1937-12-28 — Page 10

10

W

MEN

"HAT price Conquest? Pretty high, as wor- ried gentlemen, in Rome and in Tokyo are beginning anxiously to dis-

cover.

Cost of the Abyssinian war 'was outrageously beyond estl- mato: and it is (after two years) by no means over. The new capital levy shows to what Anancial straits it has reduced Italy. Cost of the Chinese war is touching the £100,000,000 mark, more than the whole cost of the Russo-Japanese war; and it has only just begun.

What lies ahead these same worried' gentlemen are begin- ning to regard' as a dificult puzzle. The Italian people, the Japanese people, of course, must pay the bills.

Cost of living in Italy has gone up 30 per cent. Stan- dard of living In Јарап (already terribly, low) gocs down.

TN both countries therc is a police system that "can' prevent discontent from showing itself, Doubts about the war are "dangerous thinking " in Japan, "Bolshevism" in Italy,

But, police or no police, the average Italian, the average Japanese, can hardly help won- dering. You see, he had been promised not just glory but a great deal of pront.

The conquest of Abyssinia was to solve Italy's economic problems, Propaganda had pletured a land full of gold and diamonds and oll and rubber and everything the heart of an Italian could desire. Millions of money and acres of

land were there for the taking.

Manchuria was to provide for as Abyssinia for Italy.

Japan Limitless raw materials for her industries: Umitless room for her teeming population.

From both has come little but expense and disappointment-and the prospect of more

expense, more effort, more sacrifice, And

more adventuro.

ONQUEST of Manchuria has forced Japan into a now war for the con-

THE · HONGKONG ·NTELEGRAPH.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28,

1937,

AND THINGS ABROAD by W. N. EWER

Conquering 'Heroes'

-at a PRICE

populations. It is no longer pos- sible. The conditions for doing so

are conc.

When the British

conquered

India they did so because there

was no effective resistance. There was no national consciousness.

In organisation and equipment and fighting power the local governments were hopelessly in- ferior. A battle or two could con- quer a province: and that was the end. The people accepted the change of mastery without Д murmur, Almost without thought. The Empire lay there waiting to be ruled.

So with the Russian drive over

To-day it is all different. The days of the great Empires, as the

quest of Northern China. Con- Northern and Central Asia-and quest of Abyssinia a little less with any of the others, Empire- directly has led Italy into the building was comparatively an Spanish campaign. They cannot easy thing. Empire-ruling a very stop. They must succeed or break, easy one.

And they cannot succeed. Because the days of conquest are over, The real trouble about nineteenth century knew them, Mussolial, and about his Japanese are over. The phase of building opposite numbers is that they are has gone; the phase of breaking out of date. They are obsessed by up, or of transition to something ideas that belong to a dead past. very different, has begun. They are dreaming of building Nationality has become too strong and ruling and exploiting great for imperialism to succeed. Empires, of Installing their people This country, very rich in expert- as a ruling race over huge subject enees of such things, has learned

Like her counterpart in

italy.

the Japanese housewife is not paying, the price of the con- quests planned by her rulers.

the lesson-or, at any rate, is learning.

At the close of the war Britain had, as part of that gigantic effort, conquered Qu enormous new Empire in the Middle East. Militarily, we were in occupation of all the land from the Libyan desert to the Indian frontler- Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, and away north to Baku and the shores of the Caspian.

Arush Imperfallsm would have tried to hold and rule all that territory And would have

wrecked Britain' in the attempt.

B

UT sound Instinct knew the task an impossible one even for the re- sources of the British Empire, National Iceling among Egyptians and Arabs and Persians and the rest was too strong, British rule would never have been passively accepted. To hold that new Empire would have been to embark on years of continual struggle, exhausting, profitless, in the long run hopeless,

Wisely, British Imperialism rejected the temptation, and quietly withdrew from its new

conquests. Equally wisely-if with bad hesitations and reluctances that too, 15

--it

the the

has come to Indian Empire,

ចុងចុះ”

19th century knew It, finished; that India

can no longer be held as a conquest, that Indian independence (pos- sibly in partnership, but MEÐIL Independence) is inevitable: that the problem is how to end the regime of conquest peacefully, painlessly, and with the minimum of upheaval,

scrapped as not only costly but unwork- able.

