The British in PalestineF ro m a J e w is h C o r r e s p o n d e n t .

BO TH in spirit and in achievement the British administration of Palestine is a political appli­cation of the old maxim “ take care of the pence

and the pounds will take care of themselves.” The pence are the thousand and one details of efficient Government, and the pounds the fundamental issues involved in the creation of a new Palestinian nation out of Moslem, Jewish and Christian elements. A more imaginative people than ourselves would have addressed itself directly to the appeasement of racial and religious antagonisms and would, perhaps, have only inflamed them further. But that is not our way and the condition of the country when we took it over was favourable to the exercise of our severely prac­tical methods. Such administration as it boasted had been sacrificed to the needs of war. The olive trees had been cut down for fuel, and the orange groves were dving for lack of water. Brigands were estab­lished in the hills, and the Bedouin were raiding across the still undefined frontiers. These evils impressed the British more than Arabo-Jewish hatreds, because they admitted of a more immediate remedy. A local police force was at once organised backed by a British gendarmerie, still maintained though in diminished numbers, and by a British garrison, now reduced to a skeleton force; and the maintenance of public security has probably done as much as anything else to appease suspicion and conciliate prejudice. A parallel reform of the administration of justice also had its influence on a litigious population. Palestine is now equipped with honest and impartial Courts of first instance whose magistrates are recruited locally without distinction of creed, are paid salaries on which they can live without taking bribes, and operate under the supervision of higher Courts staffed by British judges.

Into this framework of civilised rule there have been fitted such administrative changes as British standards of government demanded and no more. Here again a more imaginative people would have acted differ­ently. They would have scrapped the whole slipshod Turkish system and substituted a thoroughly up-to- date constitution. In the process they would have thoroughly bewildered the Arab mind and postponed indefinitely the establishment of the tranquillity which Palestine chiefly needed. Accordingly the population has been left under the institutions to which they are accustomed, but immense changes have been made in the spirit in which they are administered. Particularly is this the case in the field of finance where order and equity have replaced the corruption and tyranny of the Turk. Palestine now enjoys a proper Budget with revenue and expenditure estimated and balanced by highly trained treasury officials. The British Colonial services have supplied the necessary staffs, and it may safely be said that no other country in the world could have at once provided Palestine with administrators so well acquainted with the theory of taxation and so experienced in the methods of government.

The principal source of inland revenue is still the tithe which the Turks with characteristic humour had fixed at 12 J per cent., but which the British have reduced to its proper figure. It is an unsatisfactory tax from the point of view both of Government and of governed— of Government because a bad season may nullify the most careful estimates, and of governed because the heaviest burden falls on the hardest worker. Indian experience suggests its abolition in favour of a land tax, and this reform is under con­templation. The customs tariff, on the other hand, is theoretically sound and requires no fundamental change. Good government and wise expenditure on internal development is sufficient to assure an expand­

ing revenue. To take one example. In 1914 Palestine had one motor car. Ten years later, as a result of road-making and of facilities to tourists, there were 1,000 and the revenue derived from these cars proved sufficient to maintain the roads.

There are, however, four departments of adminis­tration in which the British have broken entirely new ground. The first is public health. Here amazing results have been achieved. Malaria, till lately the curse of the country, is now extinct in all the towns except Haifa where a swamp still awaits drainage. W hat is more the inhabitants are readily giving their services in the campaign against the mosquito and the annual record of patches of stagnant water rendered harmless by oil-spraying approaches 750,000. Almost equal success has attended the attack on ophthalmia, and here, too, the growing sense of hygiene among the Arabs is of splendid omen for the future and a notable tribute to the statesmanship of Colonel C . W . Heron, the Director of the Health Department.

The Department of Agriculture is linked by its veterinary services to the Department of Health. Under its impulse the standard of farming has been raised among the Arabs, and a fund of information placed at the disposal of the Jewish settlers. It gives instruction in up-to-date methods, develops new in­dustries such as tobacco-growing and bee-keeping, plants timber and fruit-trees, and, neglecting nothing, gasses field mice. In much of its work it co-operates with the Department of Education. In this field Gov­ernment has shown its impartiality by doing more for the Arabs than for the Jew s. The Jew s were ready enough to provide their own schools, whereas the Arabs required a stimulus. It was given by a govern­ment undertaking to maintain schools if the buildings were provided locally— an offer which has led to keen competition between Arab villages. Broadly speak­ing, the foundations of elementary education have been properly laid and a beginning has been made with the development of higher centres.

Lastly, the country has been equipped with a proper system of commercial and industrial law— non-existent in Turkish days. During the five years of S ir Herbert Sam uel's administration 130 ordinances were passed and the H igh Commissioner records that “ the in­numerable technical points involved would have over­taxed the knowledge and experience ” of his staff, had it not been that “ the experience of centuries of law­making in all. parts of the Empire and a knowledge of the latest legislation in foreign countries were placed ungrudgingly at the service of this young adminis­tration.”

But a greater problem than law-making confronted and still confronts the Palestinian Government. In what sense and by what means is effect to be given to the Balfour declaration ? It was found that the phrase Jewish National Home required interpretation, Eastern opinion readily conceiving of a “ Jewish nation ” whose members would remain citizens of their old countries. It was further imagined that a Jewish Home would involve the expropriation of Arab possessors of the soil. It has now been laid down that Jewish settlers are to be enabled to speak of Palestine as their home in virtue of their establishment therein as of right instead of on sufferance, and that they may make this home national by becoming Palestinians. The Palestinian nation, however, will be composed not of Jew s alone but of Jews, Christians and Moslems. The whole policy finds an interesting parallel in Albania where the Government is setting itself to create a nation out of Catholic, Orthodox, and Moslem tribes, most of them mutually hostile. That the policy has not yet succeeded is shown by /‘he

fact that Palestine is not yet provided with a con­stitution. That it has not failed is proved by the general tranquillity of the country and the decline of agitation among the Arabs.

The Jewish element is still small. There are at least five Arabs to every Jew . But whereas the Jewish population totalled about 55,000 at the end of the war, its numbers have now doubled. About three- quarters of the immigrants are urban workers, and the amazing growth of Palestinian industry, typified in the mushroom expansion of Tell-A viv is familiar to the average reader. W hat is not so well known is that almost all these industries have been started on Jewish capital privately subscribed in all parts of the world. T his one-sided development, however, is little to the taste of Zionist opinion which feels that the Jews will not really be established in their home unless they own and cultivate its soil. The settlement of agricul­tural colonies— there are already over 100 of them— is therefore the main pre-occupation of progressive Jewish thought. The subject has produced a consider­able literature, much of it in Hebrew. Only the main points can be noticed here.

