Adams J.T. Empire on the Seven Seas. The British Empire 1784-1939
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
to
become
a
completely
independent
and
foreign
country.
It
is
doubtful,
the
Irish
being by
nature
what
they
are,
and
their
history
having
been what it
is,
whether
agitation
will
ever die down.
Although
the
flexibility
of the
imperial
structure
is
evidenced
by
the
fact
that
the
Free
State
is
a
republic,
with
the
good
will
of
Britain,
it is
nevertheless
a
fact
that
the
safety
of
Britain
requires
that Ireland
remain within
the
Empire.
It
is
impossible
to
say
what
force
might
be
used
to
prevent
her
complete
secession,
but
it is
certain that her
other
aim,
the
annexation
of Ulster
and
the
subjugation
of
the Scotch-Irish
and
English
population
of
the
northern
counties
to the
Catholic
and
Gaelic
south,
could
not
be
accomplished
without
civil
war.
In
such
a
war
Britain
could
not
stand
by
as
a
neutral.
Thus,
although
the citizens of
the
Free
State
have
complete
control of
their
local
affairs,
with
also
diplo-
matic
representatives
in
foreign
countries,
and
have
attained
a
degree
of
independence
which
they
never
dreamed
of
in
Glad-
stone's
day,
it
is
evident
that
the
Irish
problem
is still
far from
solved.
V.
NEW
DOMINION
STATUS
Meanwhile the status
of
all the
Dominions had
greatly changed.
Just
as
the
services
rendered
by
British
women
in
the
war
led
to
their
securing
the
suffrage
with
scarcely
a
ripple
in the
political
world,
so the
sacrifices made and
the
loyal
aid
given
to
the
mother
country
made
changes
in Dominion
relationship
inevitable. Canada
provided
armed
forces of about
650,000
men,
or over
8
per
cent
of
her
total
population,
and
spent
approximately
$2,000,000,000
on
the war.
Australia
sent
to
Europe
about
350,000
troops
and
in
the
Pacific
her
small
navy
rendered
efficient and
useful
service.
New
Zealand,
with
a
population
of
only
a
little
over
a
million,
raised
125,000
men
and
spent
over
$400,000,000,
South
Africa,
although
it
sent far
fewer
troops
to
Europe,
did
valiant service
in
Africa
itself.
In
all
the
Dominions
there
were
minority
parties
opposed
to
the
war,
such as the
French-Canadian
party
un-
der
the lead of
Bourassa
in
Canada,
which was
far
from
repre-
senting
the
attitude
of
most
of
his race
there,
and
the
Labor
Party
346
NEW
DOMINION
STATUS
in
Australia,
but
questions
were
settled
peaceably
at
the
polls.
In
South
Africa,
however,
there
was
a
formidable rebellion
of
some
of the
unreconciled
Dutch
who did
not
wish to
fight against
Germany.
This
was
suppressed
by
the
South
Africans
themselves
under
the
lead of
the
former
Boer
general,
Botha,
General
Smuts,
another
Boer,
was
commander-in-chief of
the
forces
which
cap-
tured
German
Southwest and
East
Africa.
The
South
Africans,
in
their
fighting
in
the
German
colonies,
saved
Britain from
having
to divert
any
troops
from
other
fronts,
and
in
addition contributed
about
$140,000,000.
We
shall
speak
of
India
later.
The
Dominions
had indeed
grown
up. They
had become
lusty
young
nations,
proud
of their
nationhood and
increasing
power,
but
the
strength
of the
ties
which
bound the
Empire
together
had
been
amply
proven.
The
enormous
changes
which
were
to
take
place
in
transforming
the
Empire
into the
British
Common-
wealth
of Nations
may
be
indicated
by
the
fact
that in
1914,
although
as
we
have seen
means
had
been
provided by
the
Imperial
Conferences
and
other
methods to consult with
the
Dominions,
it
was
not
dreamed
that Britain
alone could not
declare war for
the
Empire.
In
the
second
war
with
Germany,
1939,
.it
was
taken
for
granted
that
each Dominion
could
take
part
in
the
war
or
remain
neutral
as
it saw
fit,
and
although they
went in
each
made
its
separate
declaration
of
war.
