MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
OF all the changes which I have witnessed in the last quarter of a century, of all the alterations in material and spiritual values which those twenty-five years have produced, the one which I continue to regard as strangely inexplicable is the changed attitude of the average Briton towards what used to be known as " our Imperial mission." I am old enough to remember the jubilation with which was greeted the Battle of Omdurman, and the delight which my elders manifested at the thought that Gordon had been avenged, and a further area of Africa brought under English rule. I can recall how at school we were taught to take a personal pride in the large areas of red which enlivened the surface of the globe, and how Pleased I was to observe how, from that angle of pro- jection, the area of Canada seemed larger than that of the United States. It was the age in which a young and ambitious politician could, without fear of ridicule or contradiction, write as Curzon wrote: "No Englishman can land at Hong Kong without feeling a thrill of pride for his nationality. Here is the furthermost link in the chain of fortresses which, from Spain to China, girdles half the globe: . . . The sight of the successive metropolises of England and the British Empire in foreign parts is one of the proudest experiences of foreign travel."
No Englishman, unless he actually desired to be provocative, could write such a sentence today: even the use of the word "England " would cause him to twitch with caution, conscious that some watch- ful Scot would without a day's delay administer his reproof. How is one to account for this reversion of a point of view? The increase of humanitarianism has, of course, deprived us of the pleasure our forefathers derived from the thought that many thousand savages had been slaughtered by the Maxim gun. The decline in missionary fervour has mitigated satisfaction at the thought that more heathen could now be converted. The South African War left people of my generation with a conscience so tender as to remain sore in spite of its results. This tenderness has since then deliberately been inflamed by anti-British propaganda. And the exaggerated imputa- tion of " economic imperialism " has induced many to regard our colonising mission with a cynical eye. But although I can under- stand that many thoughtless people may feel uneasy about our imperial past, I do not understand how any intelligent person can fail to be expectant and proud in regard to our imperial future.
* * * In the House of Commons last week we had a debate upon Colonial Administration. Sir Edward Grigg, speaking as a man of liberal sentiments and long experience, pointed out that colonial development depended upon colonial revenue, and that we had been "so frightened of exploitation" that we had failed to develop wealth. He urged that we should get away from general principles, from noble formulas, and concentrate upon the actual machinery of progress, as a guide to which he proposed the establishment of a Colonial Development Board. Mr. Riley, the Member of Dewsbury, suggested that the functions of such a Board could be better exer- cised by a Standing Committee of both Houses. Mr. David Grenfell, who is one of the few members of the Labour Party who has travelled widely, and observed upon the spot the functioning of our colonial machine, confessed to " a pride in what our people have done in building up this association, a community which is not racial and which transcends racialism." And Mr. Sorensen, whose speech was sensible and lucid, stressed the necessity of ceasing to regard our colonies " as an estate from which we may derive benefit," and urged us to approach the problem as a responsibility to be exercised with unselfishness. Yet the debate as a whole scarcely touched upon the problem which perplexes me ; it was largely, as Mr. Harold Macmillan remarked, " an agreeable intel- lectual exercise"; it did not explain why our tremendous imperial achievement, our inspiring opportunity, should be regarded by so many of our countrymen with boredom or even shame. " Undoubtedly," remarked Colonel Rayner, in referring to this problem, " the tendency to bracket the Empire with the Conserva- tive Party has played its part." If that be true, then it is indeed a misfortune that so vast a national effort, so hopeful a national oppor- tunity, should be diminished to the pitiable proportions of a party wrangle. If that be true, then, indeed, there might be substance in the pessimistic theory that the words "democracy " and "Empire " are contradictory, or that a country which becomes truly democratic, ceases to rule. To those who really believe that all men are born equal it may indeed seem anomalous that the rights .accorded to the citizens-of Wolverhampton are not equally accorded to the Basutos or the Masai. Yet who, with any knowledge of the facts, would really wish to push egalitarianism as far as that? And what reasonable person, having visited even one of the Crown Colonies, could deny that a period, a long period, of tutelage and trusteeship is essential? It is not only that our ignorance of the purposes and methods of our colonial administration deprives us of the right to resent the ignorant criticism of foreigners ; it is that our general apathy is such that we accept even thz most unfounded reproof as having some foundation in fact. That fine full word "imperialism " has shrunk into a term of petty reproach, nor do we reflect that, without imperialism, America would be non-existent and Russia small. We assume that our modern imperialists are in some way analogous to Drake or Frobisher or Clive ; we ignore the fact that men like Lugard, Donald Cameron and Halley were re- formers as great as any of those who remoulded our factory legisla- tion or changed the poor law.
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The gradual stages by which our conception of imperial function has developed from direct rule into indirect rule, from trusteeship to the " dual mandate," from responsibility to partnership, are to a great extent unknown even to the British public. In the United States today the great mass of the people are totally unaware of the true meaning of Dominion Status, even as they imagine that our Colonial Empire is exploited and managed both as a' closed market and as a closed source of raw material. There are many million Americans today who foresee that mass-production will after the war overflow their home market, and who believe that they will find relief from the resultant stringency by "persuading" us to open to American competition the vast markets which they conceive us to have retained for all these years as a privileged outlet for ourselves. Much is being done, and more will be done in future, to educate our own people and foreign nations as to the true nature of modern British imperialism. But what prospect will such in- formation have of convincing minds bemused by prejudice and unaware of the true political, social and economic issues involved? There can be no hope of wider understanding if we allow our own people to suppose that " Imperialism " represents an outworn and rather discreditable phase in our history ; the only hope is to show them that it is a continuous process of energy and improvement. If we are ashamed of our Empire, then assuredly we shall rule it half-heartedly and lose it meanly; if we again become proud of the opportunities it offers, then the great energies unleashed by this war can be applied to purposes which are enlightened and humane. * * * * I am an Imperialist, but the pride and pleasure I derive from Empire do not take as their symbol " the chain of fortresses which, from Spain to China, girdles half the globe." It is not of these things that I think. I think of the scientists I have known grapi_ling with sleeping-sickness among the scrub-forests of Tanganyika ; of teachers at Makerere, at Buda, at Achimota or at Gordon College ; of vets., and agriculturists and engineers ; of brilliant experiments such as the desert school at Bakht-er-Roda ; of all those men who, unrecognised and traduced, devoting their lives, not to personal profit or national aggrandisement, but to betterment and justice, are fired and sustained by the desire to impart to others the wisdo:n and responsibilities of our race.
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