First the Government allows each settlement to con­duct its affairs as it pleases, in accordance with the political ideas which the colonists have brought with them. A ll forms of organisation are attempted, including a miniature Socialist commonweath, and the Government is content to leave it to time to determine their relative merits. Next, the colonists do not arrive in Palestine utterly ignorant of the work in front of them. The enthusiasm of the younger generation among the eight million Jews of Eastern Europe has already led to the establishment of training farms, such as Britain is thinking of setting up for the bene­fit of would-be emigrants to the Dominions. Partly as a result of this system, partly because of the essential clannishness of the Jewish mind, the balance is definitely inclining towards group settlement in Palestine as opposed to colonisation by individuals. * Thirdly, as to the supply of land, Government holds that Arab owners, impressed by the prices they can obtain, are making offers in excess of the demand. The situation is, however, slightlv complicated by the fact that the Jewish National Fund, which is ttie

* For a well-balanced discussion of this complex subject see “ The Agricultural Colonisation of the Zionist Organisation in Palestine.” By Dr. A. Ruppin. Martin Hopkinson and Co.

principal purchaser, was operating before the war when the acquisition of land by and for Jew s carried with it political implications out of harmony with present conditions. A good deal will turn on the future policy of this fund, whose activities are the best means of preventing speculation in land through the competition of would-be purchasers.+

A s to the temper in which the work of colonisation is carried on, nothing can be added to the sympathetic and eloquent language of S ir Herbert Samuel him­self. “ In spite of disappointments sometimes, of hardships often, of heavy work always, these men and women seem remarkably happy. The reason is not hard to find. It is partly because they are almost all healthy. . . . But it is chiefly, I believe, because there are three factors in their lives which make them con­tented. The first is that they are workers on the land, close to nature, enjoying that satisfaction which be­longs especially to those who feel that they are caus­ing the earth to yield produce for the sustenance of mankind. The second is that they are on an intel­lectual level distinctly above that of the ordinary peasant; they are much more than hewers of wood and drawers of w ater; they read, they think, they d iscuss; in the evening they have music, classes, lectures; there is among them a real activity of mind. And the third factor is that they are fully conscious that they are not engaged in some casual task without special signi­ficance other than the provision of their own liveli­hood ; they know quite well that they are an integral part of the movement for the redemption of Palestine; that they, few though they may be, are the repre- sentatives, and in a sense the agents, of the whole of Je w ry ; that the daily work in which they are engaged is in touch with the prophecies of old and with the prayers of millions now. So thev find the labour of their hands to be worthy in itse lf; it is made lighter by intellectual activity; it is ennobled by the patriotic ideal which it serves. That is the reason why these pioneers are happy.” J

t The chief practical issue is whether the Fund should retain in perpetuity the ownership of the land it purchases. A strong defence of this policy is put forward by A. Granovsky in “ Land Problems in Palestine.” Routledge. 2s. 6d.

I Report of the High Commissioner on the Administration of Palestine, 1920-1925, p. 36. This remarkable document— Colonial No. 15, price 2s.—may be commended to all interested in the subject.

The Problem of East AfricaB y W . S . d e R o p p .

T H E Great W ar has not only changed the map of Europe but has also modified the political configuration of distant parts of the globe, far

removed from the centre of the conflagration. East Africa is a notable case in point. B y the inclusion of Tanganyika Territory in the complex of countries under British administration, the great scheme of Cecil Rhodes has become a reality and a continuous chain of territories under British rule stretches from the Cape to Egypt. These countries, containing great wealth in tropical agricultural produce, timber and minerals, and inhabited by a native population cap­able under European guidance, of exploiting the potential resources of the fertile African soil, are as producers of raw materials and as markets for Euro­pean manufactured goods destined to play an impor­tant rdle in world economics.

The development of this vast area presents both to Imperial statesmanship and private enterprise, one of the most promising fields of activity within the

Empire. The organisation of this congeries of inde­pendent units into a political and economic structure on a broad basis of co-operation and co-ordination will add a great and permanent asset to the Empire ; it will help to alleviate the effects of over-production and over-industrialisation in Great Britain, and be a power­ful factor in the evolution of the East African native population.

The existence of extensive Highland areas, emin­ently suitable for white settlement, is an important element and worthy of consideration, for whilst in most tropical countries the European administrator, trader or planter retires to Europe, after a limited number of years, taking his accumulated experience with him, the settler in East Africa has made that country his permanent home. He is as much wedded to the soil as the negro on the neighbouring reserve, his own future and that of his children is closely identified with the fate of the country and its inhabi­tants and, success or failure being thus intimately connected with the welfare of the natives, he is not

merely interested in the solution of present-day labour troubles, but in the establishment of permanent stable conditions which will lead to a mutually satisfactory understanding between the races.

The Dual Policy, advocated by the East Africa Parliamentary Commission’s report and whole­heartedly endorsed by the recent Conference of East African Governors at Nairobi, aims at providing the fullest opportunity for the white settler as well as the native producer. It is now recognised by all respon­sible Europeans as well as by the more intelligent and progressive among the Africans that mutual close association and contact, as it exists in East Africa, is of the greatest benefit to the native.

In this respect conditions are entirely different from those obtaining in South Africa where, owing chiefly to the presence of a white working class, the policy of segregation is becoming more pronounced. This means that the skilled trades are reserved for Euro­peans, black workmen as a rule being employed only as labourers. In East Africa, on the other hand, every inducement is given to the African to fit himself for the higher grades of labour. The rapid develop­ment of the East African Dependencies gives those among the natives who are willing to exert themselves in their own interest great scope for advancement. The demand for skilled workers on the plantations and the railways, in the building trade and others is steadily increasing. A t the present time the bulk of skilled work has to be done by Indian “ fundis,” but already the trained native has invaded the higher grades of every trade and the work done by these men encourages the hope that imported labour, always a cause of irritation and friction, will eventually become superfluous.

B y far the most important reaction of the two races on one another takes place in the realm of agriculture, the paramount industry of East A frica. The white farm is the only practical school in which the raw native can learn by experience to appreciate the ad­vantages of European methods of growing and hand­ling produce. More important than this, he acquires the habit and will to work. Left to his own devices in the reserve, the negro has no incentive to break away from the deep-rooted tradition that agricultural labour is women’s work, unworthy of a man. In the days prior to British administration the unfair division of duties between the sexes, which placed the whole burden of domestic and agricultural work on the women, was justified to some extent by incessant inter-tribal warfare; the chief occupation of the men was the defence of their possessions against hostile neighbours and raids into adjoining territories. The British administration whilst abolishing this petty warfare and creating a feeling of security never before experienced by the native tribes has, at the same time, deprived the young men of their chief interest and object in life. I f the native is to be preserved from the degeneracy to which a life of indolent loafing in the reserve would inevitably lead him, he must be sup­plied with a substitute for his former warlike activities and must be given a new interest in life.

The native inhabitants of East Africa will have to learn to exert themselves and to take their share in the world’s work. The energies which were, before the advent of the European, expended on warfare, will have to be directed into new, peaceful, and productive channels. The world requires the raw materials East Africa is capable of producing-, and new markets for European manufactured goods are urgently needed. The indigenous tribes of East Africa will have to adapt themselves to present day conditions or they will eventually be superseded by more efficient races.