They are chasing mirages as illusory as Dante's dream of re-establishing one universal

monarchy

over all 7hristendom or Napoleon's vision of a French Empire from the Tagus to the Volga.

Mussolin! may, by straining Italy's Те sources to the utmost, subdue and hold Abys- sinia. Even that is not certain. But his dreams RO further. He thinks of a new Roman Empire of the East, of Italian domin- ation of Spain; of heaven knows what.

Even if no Great Power stood in his way. it is a madman's vision that, pursued, could only lead Italy not to greatness but to collapse.

Japan may win battles in China. Terauchi may sweep south of the Yellow River. The Chinese lines to Shanghal may be broken, the Emperor's armies may march to Nanking. But then?

China of the twentieth century is not India of the nineteenth. To subdue, to hold, to govern and to exploit that huge population roused now to a white heat of national consciousness and hatred As with the British, so with all for the invader is beyond possi- the other

bility. Empires French,

and the Dutch, Russian They all have to learn, they are all beginning to learn, that the days of domination are over, and that their subject peoples have to be prepared for and helped to Independence.

rest.

To try to keep them in sub- mission would be, in the long run, B hopeless, unprofitable and suleldal effort.

In Africa, true, the process has gone less far. But it begins there. The tide of Imperial conquest has turned. The ebb is beginning... · everywhere.

And it is now that, with a blind romanticism, Japan and Italy chose to try to begin careers of Imperial conquest and domina- tion.

They long to imitate the example of others. But they do not under- stand that the models they are trying to imitate are already being

A

to Germans who may still dream of bringing under the heel of the Relch Czechs and Poles, Blovaks and Rumanians and Ukrainians from Silesia to the Black Sea- this is beyond Bedlam.

Of course, all this does not lessen the danger that such attempts may be made-are, indeed, being made. It does not lessen the re- sponsibility of those who have let the organisation of security be→ como so feeble that the attempts are possible,

It does not lessen the tragedy of it all, but heightens it, by adding irony to tragedy.

The world is faced by the inst madness of lust for conquest in a day when conquest has become an absurdity and the conqueror's Em- pire an impossibility.

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ACROSS

120

1 In this science lies the cripple's

hape (10).

This bit of meat is mostly a pinnt (4).

10 lfe evidently takes exception to

the rule (5)

11 This food is eaten, of course,

and not drunk (0).

12 When the end is

turned in

transparent setting_there la 're- joleing (8).

13 A great singer (5).

16 An ungollant blade (7),,

17 This has no small significance

(7).

19 Kind of uniform for the order

of the bath? (7).

21 When employers this curtailed

they make it all (7);

22 Epithet for n rough diamond

(B).

24 The result of the world getting

a bit above itself? (8);

27 Governed too much, or declared

to be invalid? (9).

28 A relative (5).

29 Did Noah Innd on this island?

(4).

30 To a very great extent comes

from your lemons (10), )

DOWN

I He is no lady's man but a bit

beat

.29th March

.849

of a progressive (4).

£53

2 Statistics ere sometimes

arranged thus:(0),

G. E. HUYGEN

AMG Canton,

4 She may be good in parta (7),-

3 Causes of friction may vanish

on being this (5), d

5 Lodge (7).

A healthy beating reveals Atness (8).

its

8 This should show the opinion

of the people (10).

9 This may blunt the edge of

Borrow (8).

14 Conscientious (10). 10 Opening with

18 Want (9).

simlan opening

20 An Alpine tunnel (7).

21 The end is inferior In position

and spoils the whole (7).

23 Sounds approval, undoubtedly

(5).

25 A dance (8).

[20 Gainsey (45)

Yesterday's Solation KITTIWAKE=M PM STEHEHRA TAHIT I

OTHEREREALEPED

IN BRA PARKED OTOATRICE DIL KUAN YOU BRONZE Ú BEBE A IMHOSTBA), HAPLES BEPISTLE

OBSPUTTEN

HN STRAMĮ

JOENTLEMEN

MARRI

AEROPOL TO

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