446 



The Review of Reviews. 



AN INDIAN ON TRUE 

 IMPERIALISM. 



In the Rajput Herald for August Thakur Shri 

 Jessrajsinghji Seesodia, writing on " India's 

 Place in the British Empire," states what he 

 conceives to be the only right conception of the 

 British Empire : — 



While speaking of or referring to the British Empire, 

 we invariiibly mean the collective group, and not the 

 individual part. By this you attach to every part its 

 proper significance by naturally making it impossible 

 for the whole to live as it is without the part— whether 

 big or small. This is the fundamental creed in Imperial 

 politics which gives Imperialism an additional force 

 and vigour which can never be found in any other. By 

 estimating a tiny land in the remotest corner of the 

 earth as of particular value, you not only dignify that 

 portion of land, but make its inhabitants glow with 

 fervour. Whether co-partnership should be the keynote 

 of the Empire, or a state of inter-dependency must form 

 the basis of Imperial conception, they are mere details 

 of a formula, and not the formula itself. To the parts 

 of the Empire it is unimportant whether they form 

 an equivalent part or otherwise, but it is important 

 that they must form parts of the whole. It is unim- 

 portant whether you give them Home Rule or not, but 

 it is important that you must honestly endeavour to 

 devote the same attention and energy for the develop- 

 ment and progress of one part as you would to any 

 other. Imperial treatment must be the one characteristic, 

 feature of Imperial administration. It is the function 

 of a developed State to develop other States that lag 

 behind it in improvement, not only in the interest of 

 the unimproved, but in its own interest. When one 

 State sets upon this function, as it should, and annexes 

 and conquers territories in execution of this task, that 

 State alone deserves the name of an Imperial State. 



BLUNDERS OF THE EAST. 



In the Rajput Herald for August "Asiaticus " 

 finds the origin of the Asiatic revival not in the 

 influence of the West but in its own immanent 

 development : — 



In Asia the chief generating influence that was the 

 leaven of progress came from within the continent, and 

 not from without. Centuries and ages of meditation 

 and thought, years of hard and arduous struggle, have 

 produced a dynamic force which in its ultimate fury 

 emitted its volcanic power on the continent at large. 

 This force, this dynamo, and this volcano is the awaken- 

 ing of the consciousness of the Asiatic. 



The writer urges that the over-enthusiastic 

 regenerators of modern Asia do not recognise 

 that Asia moves only on account of the awaken- 

 ing of the average Asiatic. This oversight was 

 the cause of the calamitous failure in Persia : — 



The failure not only plunged the whole country into 

 disaster, but also made even the remote conception 

 of Persian revival an utter impossibility. Those who 

 started the revolution, those who engineered it, are 

 mighty intellects and really great men who can proudly 

 lake their places with their Western comrades. They 

 were clever, sincere, intellectual, and, alx)ve all, highly 

 patriotic men imbued with zeal and ardour of the 

 highest order, and determined at all hazards to change 

 the deslfny of their land of birth. They were deeply 

 moved by the suffering and sorrow of their countrymen. 



But they did not realise that they were called 

 on to regenerate the land by the awakened con- 

 sciousness of the average Persian. They con- 

 sidered the people of Persia to be quite below 

 their own level. This tragic failure of the 

 Persian revolution is a great setback to similar 

 movements in Asia. What was lacking was the 

 awakening of the Persian consciousness. It had 

 not behind it the moral acquiescence of every 

 individual on whom it acts. This is the initial 

 blunder which the leaders of new movements in 

 Asia often commit. The writer might have 

 added : and not in .'\sia alone. 



. PLEA FOR FIRE INQUESTS. 



Mr. Henry W. Carter contributes to the 

 Empire Review a plea for compulsory fire in- 

 quests. The City of London has had compul- 

 sory fire inquests since 1888, with a notable 

 diminution in the number of fires. The total 

 premium receipts of British insurance offices for 

 a recent year amounted to over 25I millions : — 



If, without pretending accuracy, one assumes the 

 total premium income represents the collections from 

 an average rate of four shillings per cent., one arrives 

 at the prodigious total of ^12,754,301,500 as the esti- 

 mated insurable value of the property dealt with 

 annually by the fifly-six British offices. The gross 

 amount of property insured against iire in the adminis- 

 trative County of London alone was, by the latest 

 return, estimated at jf 1,094,027,206 ; the total insurance 

 premiums amounting to ;^2,737,3i8. 



One pauses to think how much this huge total would 

 be increased if, by a moderate reduction of rates, the 

 non-insured and partially insured were included. 



The advantages from extending the principle 

 of compulsion from the City of London to the 

 whole country are thus enumerated : — 



Let us suppose ten years have elapsed since the pro- 

 posed law came into force. During that period coroners 

 in all parts of the country would have issued records 

 of tires, segregating risks, causes, and best means of 

 prevention. These records would have been compared, 

 definite conclusions arrived at, and, when necessary, 

 enforced by legislation. It would have been proved 

 that certain methods of manufacture in certain industries 

 were more susceptible to sudden conllagration and con- 

 sequent dangers to life and property than other methods; 

 it would have been agreed that certain old-fashioned 

 precautions must be abandoned ; that certain modes of 

 lighting and heating are free from the objection in- 

 evitable to others, and that electric circuit and defective 

 arrangements can be provided against. Build'ngs, 

 materials, and exits would have been improved — 

 prudence would have been aided by experience, and 

 inevitable carelessness and accidents guarded against, 

 as much as possible. 



I fully anticipate that long before the expiration of 

 the ten years a system of certificates will be in vogue 

 and granted to occupiers of premises well provided 

 with modern precautions and appliances. Insurance 

 companies would readily make a rcdiiction or concession 

 in rates to the possessors of (hose certificates. 



