CONSPIRACIES AND COMMON SENSE.
Ito THE EDITOR OF TEM " SPECTATOR.")
Sin.—You have rendered good service by your wise articles dealing with the grave dangers which threaten us at home and abroad. There is, of course, no organized general conspiracy directed by a central body to wreck the British Empire; but there are many hostile forces, consciously and unconsciously, co-operating with that object. As you point out, the "con- spiracy at Petrograd and Moscow is so open and plain as hardly to deserve the name of a conspiracy." That is true, because Lenin, Trotsky, and their confederates openly avow their aims; but they employ secret agencies acting with the so-called " Nationalist " movements in India and Egypt, with the revolutionary party in this country and in Ireland, and with Anglo-phobes in America. The close connexion between the various groups of conspirators is too little understood. The Bolshevik group is at work throughout the East, and in co-operation with the Turkish National Party, represented by Kemal, it has helped to foment the troubles in Mesopotamia, and may create chaos in Persia. In Palestine, the Zionist Party, which has affinities with some anti-British elements, appears to be forcing us into a policy which will lead to disastrous results in the Near East. The remarkable corre- spondence between the subversive movements which menace the world to-day and the sinister projects explained in the "Protocols" is not accidental. Most countries are now sub- jected to the influence of a propaganda—partly open and partly secret—which shows a curious consistency of purpose. It would require a stout volume to elucidate the nature and the interaction of the various conspiracies which are operating to estrange great nations, to keep the world in ferment, and to threaten civilization. If our Empire is one of the principal objects of attack, it is because the British people represent in a special sense the forces of order and real liberty. Marx was right in asserting that world revolution could not succeed unless Great Britain was involved, and that the revolution here must be engineered from the outside, because it was not in accordance with our national characteristics.
When you, Sir, turn to the remedies, I am convinced that
your views are perfectly' sound. We must face dangers boldly, "conduct a stern and open offensive" against the powers of darkness, and "use the broadsword of truth and honour." Unfortunately at the present time truth is difficult to ascertain, and I agree with you that the Government has been too sparing and often too late in communicating to the public revelations of which we and other peoples ought to be in
possession. There is, however, a reservation which may fairly be made. If the Government secures secret information which, if followed up, may lead to intervention with a view to checkmate conspiracy, reticence is justified.
Our psychology is such that apathy is more likely to prevail than undue alarm, and there is one consideration which I
believe has been too generally ignored. In our easy-going fashion we permit red revolution, armed rebellion, and even murder to be openly advocated. We have now become FO tender to what are called " political " crimes, that a Govern- ment which acted strongly for preventive purposes could not count on whole-hearted support, and would certainly be attacked for unnecessary interference with the much-abused
conception of public liberty. It follows that until serious outrages, appealing forcibly to our dull imagination, have actually occurred there is reluctance to take measures which would avert them. In other words, the State can protect itself, in face of the sentimentality which is now widely prevalent, only when a favourable atmosphere has been created by outrages too startling to be disregarded. It would be easy to chow that this mental attitude has been directly responsible for the death of innocent people. Thie form of sentimentality, coupled with total ignorance of conditions and forces in the outside world on the part of the masses now beginning to wield political power, is a distinct danger to the security and orderly progress of modern democracies.—I am,
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