During
the World
War
very
considerable advances were made.
Although
two
Imperial
Conferences
were
held,
an
Imperial
War
Cabinet was
also
created,
consisting
of
the British
War
Cabinet
with
representatives
from each
Dominion
and
from
India. The
first
meeting
was held
in
1917
and
as Sir Robert
Borden,
Prime
Minister of
Canada,
pointed
out,
for
the
first time in
history
the
Empire
was
not
governed
from
Downing
Street.
Ministers
from
six
nations,
each
responsible
to the
Parliament
of his
own
country,
and each
equal
to the
other,
sat
to
discuss
imperial
policy.
At
this
1917
meeting
a
resolution
which
is
one
of
the
great
landmarks
in
imperial
history
was
unanimously
passed,
demanding
that
after
the
war
readjustments
should
be
made
so
that
the
Dominions
"as
autonomous
nations in
an
Imperial
Commonwealth,
and
India
347
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
as an
important portion
of the
same"
should
have
an
adequate
voice
in
imperial
foreign
policy.
Although
the
Dominions
had
not
been
asked to
declare
war
they
were
asked
to
make
peace,
and
their
representation
at the
Peace
Conference
as individual
nations
was
a
marked forward
step.
In
the
League
of
Nations,
although
Britain
represented
the entire
Empire
in
the
Council,
each
of
the
Dominions,
as
well
as
India,
had seats
in
the
Assembly.
For
a
while,
however,
not much
further
was
done,
and the
Conferences
of
1923,
1926,
and
1929,
as well
as the Ottawa
Conference
of
1932,
considered
chiefly
economic
relations
within
the
Empire,
with
some
danger
that
the real ties
which
bind
it
together
might
be
lost
to
sight
in
wrangling
for
trade
advantages.
Moreover,
the
Irish
Free
State,
which
as we
have
seen
had attained
Dominion
status,
was
straining
to
break
as
many
links
as
possible.
South
Africa,
the
least
devoted
to
the
Empire
of the
older
Dominions,
had
placed
a Nationalist
Party
in
power
which
did
not
threaten,
but claimed the
right
of,
seces-
sion.
Whether
or not
a Dominion
could
secede
without the
consent
of
Britain
and
the other
Dominions
is one
of
the
many
points
in
the
imperial
structure which remain
indefinite.
The
British,
however,
have
a
genius
for
carrying
on
govern-
ment
and
getting along together
without
crossing
t's
and
dotting
i's.
The
nearest
they
have
come
to
doing
that
is
the
Statute
of
Westminster,
passed
by
the British
Parliament
in
1931.
This
verbally
established
practically
complete
equality
of
status
between
Britain
and
the
Dominions,
all
of
which
are
now linked
together
only
by
the
Crown,
thus
finally
bringing
into
being
the
plan
suggested
by
some American
writers
before
the
American Revolu-
tion.
But even
here
there are
constitutional
questions
which
are
quietly
ignored.
It
may
well be
asked
whether,
if
the
Dominions
received
almost
complete
independence
by
an Act
of
the
Parlia-
ment
at
Westminster
another
Act
might
not
legally,
at
least,
deprive
them of
it?
In
fact,
owing
to
her
financial
and
political
troubles,
Newfoundland
was
deprived
of
Dominion
status
in
1933.
Legalistic
quibbling
aside,
however,
they
seem
satisfied
with
the
present
flexible
imperial
relations,
with
the
exception,
of
348
GOVERNMENT
OF
INDIA
ACT
course,
of
Ireland.
Nevertheless,
there are
many
uncertainties
within
the
structure
of
the
Commonwealth,
and
some
of
these
may
cause
difficulties in
dealing
with
foreign
countries,
now
that
the
Dominions
are
sovereign
nations and
have
their
own
diplo-
matic
representatives
abroad
in
many
cases.
The situation
is
devel-
oping
in
such
a
way
as
possibly
to
make the
same
trouble which
the United
States
(in
which
both
the
Federal
government
and
each
of the
forty-eight
States
have
sovereign
attributes)
has
found,
and
which
has
brought
her to the
verge
of
war
three times
with other
nations.
The
United
States
is
a
unit and
at
the
same
time
for
some
purposes
it
is not.
