests promoted, I am driven, in the defence of my client, to- remark that it is mad and preposterous to bring to the standard of justice and humanity, the exercise of a dominion founded upon violence and terror. It may and must be true that Mr Hastings has repeatedly offended against the rights and privileges of Asiatic Governments—if he was the faithful deputy of a Power which could not maintain itself for an hour without trampling upon both! He may, and must have offended against the laws of God and Nature, if he was the faithful viceroy of an Empire wrested in bleed from the people to whom God and Nature had given it. He may, and must, have preserved that unjust dominion over timorous'and abject nations by a terrifying, overbearing and insulting superiority, if he Was the faithful administrator of your Government, which, having noroot in consent or "Section, no foundation in similarity of interests, nor support in any one principle that cements men together in society, could only be upheld by alternate .tratagem and force. The unhappy people of India, feeble and effeminate as they are from the softness of their climate, and subdued and broken as they have been by the knavery and strength of civilisation, occasionally start up in all the vigour and intelligence of insulted nature. To be governed at all, they must b e governed with a rod of iron, and our Empire in the East would ha ve been, long since lost to Great Britain if civil and military prowess had not united their 'efforts, to. support an authority which Heaven never gave,, by means which it never can sanction!”

This magnificent passage, one of the grandest flights of eloquence in the English language, is, for reasons which will be obvious, not often quoted, and is but little known. I would call at; tention to the- profound philosophy of the passage in which Lord Erskine speaks of governments “having no root in consent or affection, no foundation in similarity of interests, nor support in anv cue principle that cements ro'>i together in society.” This is the Weak point in the modern Imperialism. It annexes vast territories inhabited by races having no similarity in interests, language, religion or social customs, to whom we are hateful, and whom wd despise, and rule over by main force. The moment any of these peoples find our military and civil administrators lulled into carelessness, and omitting the precautions necessary in a military occupation of a hostile country, they rebel, and they massacre every white man they can lay hold of—often, as in Matabeleland, the women , and chib, dren, with cruelties and mutilations of an indescribable kind. Then comes the revenge, savage and vindictive as that of the natives, and the rebellious tribe is crushed into submission by the destruction of all its fighting men. It is interesting to note that after annexing these inferior races without even the pretence of asking for a popular vote—which we are perfectly sure would go us—we call them “re; bels' if they to rise against our usurped authority. Now, what is the real motive fcr all this wonderfully sudden grab at all the dark portions o’f the earth, on the part of the European nations, and especially why is it that England, which has suck enormous tracts of territory that can be colonised

by white people, where people of her own race and kindred can live and rear their children, why does England annex all these tracts of laud, where no white race can live and propagate? When wo consider the millions that are being spent on the army and navy to secure and consolidate these conquests, the hatred and jealousy they inspire in Europe, the loss of lives in military operations, the waste cf talent and energy that is constantly taking place and draining the Old Country of its most valuable men, as Spain was drained for centuries by its American colonies, we may perhaps profitably inquire for a few moments. What is the reason for all this?

The alleged reason is the necessity for obtaining new markets for our trade and commerce—a purely selfish and most ignoble reason. But this is not the only reason. The government of Great Britain is still to a large extent in the hand of an aristocratic oligarchy— I say nothing against that, for it is better anyway than to be governed by an uneducated and vulgar mob, as we are in New Zealand. But the democracy in Great Britain, as in every other European country except Russia and Turkey, is rapidly becoming so far educated that it is able to read and write. Now, tile governing class and officials in Great Britain, ns in all other European countries, have until the middle of this century been drawn from a comparatively small minority of educated persons who have lived on, and at the same lime ruled, a very large majority of people so ignorant that they could not even read and write.