In this process of adaptation to entirely new and, to the native mind, often incomprehensible con­ditions, the white settler plays an important part. On the white man’s farm the raw labourer finds him­self in a new world. He has become a member of a small community where industry is immediately and

visibly rewarded. He comes into contact with a standard of living far above that to which he is accustomed. Better housing, better food, blankets to keep him warm at night, are new and desirable experiences. Gradually the will to work, the ambition to attain a higher standard of living are evolved by contact with civilisation, and the result can already be seen in some of the reserves. The tribes that provide the largest numbers of labourers for European farms have become the most progressive in their own reserve, They are beginning to apply the lessons learnt from their white employers when they return to their own village.

In the evolution of the British East African Pos­sessions into an organic whole, railway communica­tions will play a vital part. At present, with the exception of K enya and Uganda, the centres of the various colonies are for all practical purposes further apart than England and the United States. R ailw ays alone can bring these countries into close contact ; East African roads, except in Uganda, can only be used during the dry weather and become impassable in the rainy seasons. Economically this building of new railways in these territories would be a sound investment; vast areas, capable of yielding rich crops are at present undeveloped owing to the excessive cost of transport, given a railway connection with the coast they could produce profitable economic crops for export. The K enya-tJganda Line provides the best proof that in East Africa railway construction is followed by development. The establishment of the flourishing cotton industry of Uganda and the prosperous farm ing community of the K enya H igh­lands was the direct result of the building of this line.

In view of the importance of railway construction to the development of these territories, great interest attaches to the allocation of the ^10,000,000 transport loan to East Africa. T his sum will onlv suffice for a few of the numerous extensions required and judici­ous sifting will have to be done by the commission which is at present examining the various projects. Careful students of East African affairs express the hope that recommendations regarding the priority of the lines to be built will not be based merely on the possibilities of receiving immediate returns, but that the East African railway policy will be framed on lines which will take the potentialities of the future into account and will aim at the development of East Africa as a whole rather than at the opening up of certain limited districts.

This applies in particular to a projected line which would open up a vast area and would in the opinion of competent judges of East A frica inaugurate the establishment of an important white community in the Southern Tanganyika Highlands. The proposed line would run through the undeveloped South W est of Tanganyika from Dodoma via Iringa to Fife and would link up Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland with the Tanganyika Central R ailw ay and Dar-es-Salaam. Its ultimate aim would be to link up with the Rhode­sian railway system. This would have far-reaching importance for the whole of A fr ica ; it would mean that the civilising influence of the great white community in South Africa would be brought into play in primi­tive East Africa to a far greater extent than has been the case up to the present. The line would pay its way if settlement of the fertile unpopulated areas through which it would pass were established.

In the opinion of one of the best judges of African land values who visited the Southern Tanganyika Highlands last year this country is eminently suitable for white settlement. He claims that a large farming population could be established there on high priced products. Bulk crops for export could be produced as soon as the railway arrived. The Imperial import­ance of the line would be enhanced bv making Dar-es- Salaam instead of the foreign port of Beira, the outlet for the produce of Northern Nyasaland and North Eastern Rhodesia.

A further project of great Imperial interest is the continuation of this line from Dodoma to Arusha. This would mean the linking up of Rhodesia and Nyasaland with the Kenya-U ganda railway system and an important step forward in the realisation of Cecil Rhodes’ great scheme of an all-British railway from Egyp t to the Cape.

The decision of the Governors’ Conference that all the countries represented should co-operate in the important field of research work marks another advance in co-ordination between the East African British Dependencies. In the opinion of the Parlia­mentary Commission there are few subjects of greater importance to the development of the East African Territories than scientific research. This view is endorsed by official and unofficial quarters in these countries and found its expression in the recommenda­tions forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies by the Governors’ Conference. W hile the widely differing conditions in the various territories make a too rigid centralisation of research work impracticable, there are certain serious problems con­fronting East Africa as a whole which can only effectively be dealt with by a joint effort.

The most urgent task presented to research workers is to find effective means to deal with the ravages of the Tsetse fly, the insect responsible for human (sleep­ing sickness) and animal trypanosomiasis. The fly belts occurring from the Sudan to Rhodesia and from the East to the W est Coast are steadilv growing. H alf the area of Tanganyika, large districts in Northern Rhodesia, Nvasaland, and Uganda are fly-infested, and the pest is generally most virulent in the potenti­ally most fertile districts.

No better description of the menace to East African development by the Tsetse fly can be found than the following passage in the report of the East African Parliamentary Commission : —

In the complacent satisfaction which accompanies the con­templation of the vastly increased productivity of our East African territories in the past few years, there is a danger of minimising the effects of the fly. Nevertheless, the danger is very real and can be best understood by stating that the fly ar?a is spreading in all territories. The fly has encroached in no less than seven places in a single sub-district of Tan­ganyika in the year 1923. It is encroaching in North-Eastern Rhodesia to such an extent that the Abercorn cattle district is now surrounded by infested areas; Mombera, the principal cattle area of Nyasaland, has recently been similarly cut off from its markets; and over a considerable part of Uganda it is impossible to keep cattle, so that hand-tilling in cultivation remains an imperative necessity.

We can speak from experience, not only of the incisiveness of the Tsetse, but also of its effects on the country through which we travelled. Travelling by the Central Tanganyika Railway, we passed through well-populated and productive areas from the coast to Dodoma. A few miles beyond Dodoma an extraordinary change is noticeable. Although the physical features and the climatic conditions appear to be similar in all respects, there are no signs either of cultivation, or of cattle, or of population, except for a few railway workers. The fly is responsible. This belt of desolation stretches approximately 120 miles east and west from Kazi- Kazi to Tabora, and northwards to Lake Victoria, while west of Tabora there is fly practically all the way to Lake Tanganyika.

A menace of this magnitude can only be overcome by the combined efforts of the governments of the affected countries and the help of the Imperial Gov­ernment. If it is not taken energetically in hand the development of one of the most promising parts of the Empire may become an impossible task.

Economic Aspects of the South African Native ProblemB y P r o f e s s o r E d g a r H. B r o o k e s , M .A ., D .Litt.

T H E race problems of South Africa are many sided. When the problem of the franchise, and with it that of the general status uf the

different races in the body politic, has been settled, wide fields of difficulty open up with regard to the economic and social aspects of the race question. In this article an attempt is made to point out some of the situations which South Africa has to face due to the contact of black and white in the economic sphere.

The first question calling for solution— one to which most Englishmen would return an emphatic negative — is : “ Ought there to be any differentiation at all based on race or colour in the economic life of South A frica? ” The recent Economic and W age Com­mission appointed by the Union Government spoke on this matter with two voices. Professor Henry C lay and M r. John Martin (the representative of local capital), were totally opposed to such differentiation, and with them the Chairman (Mr. Stephen Mills, C .M .G .), concurred, subject to a few reservations. The remaining members of the Commission— Mr. W . H. Rood, M .L .A ., Mr. F . A . W . Lucas, K .C ., and Mr. W . H. Andrews— took an entirely different view. Their view, that of the ordinary farmer and worker in South Africa, and hence that of the present Nationalist-Labour Government, is that differentiation between white and black in South African economic life is not merely permissible but essential.