The
same
anomaly
has now
grown
up
in the
Empire,
with
possibly,
for
outsiders,
the same
compli-
cations
and
misunderstandings.
VI.
GOVERNMENT OF
INDIA
ACT
As
we
have
seen, India,
although
not
a
Dominion,
has
come
to take
an
increasing
share
in
imperial
policy
and
affairs.
Con-
sidering
the
agitations
of
the
years
leading up
to
1914,
it was
not
unnatural that
Britain's enemies should count on
an
Indian
rising
once
Britain
was
at
bay,
just
as
they
counted
on the Irish and
other
troubles
nearer
home. In
fact
India,
its
peoples
and
Princes,
proved
so
loyal
that
practically
all
British
troops
could
be with-
drawn
from
its
garrisons,
and not
only
did
the
Princes
make
lavish
gifts
for
the
imperial
cause
but Indian soldiers in
great
numbers
fought
in
Europe,
Africa
and
Asia
for the
cause.
The
war,
however,
had
its
profound
effect.
The
very
efforts
Indians
were
making
seemed
to
call
for
a
greater
share
in
their
own
government.
The
Morley-Minto
form
of
government
had
not
achieved the
results
hoped
for.
In addition
there
was
great
and
genuine
distress
among
the
common
people, owing
in
part
to
the
old
causes
and
in
part
to sudden
industrialization
and rise
in
living
costs.
We
have
previously
spoken
of
the
effects
also of
the
Mohammedan
unrest
and
of the
influence
of
the
rise
of
Japan.
The
Mohammedans,
moreover,
were
in the
difficult
position
of
having
to
fight
on
the
side
of
their
King-Emperor
against
the
Caliph,
who
was their
religious
head.
Returning
soldiers
brought
349
EMPIRE
ON THE
SEVEN SEAS
back
stories from
Europe
not
only
of
the nations
destroying
each
other there but of
the
prosperity
of
European
peasants
as con-
trasted with
their
own
poverty.
Unrest
had
become
so marked
by
1917
that
the
British
Government
endeavored
to revise the form
of Indian
government,
and
the
bill
establishing
what was called
Dyarchy
was
passed
two
years
later.
It
was
a
complex
system
of checks
and
balances,
of
responsible
and
non-responsible government,
and
probably
would not
have
worked
in
any
case,
though
the
intent to
reform
was
genuine.
Owing
to
the
circumstances
at the
time it was
inaugurated,
how-
ever,
it
was
doomed from
the
start.
Ghandi's
influence
had
been
steadily
growing
and
he
had
developed
his
policy
of
passive
resistance,
gaining
a
huge
following
from
his asceticism
and,
according
to Indian
ideas,
saintliness.
Other
leaders,
however,
believed
in
active resistance
and there had
been a number
of
disorders,
including
the
murder
of a
European
woman
at Amritsar.
General
Dyer,
who
was
sent
to
restore
order,
was merciless
in his
methods,
shooting
into
an
unarmed
crowd time
after
time
and
killing
379
persons.
Also he
forced all
Indians
who had
to
pass
along
the
street where Miss Sherwood
had
been
killed
to
go
on
all fours.
Although
he
was
court-martialled
and
reprimanded,
racial
feeling
was
again
aflame
on
both sides.
There was
further
violence
and
again
the
Afghans
invaded
Northwest
India,
but
were
repulsed.
When
the new
form
of
government
was
promulgated,
Ghandi
started
his
campaign
of "non-violent
non-co-operation"
calling
on
Indians
to
take no
part
in the
new
government,
and
was later
imprisoned.
In
view of
the
obvious
failure
of the
scheme,
a
Com-
mission
was
sent
to
India
in
1926
to
study
the situation
and
pre-
pare
a
new
plan,
but
no
Indian
was
appointed
on
it,
and
the feel-
ing
was so
strong
that
fresh
troubles
broke
out
on
its
publication
in
1928.
Two
years
later
Ghandi,
who had
been
released,
started
another
non-co-operation
movement
and
was
again
imprisoned.