This largo majority, which in .every country must work and bear ail the hardships and chances of life, is beginning to rise up and ask why this should he so, and to demand not only its fair share of the government and of offices paid by the community, but a good deal more. It wants the wealth : of the rich, the savings of the frugal and the careful, the products not only of its own unintelligent toil, but of the science, tho art, the skill, the administrative and the organising power, without which that toil would never, produce much more than the bare necessities of a semi-barbarous life. In fact, Demos is rousing himself: hungry, he wants to feed riot on porridge and skimmilk, net on potatoes, not on mere, bread and cheese, with a bit of bacon on Sunday, not merely on plain food, which contented his forefathers, but on a diet which would have been accounted luxurious half a century ago. And so with his clothing, and his house, .and hi# means of travelling, and his books, which are . few, and his newspapers, which are many. And his wife and daughters are disgusted with tho drudgery of their household work, and.want to be ladies, and his sons don’t like hard work of any kind, and 'want to he gentlemen. And they have heard of sunny lands across the ocean, where white men never work, and the darkies do all the drudgery, and the white men live in luxury, and are lords masters. and get rich, by the labour of these sam“ darkies.

So this policy of annexation keens the multitudes quiet for the time being ; it provides for the more intelligent and enterprising of them endless billets, and is in fact a sop to Cerberus. But what does it rest on? Upon forced labpuf. It means the recrudescence of slavery in its worst form. Look at Rhodesia,, and the came is true of all the African annexations —they can do nothing without black labour. But it is well known the black cannot _ or will not work continuously and steadily, as the conditions of modern manufacture and commerce- require, for any wage you can give him. Then -what is the alternative? He must be forced to; work. In the diamond mines he ; s; kept an absolute prisoner within a fonc-j ed enclosure. In Rhodesia ho is requi- j sitioned from his native chief, and floe-1 ged if he will not work. If a trib e ! rebels and refuses to supply labourers, I the tribe is treated as rebellious, and a j certain number are shot done, until | the survivors yield. The life of a negro in South Africa is worth very little mere than that of a blackfellow in Queensland or West Australia. Gradually the coloured race# will either be exterminated as they are being in the South Seas, or they will, as in Africa, continue to multiply and ultimately drive out the white man. For there is an easy limit to the power of the white man to hold these topical countries. Spain. found it three hundred years ago, and yet she amalgamated better with the coloured races than we can do, and she gave them her language, her religion, and to a large ex= tent her laws and social customs. Portugal has large but shadowy claims in Africa, which she holds mainly by halfcastes. The fact is. God and Nature, as Lord Brskine says, or the process of evolution as we should say nowadays, have determined that certain races, and no other, shall inhabit the h ot countries of the earth, and that they shall be capable only of a certain degree of civilisation. Any attempt rapidly or suddenly to increase that civilisation must be a failure, for it entails the destruction of the native race, as we see in the Sandwich Islands. And then? V* ell, you don’t get white men in .their place, but Japs and Chinese. _ The true Imperialism, as I take it, would be to* drop all these recent an* nexations, or swop them away with any European Power that may he fool enough to undertake them; to stop all further annexation or in barbaric countries, and to- consolidate the British Empire by making the Imperial Parliament representative of the whole of the colonies —inhabited by white men; by allowing each colony having representative government, to elect members 'to the House of Commons proportionate to its population in the Empire, and by strengthening the House of Lords by the admission of prominent colonists amongst . its members. The Imperial Parliament would have the -control of our diplomacy, and of the army and navy, and would of course make a requisition on each of the colonies for payments towards the cost of the central government, and the naval and military forces. It would also legislate for the whole Empire on many matters such as the marriage which each colony now legislates for itself. "This is what I consider to he true Imperialism. The false Imperialism, based on the most selfish and the ires' sordid motives which can. animat© a,

human being, is merely robbery under arms on a large scale, accompanied by the most atrocious injustice and cruelty. When I think of the brave men mowed down in thousands by Maxim guns, with never a chance of reaching thpir butchers, I am ashamed to belong to a nation which not only tolerates, but applauds and gloats over such cam nage. This is not the work for British soldiers, this is not what the successors of the men who fought at Alma, or Inkermanu, or in the trenches before Sebastopol, or the Valley of Balaclava, ought, to be called upon to do. It is wholesale butchery, not honourable warfare. Not in this way did our troops fight in India for suppressing the nuttiny. Then they fought men drilled and disciplined by British officers, armed with the same weapons, using our own artillery, but in numbers tenfold that « of the heroes who attacked and defeat* ed them. I will yield to no man m loyalty to my Queen, or in love for my country, but I would say as the poet makes the lover say— I could not love thee, .dear, so much, Loved I not honour more.