It is argued—and not illogically—that the black man already receives special economic protection. Sm all as are the present reserves when compared with the total native population, yet they are ten times as great as they would be on a basis of free economic

competition between white and black. The native is specially protected even where his reserves, as in the Transkeian Territories and in Zululand, contain some of the most fertile land in the country, free from drought and well-watered with perennial streams. South Africans are often accused of gross injustice towards the child races under their control. The charge is not always entirely unfounded; but it is a remarkable indication of the level of public opinion on race questions that no political party or leading public man has ever suggested withdrawing the special protection which the native in his reserves has against the white landgrabber, a withdrawal which would transform the reserves in twenty years into huge estates farmed by tenants for the profit of absentee white landlords.

In mines and industries, on the other hand, and in urban occupations generally, the majority of South Africans claim that the Europeans form the weaker party. Natives have not, as a whole, shown great initiative or originality in the past, but in careful routine work— such as a great deal of even skilled employment is in our modern machine-dominated civilisation— they have proved themselves quite as good as white workers. Their standard of living, however is so low as to make it quite impossible for white workers to compete with them. Average Euro­pean wage rates are at least six times greater than average native wage rates. It is natural that in the industrial world of South Africa, disputes should be constantly raging between capital and labour, the former wishing to employ as much black labour as possible in order to reduce working costs, and the latter, as might be expected, clamouring for a white

labour policy and a civilised wage. The workers are now in a position to legislate as they will, and the famous “ Colour Bar Act ” is the legislative ex­pression of their policy. Under this Act the Govern­ment may, by proclamation, restrict the employment of natives and other non-Europeans in any skilled occupation in any part of the country.

This Act has been much misunderstood overseas as a piece of wantonly malicious anti-native legislation. W hile many South Africans consider it undesirable in principle as placing too much power in the hands of party Governments and as bad tactics, in that it has aroused deep feeling among certain types of natives against the constituted authorities of the country, yet the great majority of voters is undoubtedly convinced both of the expediency and of the essential justice of restrictions on the exploitation of the native labour reserve. It is_ significant that much of the agitation against the Act has been engineered and financed from capitalist sources.

Whether or not the Colour Bar Act is the right way to set about reform, reform is sorely needed, and especially from the native point of view. Natives, on the whole, have not made a success of town life. Degradation and disease have accompanied their financial exploitation in mines and industries. An appalling percentage of native children born in towns are illegitimate. The increase of venereal diseases and tuberculosis among natives is almost exactly propor­tional to the increase in native employment in the towns. The old restraints are lost, and though Christian missionary endeavour has heroically and ably saved a minority from the new temptations, for the majority there is nothing effective to supply the place of the tribal morality. The general policy of discouraging the employment of natives in European industries and in urban areas, the policy of the present Government, is, it is submitted sound and just, pro­vided that scope is afforded for their economic advancement elsewhere.

That is the other half of the picture. It has just been made clear that the Hertzog Government intends to complete its work. The new"Land B ill—tabled in June, to be discussed in the session of 1927—provides as ultimate native areas, a mileage almost equal to that of the existing native reserves. It is well that this should be made clear to those overseas critics of

South Africa who imagine that “ Africander ” native policy is symbolised by a whip and a rifle. The new “ released areas ” are in almost every case adjacent to existing reserves; but every class of native— tribal and detribalised alike— is catered for. The land is not given, any more than land is given to indigent whites, but it is available for free purchase or hire. Prefer­ence is to be given to native buyers at once in large portions of these areas, including Crown Lands there­in ; while the difficulty of individual natives lacking the necessary capital to buy is met by carefully safe­guarded arrangements for communal purchase.

W hat is needed, however, is not merely more land but teaching that will assist natives to make a better use of the resources they already possess. Natives respond readily to such teaching. The encouragement of sheep farming in the Transkeian Territories by the Government has increased the number of native-owned sheep fifteenfold in forty years. The plough, unknown to most natives half-a-century ago, is now in almost universal use—a little revolution that has incidentally dealt native polygam y a death-blow, the man himself cultivating with the plough instead of setting his wives to work with the hoe. In the Transkeian Territories, under the Council system, natives tax themselves to finance experimental farms, introduce blood-stock and pay agricultural demonstrators.

B y increasing the area of the Council system, and by creating a special fund for assisting native develop­ment instead of (as previously) paying all native taxes into general revenue, the Government has set in motion forces which it is hoped will increase native production and prosperity very materially. In this great work, the Native Affairs Commission, and in particular Dr. C . T . Loram, have borne a large part.

The average Bantu peasant in South Africa to-day owns a horse, several head of cattle, and a few sheep and goats. He usually pays no rent or at most ten shillings quit-rent per annum, and an annual tax usually of thirtv shillings, of which fourteen shillings is ear-marked for his own Development Fund. Much as the attitude of many South Africans on the race problem leaves to be desired, no sane man can accuse the white population of ruthless oppression or systematic injustice. That it should seek to preserve its own higher civilisation intact, even in the economic sphere, is not surprising.

The Canadian ViewB y R ic h a r d J e b b .

I N last month’s Empire Supplement Canada’s national position was discussed by two Canadian writers from very different points of view. Mr.

J . S . Ewart, of Ottawa, now a veteran of this contro­versy, who used to be an advocate of “ associated kingdoms ” (with the minimum of association) to-day rejoices to think that his country is on “ the very verge of independence.” He has nothing but con­tempt for those who talk about nation-hood on a basis of equality with Britain “ within the Em pire.” This, he suggests, is an absurd notion, for “ there is no pos­sibility of two sovereign states being members of one Em pire.”

On the other hand, Mr. W . P . M. Kennedy, of Toronto University, still looks for a future “ within the British Em pire.” A s for independence, so far from Canada being on the verge, he declares that “ the idea is simply beyond and outside Canadian opinion.” But perhaps these two statements are not wholly in­compatible. Conceivably Canada might be brought

by circumstances to the verge of separation without any wish or even perception on the part of her public. At any rate, I have returned from a recent visit with the impression that the future of the Dominion is extremely uncertain.

The Canadian problem, however, is primarily one not of external relationships, but of internal unity. The Dominion which was created in 1867 by the British North America Act remains the most artificial state in the world. It is not a natural unit in any sense, being exceptionally divided by geography, race and economic interests, and lacks any effective boundary to the south for half the distance across the continent. In the past twenty years no real progress seems to have been made towards overcoming these obstacles to Canadian unity. The old antagonism between the French-speaking and English-speaking sections was unfortunately, if inevitably, revived during the war, and seems as liable as ever to break out afresh. The new population, especially in the central provinces, contains a large proportion of ’Americans and

foreigners who are too absorbed in the price of wheat and implements, and the perennial question of freight rates, to become ready votaries of the national ideal. The penetration of American finance has been accelerated.