Meanwhile,
the
Indian
Princes had
agreed
to
join
the
British
in
some
sort
of
federal
government
which
should
include
both
their
states
and
the
British
provinces
and
which
seemed
to
pave
350
GOVERNMENT OF
INDIA
ACT
the
way
for some
form
of
responsible
government
such
as
the
Dominions
enjoyed.
This
was
to
a
considerable
extent accom-
plished
in
the
Government
of
India Act
of
1935
which is
now
in
effect.
Without
going
into
long
detail
it
may
be said
that
the
Act
proclaimed
a
Federal
Union
of
the sixteen
provinces
of
British
India,
exclusive
of
Burma,
and
of
such Indian
states
as
might
agree
to
surrender
certain
of
their
sovereign
powers
for
the
privilege
of
representation
in
the
federal
legislature.
The Act
is
very
complicated
but
in
spite
of
opposition
of
the
Congress
Party
is
the
greatest
advance
yet
made
toward
solution
of an
extremely
difficult
problem.
How difficult
it
is
is indicated
by
the vast
number
of castes
and
religions}
the
fact
that
the
total
population
is
three
quarters
of
that
of the entire
Empire}
and that
the
states still ruled
by
their
Princes and
not
by
the British
government
of India
number
about
600,
varying
from
what
are
scarcely
more
than
country
estates
of
a
few hundred acres to
Hyderabad,
the
largest,
which
contains
82,000
square
miles. Some
90
per
cent
of
the entire
population
live
in about
500,000
villages
scattered
about in
every
variety
of
geographic
and climatic
conditions.
India is
different
from
any
other
part
of
the
Empire
and is almost
a
world in itself.
That
it cannot
yet
be
accorded
full
Dominion
status and
responsible
government
is evident
but
the
nationalism
of
its
people
must
somehow
be met.
Whether
this
new
and
honest
effort to
do
so and
to
train its
people
in
self-government
will
be successful
cannot
yet
be forecast.
The
problems
of
every
sort
are
both
unique
and
colossal.
The
total
European
population
is
only
135,000
of
whom
60,000
are
troops.
India
may
never,
like
the
Dominions,
become a
cc
white
man's
country," yet
besides
all
other reasons
for
retaining
India
in
the
Empire
it
would
probably
fall into
the old
chaos
if left
to
its
agitators
and rival
Princes.
India is one
of the
greatest
of
Oriental
countries
and
the
British
effort
to
educate
it
politically
may
well
prove
the
focus
of
the
Occidental-Oriental
clash
or the
working
out
of
some
sort
of
harmony
between
East
and
West
even
though
Kipling
wrote
that
"never
the twain
shall meet."
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
VII,
BRITAIN'S RESPONSIBILITY
IN EGYPT
Another
important postwar change
was
in
the
status of
Egypt.
It
had
never been an
integral part
of
the
Empire,
but
perhaps
nowhere in
the
world,
as we have
seen,
had the
British
done
a
finer
piece
of
work.
The nationalist
movement,
however,
which
had
started
before
1914,
took on
during
and
after
the war
a
much
fiercer form. The fiction
had
always
been
that
the
suzerain of
Egypt
was
the Sultan
of
Turkey
and
that
the
British were
in
the
country
merely
as
administrators,
although
in
reality
rulers,
but
when
Turkey
entered
the
war
on
the
side of
the
Central
Powers
it was
necessary
either to consider
Egypt
as
an
enemy
or
to
sever
its
connection
with
Turkey.
Consequently
Britain
declared a
pro-
tectorate
over it.
The unrest
was
easily
held down
by plentiful
troops during
the
war,
but later
the
nationalist
movement,
under
its
leader,
the
impractical
fanatic
Saad
Zaghlul, spread rapidly
among
the common
people
as well
as
the ambitious
group,
anxious
for
political
power
and
plunder,
who had
originally
fostered
it.
It
became
evident
that
Egypt
as
a
whole insisted
on
independ-
ence.
Although
Britain
could
have
conquered
her and
held
her
down,
she
recognized
the
independence
of the
country
she
had
for so
long
nursed into
good government
and
prosperity,
in
1922',
with reservations. She
kept
the Suez
Canal,
the
Sudan,
which
Britain
alone had
conquered
and
in which she had
established
order,
and insisted
on
adequate
protection
for
foreigners.
