224 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



Robert Blatchford proceeds to ask a number of questions, and to offer a 

 number of alternatives, as if they were exhaustive and there was nothing 

 more to be said or done. Shall we leave the Empire defenceless ? Shall 

 we abandon our country and our colonies to the invasion of any power 

 that cared to take them ? Russia covets India. We must either defend 

 India or surrender it to Russia. If we made India a self-governing 

 nation, the result would be civil war and a Russian conquest. More than 

 one foreign power envies us our possessions. And so on, and so on ; with 

 the one conclusion : We must increase army, navy, and home defences, 

 and be prepared to fight all the world. Not one word about there being 

 any alternative to all this blood-and-iron bluster and defiance ; not one 

 syllable to show that the writer is a great SociaHst teacher, a believer in 

 the goodness of human nature and the brotherhood of man. " But," he 

 replies by his heading, " this is very good in theory, and very true, but it 

 is not practical politics. The danger is urgent. Tell us, ye Labour 

 leaders, what you propose to do now ?" 



I am not a Labour leader, but I hope I am a true friend of Labour 

 and a true Socialist ; and I will now state the case as it appears to me, 

 and suggest what, in my opinion, is the only course of action worthy of 

 Socialism or politic for Labour, and, besides, the only course which has 

 the slightest chance of succeeding in the long run : in one word, the only 

 RIGHT course. 



It is a notorious and undeniable fact that we — that is, our Govern- 

 ments — are, with few exceptions, hated and feared by almost all other 

 Governments, especially those of the Great Powers. Is there no cause for 

 this ? Surely we know there is ample cause. We have either annexed 

 or conquered a larger portion of the world than any other Power. We 

 have long claimed the sovereignty of the sea. We hold islands and forts 

 and small territories offensively near the territories of other Powers. We 

 still continue grabbing all we can. In disputes with the powerful we 

 often give way ; with the weak and helpless, or those we think so, we are 

 — allowing for advance in civilization — bloody, bold, and ruthless as any 

 conqueror of the Middle Ages. And with it all we are sanctimonious. 

 We profess religion. We claim to be more moral than other nations, 

 and to conquer, and govern, and tax, and plunder weaker peoples for 

 tkei'r good ! While robbing them we actually claim to be benefactors ! 

 And then we wonder, or profess to wonder, why other Governments hate 

 us ! Are they not fully justified in hating us ? Is it surprising that they 

 seek every means to annoy us, that they struggle to get navies to com- 

 pete with us, and look forward to a time when some two or three of them 

 may combine together and thoroughly humble and cripple us ? And who 

 can deny that any just being, looking at all the nations of the earth with 

 impartiality and thorough knowledge, would decide that we deserve to be 

 humbled, and that it might do us good ? 



Now the course I recommend as the only true one is, openly and 

 honestly, without compulsion and without vainglory, to do away with 

 many of the offences to other peoples, and to treat all subject peoples and 