It is true that there is now a second trans-continental railroad, to reinforce the national policy of uniting the. provinces by creating an east-and-west channel of trade in opposition to the north-and-south tendency. But an unforeseen effect of the Panama Canal is to neu­tralise this effort. Vancouver has become an active competitor of Montreal for handling the trade of the prairies with Europe, i.e., taking out wheat and bring­ing in supplies. Before the Panama Canal was cut, the “ great divide ” was geographical, the passes of the Rocky Mountains, which the railway builders overcame. But this same railway system, which was to unify the country, has now become the instrument of opposing interests. There is a new, economic “ divide ” somewhere in the prairie country, tending to pull East and W est apart again.

Canadian nationalism, and the cult of independence which sometimes goes with it, have no meaning with­out the assumption of a real unity between the pro­vinces. The weakness of Mr. Ew art’s policy is that without the British connection the Dominion itself would probably fall to pieces. To-day the British connection is not only the thread which holds Canada to the Empire, but the principal thread which links together the Maritime Provinces, the St. Lawrence valley, the Prairies, and the Pacific Coast, each of these sections having separate economic interests, and each its own attraction towards the south. Cut that thread, or attenuate it to vanishing point, and the strongest resistance to the economic magnetism of the United States would be removed. To very many English-speaking Canadians, and in the west to the great majority, it is only the British connection that makes the Dominion worth while. W ithout that restraining sentiment the provinces might slip out singly or in groups— not wholesale annexation but piecemeal dismemberment. The last to go would be Q uebec; for it seems as true to-day as when Cartier said it that the last shot to be fired for the British flag in North America would be by a French-Canadian. H appily no shooting would be likely to occur.

M r. Ew art’s objection to “ within the Empire ” is mere logomachy. S ay instead “ under a common flag ,” and there is nothing absurd abo.it the con­ception of equal sovereignty. W hat is it but his own “ associated kingdoms ” again ? The whole question is how far the association should go. In M r. K en ­nedy’s view “ the imperial problem centres round foreign policy ” ; and on the constitutional side (which is not fundamental) no doubt it does. But his own suggestions are not very helpful. W hile, he says, there is “ a good deal of sentiment that Dominion opinion should be consulted ” in regard (o imperial foreign policy, “ it does not go beyond sentiment.” T h is apathy he seems to connect with a certain “ dread of the old diplom acy,” which he fears has lately reared its head again. “ There is appearing,” he goes on, “ a sentiment that we cannot mix our­selves up in all the miserable details of European policy.” At the same time young Canada is “ learn­ing more and more to look to the League of Nations, and there is a hope abroad that the anomalies in imperial foreign policy will be resolved there . . . unification through the League of Nations.”

Such are the tangle of thought and paralysis of policy which have been creeping over the Em pire since the war. Form erly Canadian nationalism seemed, to me at any rate, to be a force making for effective Bri­tannic organisation, on the basis of equal sovereignty within the Empire, with the Imperial Conference as an organ for concerting policies in common. But now the League of Nations has entered the scene, and is diverting to itself the interest and energy of Dominion nationalism which should have gone to vitalise the

Imperial Conference. A s signatories of the Covenant the Dominions have cheerfully undertaken serious obligations towards foreign countries, of a kind which they had previously refused in the name of autonomy to undertake towards Britain and each other. This paradox only shows that the obligations of the Covenant are felt to be merely nominal, while similar obligations (of mutual defence, &c.), within the Empire might be real. To put it another way, as compared with a Britannic commonwealth the League of Nations offers to Dominion nationalism a bigger splash for less responsibility (if not for less money), or an illusion of uplift without sacrifice. It is an insidious temptation, but also a false position which can only lead to some unpleasant awakening.

Surely London rather than Geneva should be the venue for the attempt to unify Britannic interests. And if it is desired to exempt the Dominions from “ the miserable details of European policy,” is it reasonable to expect this from the League of Nations, which is more closely concerned with European affairs, day in and day out, than with anything else in the world. In truth the League is essentially a European institution, and its members must either be ciphers or busy themselves with the squabbles of Europe.

Even where they agree, these two Canadian writers hardly relieve the impression that Canada has a problem of internal unity to settle before that of her external relations. Both want to do away with such traces of “ subordination ” as the necessity of going to the British Parliament for amendments of the federal constitution, or the right of the P rivy Council to accept appeals from Canadian courts. But in these matters they must surely know that the ultimate obstacle lies not in Britain but in Quebec. A s has appeared again from recent discussions, the French- Canadian community does not yet trust the English- speaking majority sufficiently to surrender these special safeguards of its provincial and racial privileges.

There is no obstacle in Canada’s path to equality of nation-hood except her own reluctance to assume it. If she clings to “ Dominion status ” instead of assert­ing an Imperial or Britannic status like that of Britain, it is by her own volition. In foreign affairs her volun­tary promotion would be symbolised by her Govern­ment signing treaties, as our own does, in the name of the Empire, instead of insisting upon signing for Canada alone. Mr. Ewart cannot imagine our Secre­tary of State for Dominion Affairs consenting to recognise a Canadian “ Secretary of State for Great Britain and U lster.” But he is too obsessed with the idea of colonial inferiority to perceive the real anomaly of his own suggestion. Britain does not have any Secretary of State “ for Canada,” but has one for all the Dominions together, i.e., for all the autonomous parts of the Empire overseas. The corresponding Canadian office would be Secretary of State for Bri­tannic Affairs—and why not? I am quite sure Mr. Am ery would welcome it most heartily.

Mr. Kennedy urges the British Government “ to receive fully accredited Dominion ministers ” in London. Has he forgotten that the British Govern­ment announced its willingness to do so as long ago as 19 13 ? * Ever since then the difficulty has been, not that Britain will not receive such ministers, but that the Dominions will not appoint them. Perhaps this shirking of national responsibility is due partly to that very entanglement with the League of Nations, i.e., Europe, from which Mr. Kennedy somehow expects Imperial salvation. I f Britain, instead of wasting her main energies on Europe, had gone all out for Empire development, with a world-policv to suit, the Imperial Conference might to-day have been a real organisation instead of the farce which it has actually become, and Canada mieht already have found her feet in Bri­tannic, not Dominion, status.

* See Cd. 6560.

British Protectorates and Mandated Territories—IF.B y P r o f e s s o r A . B e r r ie d a l e K e it h .

W H IL E trade was the primary motive for the summoning of the Berlin Conference, though the United Kingdom insisted on

the humanitarian duty of respect for native rights, the Covenant of the League puts in the forefront of the system the conception of the well-being and development of peoples not yet able to stand by them­selves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world as being a sacred trust of civilisation. More­over, the detailed provisions which it lays down for the case of mandates in Central Africa are inspired essentially by this ideal. The conditions imposed on a mandatory must guarantee freedom of conscience and religion subject only to the maintenance of public order and morals, the prohibition of abuses such as the slave trade, the arms traffic and the liquor traffic, and the prevention of the establishment of fortifica­tions or military and naval bases and of military training of the natives for other than police purposes and the defence of territory, and must secure equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of other members of the League. The last condition is thus essentially to be regarded as based on the same con­siderations as those first mentioned. It is clear that the equality of treatment for all members of the League must tend to secure the natives from the disad­vantages of being treated as the preserve of any single power. This, of course, is the British policy, but it is entirely opposed to that accepted by France.