The
present
situation is that
Egypt
is
independent
but Britain
has
the
responsibility
for
protecting
the
lives and
property
of
foreign-
ers
there should
disorder
arise.
Whether
the
country
will
relapse
into
its
old condition
of
political corruption
and
inefficiency
re-
mains
to be
seen,
as
well
as
what
responsibilities may
again
be
placed
on
Britain^ shoulders.
According
to
the
Peace
Treaty
Britain
had
undertaken
respon-
sibility
for
Palestine and
Iraq,
and
although
she
is still
administer-
ing
the
former
(under
mandate from
the
League)
under difficult
conditions,
her
tutelage
of
Iraq
ended
in
1925
when
a
treaty
was
made
acknowledging
her
independence.
Apparently
Britain
did
352
LEAGUE
FAILURE
AND
THE
RESULTS
good
work,
and
five
years
later
independent
Iraq
became
a
mem-
ber
of
the
League.
VIIL
LEAGUE
FAILURE
AND
THE
RESULTS
The
League
itself
was
doomed
to
failure,
and the
story
of
the
past
dozen
years
or so
is
that
of
its
progressive
decay
as
a
means
of
collective
security,
as
also
of
the
failure
of
the
leading powers
to
take
over
its
intended
function,
in
part,
of
correcting
the worst
mistakes
of
the
Treaty
of
Versailles.
There
were,
indeed,
almost
innumerable
conferences,
all
of
which
failed.
Hopes
were
high
in
1925
when
the
one held
at
Locarno
produced
a
group
of
treaties
among
the
powers
which
Briand,
the
French Prime
Minister,
said make us
now
"only
Europeans,"
an
opinion
echoed
by
the
German
Stresemann.
Sir Austen
Chamberlain
declared
that the
treaties
were
the
dividing
line
between the
years
of
war and
the
coming
ones
of
peace.
This
general
optimism
seems almost
in-
credible in
the
light
of
the
condition
of
the
world
today.
The Dawes Plan had
been
agreed
to in order to
help Germany
pay
the
reparations
with the aid
of
a
huge
international
loan,
but,
as
we
have
seen,
by
1932,
in
the
Lausanne
Protocol,
reparations
had to
be
wiped
off the slate.
There
were
also
the naval-race
and
disarmament
conferences,
such as
those at
Washington
in
1921
and at
Geneva
in
1932,
and
in
London}
economic
conferences
in
1927
and
1933;
treaties
to outlaw
war,
such
as
the
Kellogg
Pact,
or
the
Pact
of
Paris,
but
all were
as ineffectual
as
the
League
itself. The
trouble
was
that
no statesmen
had
the
vision
to see
the
root
of
the
troubles.
Rampant
nationalism
with
the
new
ideal
of
national
self-sufficiency,
together
with selfishness
and
ambition,
did
the rest.
There
was
also
a
profound
moral
setback.
Treaties
ceased to
be considered
binding,
sometimes
because
of
force
of
circumstances
but
often
merely
because
new
aims
made
it con-
venient to
break
them.
The
solemn
and
public
pledges
of
heads
of
some
of
the
leading
states
could
likewise
no
longer
be
trusted.
Italy
and
Japan
withdrew
from
the
League,
as
did
Germany,
which had
entered
in
the
hopeful
period
after
Locarno.
Russia
was
expelled
after
her
invasion
of
Finland.
353
EMPIRE
ON
THE
SEVEN
SEAS
A
new
period
of force
and
armed
conquest
set
in.
Japan
seized
Manchukuo,
and
then
started
the
still
continuing
but
undeclared
war
against
China.
Italy
wantonly
attacked
and
annexed
Abyssinia
in
spite
of the
treaty guaranteeing
the
independence
of that coun-
try,
which
was a
member
of the
League.
She
also
overran and
annexed Albania.
Germany
seized
Austria
in
spite
of Hitler's
word that
he
would
not
do so.
Next
came
his
claim on
the
Sudeten
Germans
in
Czecho-Slpvakia,
and
his
faithless
agreement
with
the
British,
French
and
Italians
at
Munich
in
September
1938,
followed
by
the
conquest
of
the
entire
country.
