There can be no doubt about it, Ant colonies, beehives, wasps' nests and termiteries belong to the political order or system known in modern parlance as the "Totalitarian State." Not that they are governed by dictators. On the contrary, except for the queens, which are the fertile egg-laying females of the various aggregations, there seem to be nothing in the way of individuals that rank above their fellows. The queens, however, exercise no gubernatorial functions. They merely lay eggs, feed ang lay more eggs, almost ad infinitum. Nor are their mates, the fertile males, in any better position, The great majority of these never function at all, and in some cases, nètably amongst the bees, are killed off by the neutral workers. But, in spite of this absence of a ruler, a colony of ants or termites (white ants) or bees or even wasps carries on with the utmost order, precision and discipline, for it is governed by the inexorable law or principle of the complete subservience of the individual to the State. The individual ant or bee exercises no freedom of action, nor are its interests as an individual considered in any way—everything must be sacrificed to the interests of the community or State. This is the ideology envisaged in the world of men today by certain States which have adopted the principle of Totalitarianism. It must be admitted that there can be no better system than this when it comes to a matter of war and conquest. This is well exemplified by what has been transpiring recently on my verandah, where a certain bellicose colony of ants appears to have embarked upon a programme of territorial expansion. It has already defeated and destroyed two other colonies on the verandah and is at the moment engaged in "mopping up" a third colony which had established itself.actually inside the house. A terrific battle is raging at one spot: it has already lasted several days The combatants appear to be mainly worker ants, with here and there a soldier, larger arid stronger than the workers, but no whit better fighters. The dead and dying are carried off by the victors, apparently to serve as food during this period of emergency when the ordinary foraging is out of the question. The final outcome, of course, depends upon the relative numerical strength of the contending colonies, But in this merciless war even the victors must pay dearly. I am not interfering, deeming it the best method of getting rid of the pests to allow them to kill each other off. I shall, in due course, deal with the survivors—it there are any.i—a. DE C. S, A
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.