The mandates enforce the general principles of the Covenant by quite definite requirements, a great advance on the vagueness of the earlier convention of 1885 and a decided improvement even on the later additions to that compact. One provision is new in substance as well as in form. The prohibition of the creation of any naval or military base and of military training of the natives save for strictly limited ob­jectives marks the result of the deep impression made on the mind of General Smuts by his experience of Ihe formidable character of the native forces which Germany employed in East Africa during the war, in contrast to the attitude of the Union Government which does not permit the military training of the natives of South Africa. To the United Kingdom the prohibition means little, for it was never proposed to use the forces of the British African territories for any but defence purposes, and British acceptance of the new prohibition was ready; France, on the other hand, demanded further concessions for her African mandates, and was partially successful. The pro­visions against the slave trade are explicit, and the mandatory is further required to provide for the eventual emanicaption of all slaves and as speedy an elimination of domestic and other slavery as social conditions will allow. Moreover, all forms of forced or compulsory labour must be prohibited except for essential public works and services, and then only in return for adequate remuneration. Further the native is to be protected from measures of fraud and force and abuse by the careful supervision of labour contracts and the recruiting of labour. A strict con­trol over the traffic in arms and in liquor is required, and the unsatisfactory provisions of earlier con­ventions are replaced by the much more effective terms of the conventions of St. Germain-en-Laye of Septem­ber 10th, 1919. The mandatory is expressly enjoined to have regard to native laws and customs regarding land and to safeguard their rights and interests in this vital matter. In order to prevent the old abuses of the acquisition of land from natives by Europeans for nominal considerations, it is provided that the public

authorities must consent to any transfer of land from natives to non-natives, or the creation of real rights over land in the favour of the latter. Moreover the free entry of missionaries to reside in the mandated territory is required, thus securing the natives the presence of disinterested wellwishers who can help to secure respect for the rights conferred on them by the mandates.

The terms of the mandates have been carefully chosen to render impossible the maintenance of any of the devices by which the purposes of the Berlin Act were long frustrated. Absolute equality of rights of transit, navigation, entry, residence, ownership of property, carrying on of occupations, and in all economic and commercial matters, is assured, and the only derogation is in respect of the right of the man­datory to organise essential public works and services on such conditions as he thinks just. The vexed issue of concessions for the development of the natural re­sources of the territory is dealt with by requiring that they must be given without distinction of nationality, but at the same time in such a manner as to maintain intact the authority, and therefore the responsibility, of the local Government, which, therefore, is bound to secure that its concessionaires observe strictly the obligations imposed by the mandate. In this respect again there is very little novel from the British point of view, though doubtless the obligation to afford equal consideration to all nationals of League mem­bers in awarding concessions goes beyond the practice prevailing in the protectorates before the war.

W hat, however, is still more important than the care taken to set out the rights of the natives and the obligation to maintain freedom of trade, is the pro­vision of means to make effective these rights. It was the worst defect of the Berlin Act that, in the face of the refusal of any member among the contracting states to agree to arbitrate a dispute regarding its terms, nothing could be done short of war to bring about a decision. Under the mandatory system, if any dispute arises between two members of the League regarding the carrying out of its terms, there is the immediate right of reference to the Permanent Court of International Justice which can deliver a binding award. It is perhaps a defect that the right to secure such a decision is not given to the Council of the League directly, but, as any member of the League can take the necessary action, there need be no serious difficulty in securing the effective intervention of the Court. Moreover the necessity of furnishing annually a report to the League of Nations, which is submitted for expert consideration to the Mandates Commission of the League and reported on by it to the Council, affords an admirable opportunity for the weight of League opinion to be brought to bear on the man­datory power. It is true that the League has no direct control over the mandatory, but, apart from the diffi­culty of exercising that control, it is dubious whether it would be possible to secure satisfactory ad­ministration by this means, while enlightened foreign criticism is an excellent stimulus to wise management.

Less satisfactory from the international point of view is the system which has been devised for the mandated territories of the Dominions. The status accorded in these cases is an effort to satisfy the desire of the Dominion representatives at the Paris Confer­ence for annexation and President W ilson ’s strong attachment to the scheme of mandate. The vital distinction between these cases of mandates and those of the Central Africa class is that there is no longer any stipulation for the grant of equal opportunity for

the trade and commerce of other members of the League. The Dominions are not merely at liberty to govern the mandated territories on the footing of integral parts of their territory, as indeed is also per­mitted in the case of the Cameroons and Togoland, but each can apply its own customs and immigration regime, so that complaints have been made by Japan that her subjects had wider rights in New Guinea under German rule than they now have under the Australian mandate, and by India that British Indians are more rigidly excluded from South W est Africa than before the Union became responsible for its government. Nor is it possible to deny that some dis­advantage must accrue to the native populations from the diminished opportunities now possessed of free commercial access from the outer world. Altogether unique is the position of South W est Africa, where a comparatively numerous European population has been accorded considerable rights of self-government, though subject to the paramount authority of the Union Government under the mandate. In this case it is not surprising that the ultimate extinction of the mandatory system is looked forward to by the Union Government as inevitable at no distant date. The circumstances, indeed, seem to negative the possibility of the maintenance of the idea that the welfare of the natives here is a “ sacred trust ” to the Union, which contemplates instead the merger of the territory in the Union and its progressive utilisation in the in­terests of the white population.

One further point indicates the changed outlook induced by the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Berlin Act deliberately sought to impress on the

conventional area a regime of neutrality in time of war. German aggression defeated the purpose in 1914, and the system of the Covenant has no place for such a conception as the neutrality of specific territories. The mandates provide in lieu, as has been seen, that no fortifications or military or naval bases shall be created in the mandated territory and no forces raised therein which could be used for ex­ternal war. But they do not preclude the idea that these territories might be involved in a war authorised by the League of Nations, and it is significant that, when the Berlin Act was recast by the powers con­cerned in September, 1919, the provision as to neutra­lisation was deliberately suppressed. Nor can there be any doubt as to the wisdom of the decision; the war established the principle that neutralisation creates more problems than it solves.

To the United Kingdom , therefore, the mandatory system has brought nothing vitally strange. It has defined more precisely obligations which, though only voluntarily and as a matter of principle, she imposed on herself before the w a r ; it has provided a means of enforcing these obligations against her and of super­vising and criticising her carrying out of these obliga­tions ; but, determined as she is to adhere to the principles laid down largely at her instigation, these new conditions have no terrors for her. On the other hand, she has the security that other powers enjoying mandates are effectively brought under a similar system, a fact which explains the formal withdrawal at Locarno of any objection on her part to the possi­bility of the ultimate grant by the League of a man­date to Germany.