Finally
just
a
year
later in
September
1939
came
his
conquest,
in
company
with
his
new
ally,
Soviet
Russia,
of
Poland,
and the
start
of
a new
war. Russia herself
invaded
Finland
after
establishing
her control
in the
three
small
Baltic
states.
At this
point history
has
to
give
place
to
useless
prophecy.
It
is
impossible
to confine
the
story
of the
past
few
years merely
to the
British
Empire,
and we
have neither the
space
nor
the
knowledge
as
yet,
to
evaluate
events
which
are fresh
in
the
minds
of
all
as
contemporary
news.
Within the
Empire
there
had
been
few
important
changes
and
we
have
already
described
briefly
the
form
which
it has
now assumed. In Britain
the
economic
situation
gradually
improved
until
the
coming
of
the
new
war,
and even
in
preparing
for
that
a forced
draught
was set
up
under
industry
which made
for
profits
and
employment
though
the
prosperity
engendered
was
a
false one.
Once
more the world is
using up
its
remains
of
accumulated
capital
for destructive
purposes,
and
tax-
ation
has
climbed
to hitherto
unexampled
heights.
In
view
of
the
economic
chaos
and
the
profound
social,
political,
and
moral
changes
following
the
war
ended
only
twenty-one
years
ago,
it
is
impossible
to
imagine
what
another world
war
may
mean
within
the
same
generation.
One
can
see
only
that the
Empire
is
again
standing
the
test,
that
the
Dominions
have
ranged
them-
selves
on
the side
of
the
mother
country,
each
by
its
independent
voluntary
choice,
and
that
volunteers
are
pouring
in
from
all
the
Empire.
Its
unity
and
strength
have
again
been
shown
on the
eve of
perhaps
the
greatest
crisis in
its
long
history,
and
after a
354
EDWARD
VIII
great
shock to
the
Crown,
which
is
the
one link
binding
it
to-
gether.
IX.
EDWARD
VIII
George
V
died
January
20,
1936.
Never
a
brilliant
man,
his
devotion
to
the
country
and
Empire
over
which
he
ruled,
and
the
character
he
displayed,
had
won
him
the
affection
and
loyalty
of
all
his
peoples.
There
were,
however,
great
hopes
of
the Prince
of
Wales,
who
ascended
the
throne as
Edward VIII
and
who,
from
his
extensive
travels,
had
a
wider
knowledge
of
the
Empire
in all its
parts
than
any
previous
monarch.
Unfortunately,
never
married,
he
fell
desperately
in
love with
an
American
woman,
Mrs.
Wallis
Warfield
Simpson,
who had
already
been
once di-
vorced and was
at
the
time
the
wife
of an
Englishman.
The
King,
who had
not
yet
been
crowned,
preferred
abdication
(December
n)
to
giving
up
the
woman he
loved,
and
whom
he
married
six
months
later
after
her second
divorce. The
difficulty
was
not
that
she was a
commoner nor that
she
was
American
but,
as
we
have
many
times
noted,
the
Crown
has
become
the
link
which
binds
together
about
500,000,000
people
of
all
lands,
races
and
creeds.
The
ruler
of
the
Empire
today
is
not
a
private
person,
indeed
scarcely
a
person,
but
a
symbol
of what
the
peoples
of the
Empire
hold
as an
ideal.
The fact
that not
only
had Mrs.
Simp-
son been
previously
divorced
but that
a
new
divorce had to
be
arranged
in
order
that
the
ex-King,
now the
Duke
of
Windsor,
could
marry
her,
made
an
impossible
situation.
X. GEORGE
VI
AND THE
NEW
WORLD
WAR
On
his
abdication
Edward
was
immediately
succeeded
by
his
next
younger
brother,
the
Duke of
York,
who
took
the
title
of
George
VI,
and
it is another
indication
of
the
advance
in status
of
the
Dominions that
in
view
of the
changed
line
of
succession,
the
various
Dominion
Parliaments
passed
their
own
Acts of
confirma-
tion.
The new
King
was
more like
his
father
and has
already
won
the hearts of
his
subjects
by
the seriousness
of his
attitude
toward
his
new and
unwished
for
duties,
greatly
aided
by
his
popular
355