Why is everybody so much afraid of the word Imperialism? the stock taunt of the Russian Bolshevik who uses, it to imply something predatory, soulless, trea-choreus and inimical to. working-class interests—everything, short, that Bolshevism is and seeks to distract attention from its being by foul-mouthied abuse of others. Every wretched little George Lansbury, venting ~his atrabilious, spite upon his fellow countrymen, etches up the parrot ery and there appears to be nobody with courage to stand up and proclaim that the greatest good of the greatest number has come through Imperialism, The two greatest Empires the world has ever seen are those of ancient Rome and Great Britain to-day and only blind prejudice could -deny that their imperialism has been of almost incalculable value to the human race, The vast majority of mankind are equally leapable of governing themselves and even of knowing what is good for them and so it is extremely likely they will remain until the crack of doom. Far better for them a paternal administration like that of the great Indian Civil Service than the false persuasions of de magogness and professional politiel~ ans that they must do for themselves what nature never equipped them to do. Imperialism rightly: understood is not predatory but essentially self-sacrificing and Great Britain's Empire has cost her in hard cash, not to mention human life, considerably more than it has brought her. Perhaps that is why an enlightened democracy tries get rid of it. The "white man's burden" needs a good deal more self-renunciation than the modern conception of liberty a all enjoy:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.