An Empire CabinetB y L . H a d en G u e s t , M .P .

ON June 22nd last a statement appeared in the Press announcing the formation of the Empire Marketing Board.

In such modest fashion is the Empire Cabinet launched into the world.

W hen the Imperial Economic Committee proposed that an Executive organisation should be set up for the purpose of carrying out their recommendations, they gave it the name of Executive Commission and suggested that it should be armed with very wide powers.

The Empire Marketing Board is to fulfil the function of the Executive Commission, and is to be armed with all the powers proposed for this body in the three reports of the Imperial Economic Committee.

And it is worth while remarking that the creation of the Empire Marketing Board with these great powers has rome about in a typically English way, partly as a result of the appointment of the Imperial Economic Committee consequent on the recommendation of the Imperial Economic Conference of 1923, and partly as a result of an almost accidental cir­cumstance. This almost accidental circumstance is the fact that the Government have felt themselves pre­cluded from putting into operation certain preference proposals of the Imperial Conference which would in­volve fresh taxation on food, not owing to a change in their policy, but owing to the interpretation placed bv the electorate generally on a speech of Mr. Baldwin’s at Gravesend during the last general election. In this speech Mr. Baldwin made use of words which were interpreted to mean that no additional taxation would be levied on food-stuffs of any kind And in order to keep faith with the electorate, on the one "hand, and

with the Dominions producer, expecting help from preference, on the other, the Government proposed to set aside a sum of one m illionpoundsayear to be spent in assisting the marketing of Dominion produce.

But it is not so easy to spend a million pounds help­fully as might at first appear. So that it is only at this late stage after the election and after a long series of inquiries by the Imperial Economic Committee on the marketing of meat, fish, wheat, other food imports, and fruit, that the Government find themselves in a position to implement their promise. A vote on account of Empire Marketing of an amount of ,£500,000 will be separately presented before the end of Ju ly , and a vote of £1,000,000 will be presented for the next financial year.

It is for the purpose of spending this money in the ways laid down by the Imperial Economic Committee that the Empire Marketing Board has been created.

W e have, therefore, not only a Cabinet dealing with the economic affairs of the Empire, but a special supply vote for providing them with funds and large powers of action in the spending of the money.

The constitution of the Em pire Marketing Board is worth study. It is founded on the model of the exist­ing Development and Forestry Commissions, and con­sists of a British Government element and an overseas Empire element.

The British Government is represented by the Secre­tary of State for the Dominions, the Under-Secretary, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, the Parlia­mentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, and the Under-Secretary of Health of Scotland, and as a permanent official representative there is the Comp­troller General of the Department of Overseas Trade.

Two non-official representatives of Great Britain are also members of the Committee, and there is one representative each of Canada, Australia, New Zea­land, South Africa, Irish Free State, India, and one representative appointed by the Imperial Government to represent the Colonies and Protectorates.

The Marketing Board so constituted will have its affairs brought before the Parliament at Westminster, and so be controlled by Parliament because of the special vote necessary for the service.

But the Marketing Board will be carrying out the proposals of the Imperial Economic Committee, with which its personnel is to some extent interchangeable, and this Imperial Economic Committee is an all Empire body which reports not only to the Prime Minister of Great Britain, but also to the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Irish Free State, Newfoundland, Southern Rhodesia, India, and to the Secretary of State for the Colonies as representing their interests.

There is thus an almost characteristic illogicality about the status of the Empire Marketing Board. Like other elements of our constitution it has not been made logically, but it has grown in response to need under the stimulus of idea. And it seems likely to work very well.

The powers of the Board are very wide indeed, and it is notable that between the time when the Executive Commission was proposed in the first report of the Imperial Economic Committee published last year, and the time of the publication of the third report on fruit in June of this year, that the functions proposed for the Board have become both clearer in their definition and more important in their scope.

The Imperial Economic Committee only functions when a special question is referred to it for study and report by the Governments of the Empire, and with the terms of reference set in each case. The first refer­ence to the Committee, out of which the existing three reports have arisen, was as follows :—

“ To consider the possibility of improving the methods of preparing for market and m arketing within the United Kingdom the food products of the overseas parts of the Empire, with a view to increasing the consumption of such products in the United Kingdom in preference to imports from foreign countries, and to promote the interests both of producers and consumers.”

The recommendations arrived at are to be carried out by the Empire Marketing Board which in the first report is given the duty of taking “ charge of the current administration of the campaign of publicity and education.” It will be in touch with retailers in this country and with the representatives, in Great Britain, of overseas producers and its work is to be so arranged as “ to take into account the interests of the Home Producer.”

The co-operation of voluntary workers is contem­plated, on the analogy of the National Savings Organisation. In the first report the importance of both scientific research and economic research are stressed, and the Low Temperature Research Station at Cambridge, although too small and under-staffed, is regarded as the “ central organisation for staff work ” in connection with the general scheme of re­search on a larger scale. The first report of the Imperial Economic Committee further proposes that the Government grant of ^1,000,000 a year should be allocated in the first instance, as to 65 per cent, on pub­licity work, as to 15 per cent, on research, and the remaining 20 per cent, is to cover the other schemes, the costs of the Commission itself being very small. The “ other schemes ” include experimental fruit growing in tropical parts of the Empire, and the car­riage of pedigree stock from the United Kingdom to the Empire overseas.

But by the time of the publication of the third report on fruit during June of this year the duties of the Empire Marketing Board have expanded.

Thus it will be the duty of the Board to set up an intelligence service which will estimate forthcoming supplies of fodstuffs both in the Empire overseas, in competing foreign markets, and from the home pro­ducer. This information will be used for the benefit of home and overseas producers to help them in their competition with their rivals.

The Board is also charged with the direction, co­ordination and assistance of both scientific and economic research, and part of its funds will be spent in this way under the guidance of a special Research Committee which is to be set up.

The association of a research department and an intelligence department means in effect, the planning of the Em pire’s production of foodstuffs from the point of view of the Empire as a whole.

Another function -of the Committee will be the organisation and operation of a campaign of educative publicity directed toward the consumer in the United Kingdom .

That is to say that the great force of the United Kingdom ’s purchasing power is to be deliberately used as part of a plan for increasing the use of Empire resources. More land will come under the plough, more cattle will be bred on the grazing grounds of Australia and Canada, more tropical islands in blue seas or tropical forests in America, India, or Africa, will come under cultivation because the Empire Marketing Board is thinking, foreseeing, and com­bining otherwise isolated powers.

Experiments are suggested such as those setting up nurseries of bananas on the Islands of St. Lucia and Grenada in the W est Indies, which could not be car­ried out except by a parallel organisation. And the extension of the Marketing Board ’s influence seems likely to be great. The banana trade of Jamaica passes almost entirely through the hands of the United Fruit Company, an efficient 'American trust. But the ex­perience of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, has shown the value of producers’ organisations and fruit control. The knowledge and experience of these dominions will be made available for Jamaica by the Empire Marketing Board and so Jamaica will be helped to free itself from a foreign economic domina­tion, and Empire trade benefited with a probable reduction in price of bananas.

