220 



The Review of Reviews. 



HOW IMPERIALISM PAYS. 



The Socialist Review contains an interesting study 

 by Ludwig Quessel on the economic basis of Impe- 

 rialism. He remarks on the unexampled expansion of 

 the British Empire, which within the short space of 

 three decades has incorporated territories in Asia and 

 Africa which exceed in extent the whole of the conti- 

 nent of Europe. 



BUSINESS-LIKE EXP.\NSION OF BRITISH EMPIRE, 



The most remarkable feature, the writer says, of this 

 extension is that, except in the Boer War, it proceeds 

 without any sort of heroics, as coolly and uncon- 

 cernedly as the work of an experienced business man 

 only an.xious to keep out of the hmelight : — 



There is somelhing captivating in the contemplation of this 

 noiseless work of conquest, modeslly concealing its huge 

 successes, never talkative, never shouting about the mailed fist, 

 but quite able to use it when the business of gulping continents 

 demands it. . . . On the other side it is right to mention the 

 many services of British Imperialism to tlie advancement of 

 civilisation in backward countries. 



Yet it involves great financial sacrifices from the 

 Mother Country, which is governed by the electorate. 

 Why does the electorate consent to this burden } 

 The writer says : — " Wherever England plants a new 

 outpost of Empire, British trade with this subject 

 territory shows a notable increase — if only because the 

 security of a competent State administration is neces- 

 sary to modern business activity." 



THE MERE FACT OF I.M FERIAL CONTROL* 



liut this extension is not enough. The passion for 

 expansion is due rather to the search of British industry 

 for new export markets, as it finds or fears itself 

 threatened by German industry in all markets not 

 under the British flag. Though the new export markets 

 are open to the world, yet " the fact of Imperial 

 control frequently has the effect of an insurmountable 

 tariff wall." For example, the (Jerman African colonies, 

 which have no protectixe tariffs and no preferential 

 discrimination in favour of (Jerman industries, import 

 thirty-three times more German metal goods than the 

 English do. Conversely, India is a free trade country : — 



But just as in the German colonies, so here the mere fact of 

 Empire has the effect of a higli protective tarilf. This, again, 

 is easily explained as regards the metal industry. Whether the 

 Government itself builds its railways, bridges, harbours, etc., or 

 employs contractors, the whole of the material will usually be 

 supplied exclusively by the home industry. And in tropical 

 dependencies the State is everywhere the principal consumer 

 of structural material. 



SECRET OF tlKRMAN HATRED. 



But the same efifect appears in other industries in 

 which the Government is not an important consumer. 

 The textile imports into India from Engluntl are thirty- 

 four times as much as those from Germany and the 

 German African colonies. The textile imports from 



Germany are nearly three times as much as those from 

 England. The writer concludes : — 



Regarded from an economic standpoint, the hatred of 

 England which breathes from the writings of German Imperial- 

 ists is seen to be no irrational passion, but the expression of a 

 revolt of the possessing classes in Germany against the immense 

 expansion of the British Empire in recent decades. The ground 

 of this revolt is the economic grievance that in all the Asiatic 

 and African markets incorporated in the British Empire, how- 

 ever much the German export industries may under the law be 

 free to compete, they are in actual fact entirely "frozen out.-" 



DIGGING THE DITCH— AND 

 AFTER. 



Panama and prophecy have been closely combined 

 for many weary years, but it is possible to foresee the 

 completion in good time for the many celebrations 

 arranged for i9r5. The British Cduinbia Magazine 

 devotes special attention to the Interirational Exposi- 

 tion at San Francisco, which will be the most notable 

 of America's rejoicing over a thousand difficulties sur- 

 mounted, and a world's wonder of the first magnitude 

 booked to the credit of the New World. 



California may be expected to live up to its privi- 

 leges, and visitors will not be disappointed : — 



The extent of the site as finally determined calls for a frontage 

 of 15,000 feet. This site occupies an area of 625 acres. 



The exposition will open on February 20, 1915, and will 

 close on December 4 of that year. Upon its opening there 

 will be assembled in -the harbour the greatest gathering of 

 battleships and merchant vessels of the world ever brought 

 together. By night the international fleet and the edifices of 

 the exposition niil be brilliantly illuminated. 



From afar the main or centre group will present the effect of 

 a solid massing of palatial structures. The land rises upward 

 and the buildings will lie in terraces, contrasting with the main 

 group upon the level floors of Marl, our View. Along the shores 

 of San Francisco harbour will be constructed a great esplanade 

 or walk-way, bordered by pine, cypress, and hardy ihnd)^, 

 decorated with classical balustrades and architectural motifs. 

 Farthest from the bay, and close to the hills of the city, will be 

 a great boulevard adorned with trees, plants and shrubs of the 

 semi-tropics, the orange, the banana, tiie myrtle and the olive, 

 and three hundred feet in width. 



A great tower, with its b,ase occupying one acre, will forn? 

 the central architectural theme of the exposition city. The 

 horticultural disphay will cover fifty acres ; outdoors exhiliil- 

 will cover twelve acres ; there will be a great automobile 

 building, and the hangars for aeroplanes will cover three acres. 



However impressive the exhibition, its after-effects 

 will be ex'anescent when one considers the innumerable 

 issues which must arise from this disturbance of the 

 Old World balance, the Old World of commerce, with 

 its trade routes and political complications which 

 follow the flags of the competitors for supremacy. 



In the same magazine there is an interesting articK 

 by Dr. Ferdinand L. de Verteuil on " British Columbia 

 and the West Indies." To these widely-separated 

 members of the Empire the Panama Canal will mean 

 closer relationships to the great advantage of both, 

 for the West Indies will again lie in the main road of 

 the world's traftic, and must therefore occupy a position 

 of increasing importance in the strategy of the futuie. 



