Imperial Expansion 27 



have a vote one should have to pass two examinations : 

 one to prove efficiency in the work from which he (or she) 

 is earning his (or lier) living, and the other on a subsidiary 

 study of some country or industry abroad in order to prove 

 that, since the bulk of the wealth and power of this country 

 comes from abroad, the citizen has proved himself to be 

 as well versed in and appreciative of that which is building 

 up the wealth of the l^mpire generally, as he is of the 

 routine work which gives him (or her) the daily, weekly, 

 or monthly wage on which they live. 



Until something is done we shall always be behind as 

 a developing power, and through that defect we shall 

 always be handicapped when out to secure a place on the 

 highest summit of World-Success. Is it an exaggeration 

 to say that if, before the War, the work of a few thousands, 

 perhaps even of one or two hundred only, of our leading 

 men who had specialized in foreign and overseas develop- 

 ment trade, had been checked and their business connec- 

 tions shut down, our trade and the main sources of our 

 wealth would have also been checked, and would even 

 have, very soon, like a sluggish stream in the Tropics, 

 dried up under the tropical sun of foreign competition ? 

 In those days, who among the go per cent, of those whose 

 happiness and food cannot be assured witliout the help 

 of the remaining 10 per cent, would have cared if these 

 producers of the Empire's wealth had died out and so 

 caused the wealth that they created to have been cut off? 

 We believe that, until this 90 per cent, whose welfare 

 depended on the trade developed by and dependent on the 

 others, began to feel the pinch, they would have continued 

 to be indifferent to what was happening around them, 

 and would have awakened to realize the irreparable value of 

 these few lejiders, gone beyond recall, only when it was 

 too late to replace tliem. As we said long ago, if only 

 the Tropics could be placed out of all reach of non- 

 tropical countries for six months, how much more we 

 should appreciate them when we got them back. 



Can an Empire like ours continue to prosper in these 

 competitive times if our views of the case, as just men- 

 tioned, are correct, and no steps are taken to remedy the 

 ignorance and indifference of the masses as to whom 

 they owe their welfare, and whence the bulk of our 

 wealth comes from in the first place ? Ask yourselves 

 whether, even to-day, with the daily papers full of news 

 from every country and centre under the sun, has the 