This one factor alone, the pooling of a world-round experience, has endless possibilities of increased economy and efficiency latent within it. Excellent work is already being done in research into conditions affecting tropical growths. Dr. Hariand despatched from the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad to study the banana in Burm a and Assam, whence the banana originally came, to try and dis­cover a variety immune to the fungus growth of the Panam a disease, is only the first of many world voyagers who will bring back a store of knowledge to the Empire, more valuable than the gold of the Eliza­bethan captains.

W hat then of the future? The Imperial Economic Committee remains. To this Committee any great Empire economic problem can be referred. And to the Empire Marketing Board the executive action found necessary as a result of inquiry can be delegated.

The fruit report dealing with the functions of the Marketing Board writes : —

“ The development of the resources of the Empire through the m arketing of produce is a vast and coherent business and must so be envisaged.”

T his is a big conception which is now in process of being realised. But beyond this there looms an even greater conception of the resources of the Empire sur­veyed and their uses planned on a scale which has never yet come within the scope of man’s powers, and an Empire not directed exclusively from Westminster, but directed by a Cabinet representing and responsible to a co-operating commonwealth of peoples.

Britain and Rome: Comparisons and ContrastsB y H a r o l d S t a n n a r d .

IV .

T H E British and the Romans are the two most legally-minded peoples known to history. It is therefore specially instructive to study the

differences in strict law between the position of the Rom an Emperor and the British K in g . In our system all right flows from the Crown. Law s are made by the K in g in Parliament. Action is taken by the K in g in Council. The magic words “ in the K in g ’s name ” carry with them that atmosphere of legality which the average Englishman insists upon breathing. It should not be forgotten, however, that this legalism is to some extent fictitious. The Crown of England was once transferred from its legal wearer by an Act of Parlia­ment and passes to this day by Parliamentary title. Time, however, combined with the failure of heirs male in the direct legitimist line, has obliterated the memory of 1689, and the Crown now enjoys all the traditional prestige which is peculiar to K ingship in Europe. The whole British political system is, as it were, an emanation of its mystic glory. Somewhere away in the dim past before Alfred there was already a K in g , the source of all law and all justice. In the course of centuries the Empire has gathered itself around this ultimate power and has drawn its whole body of law and its whole practice of administration from its inex­haustible authority.

A ll this system of thought derives from the Roman Empire. Justinian, for example, could give the world a code of law which drew its sanction from the Em peror’s position as G od’s agent upon earth at least as much as from its own inherent excellence. But Roman rule in Western Europe had passed away two centuries before Justinian and the theory of divine right elaborated under the influence of established Christianity, can hardly be said to have existed in the Empire of which Britain formed a part. Indeed, it may be argued that one main cause of the decline and fall of that Empire was that the Emperor as such had no constitutional existence whatever, and it will always be the most perfect illustration of the reluctance of mankind to modify their ideas into harmony with facts that for centuries the master of the world owed his position to a series of legal fictions.

The circumstance is the more remarkable because the Rom ans were a legally minded people with a hatred of absolutism. At the close of the sixth century before Christ they had expelled their K in gs and had safeguarded themselves against tyranny by dividing the R oyal power between two persons, called Consuls, who were precisely equal and who held office for one year only. A s their work increased, elements of their duties were taken away and conferred on other in­dividuals also elected annually. Thus it was of the essence of the Roman constitution that the State had no one sovereign, and if the devices of medieval heraldry had been current in classical times the crest of Republican Rome would have been a two-headed eagle with a number of eaglets clustered about it.

The system was workable enough within the con­fines of a city state inside whose walls the two consuls could meet daily and determine a joint policy. It continued to be workable while Rome was making herself mistress of the greater part of Italy. An agree­ment was reached between or imposed upon the con­suls whereby one of them led the army in the field while the other administered affairs at home. But the position became impossible when the Government of the world suddenly fell upon Rom e’s shoulders. The administration of an enormous territory with frontiers

* The second of a series of three articles, the first of which was published in The Empire Supplement of Ju ly 3.

exposed to barbarian attack could not be either efficient or continuous unless it were controlled by a single permanent hand. The Roman constitution allowed, indeed, for the unification of the consul’s powers in the person of a Dictator. But this step was intended as a last resort to meet a passing emergency, and Ju lius Caesar’s conversion of the Dictatorship into a permanent office led directly to his murder.

The problem was dealt with in characteristically tactful fashion by Caesar’s nephew and successor, Augustus. Augustus restored the whole Republican system which had been so badly knocked about in the preceding century of civil war. A gain there were two consuls who nominally conducted the administration after taking the advice of the distinguished Romans who formed the Senate. Actually, however, this field of administration was limited. Side by side with them there stood a private individual, of whose existence and function the constitution knew nothing, upon whom special powers were bestowed first for a term of years and afterwards for life, by a series of laws. These powers included the administration of all the provinces which required a garrison together with all matters of internal policy which needed time to carry them into effect. The defence of the Rhine and the water supply of the capital both passed into this individual’s hands for the same reason. Neither could be dealt with satis­factorily by an officer of the state elected for one year only.

It became necessary to find a name for this excre­scence on the Rom an constitutional system. The purely military title “ Imperator ” became important from the later second century onwards when the Em peror’s first duty was the maintenance of the frontiers. In Augustus’ day, however, and for a century and a-half after it, the Emperor was primarily concerned with the direction of C ivil administration. Roman tradition forbade him to take a title having any association with the hated word K in g ; for to Roman ears R ex meant not K in g but tyrant. Augustus tact­fully selected the colourless word “ Princeps,” the nearest English equivalent to which is President. It was borne by him in virtue of his tenure of certain powers conferred upon him, but not upon his heirs. The whole arrangement came to an end at his demise and was renewed because it had become indispensable. Constitutionally, therefore, there was no regular office but only a collection of miscellaneous powers specially conferred. A s Mommsen has succinctly put it, “ The principate died with the princeps ” ; and Rome knew nothing of the doctrine “ Le R oi est mort. Vive le ro i.”

V .

In any comparison between Britain and Rome, it is impossible to lay too much stress on this difference between the constitutional positions of the British K in g and the Roman Emperor. Here more than any­where in the realm of political ideas we began where Rom e ended. B y the seventh century of our era the private person with anomalous powers had been trans­formed into an Emperor by divine right, whose office was destined to have meaning for the Western world when it was assumed by Charlemagne. Thus the whole tradition of European kingship derives from Rome, though Rom e herself perished in the effort to create it. For the inherent uncertainty of the Em peror’s position became acute as soon as the pres­sure on the frontiers shifted the emphasis from the civilian to the military aspect of his authority. It is likely enough that the legions would have accepted any Emperor who came to the throne by hereditary right. But after Nero had put to death all the males of his

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