Passing comments
Visit to Malaya
Mr. James Griffiths, the Colonial Secretary, and Mr. Strachey, the War Minister, have gone to Malaya to see for themselves the scenes of the operations against the guerrillas. It is not very long since Mr. Griffiths made an electioneering broadcast about the benefits conferred on us by the Labour government. He finished by a touching reference to the “Old Book” which must have been worth hundreds of votes among the Nonconformists of Llanelly; he claimed that the Labour Party had really done nothing more than try to carry out some of the precepts to be found in the Bible. Does he think he can find justification in the New Testament for the bombing of villages in Malaya? Perhaps Mr. Griffith’s Bible reads “Thou shalt not kill—except when you think the other fellow might be a Stalinist.”
As for Mr. Strachey, his book on “Socialism in Theory and Practice” is too well known to be quoted here. Mr. Strachey must regard the war in Malaya as a bit of Socialism in practice. But the real explanation of the Strachey dilemma—why he is considered so revolutionary out of office and so reactionary in office is that he believes, like all the other Social Democratic and Stalinist leaders, that he can run the capitalist system for the benefit of the workers. But when he gets into the government he finds that a capitalist system can only be run as the capitalists want it to be run. And that is why we get self-styled Socialists directing the slaughter of Malayan workers by British workers on behalf of British rubber and tin shareholders.
South Africa
Dr. Malan continues to enforce his policy of race-segregation in South Africa. If the white South Africans find the near presence of black South Africans disturbing, the logical thing for them to do would be to withdraw to a strip of territory along the coast, sufficient to supply them with food and raw materials; they could then set up an all-white state, and keep themselves aloof from the Negroes and Indians. But Dr. Malan is not a “ doctrinaire ” politician: he is not so insistent on apartheid as to refuse contact altogether with the black population. Somebody has to do the hard work in the mines and the docks. However strongly the whites feel about “race purity,” they are not going to deny themselves the pleasures of exploiting the great reservoir of labour-power provided by the nine million coloured people of the Union. In fact, so entrancing does this reservoir appear to Dr. Malan that he wants to enlarge it. He is now demanding that South Africa should be given control of the three British protectorates which border on the Union— Bechuanaland, Swaziland, and Basutoland. Dr. Malan justifies his apartheid policy by drawing a picture of a minority of white South Africans surrounded by a horde of uncivilised natives; but this does not prevent him from trying to increase the numbers of the “horde” by dragging several hundred thousand more Negroes into the South African economic and political system. What it all amounts to is that Dr. Malan makes, a generous concession in the otherwise absolute policy of apartheid he hopes to impose—the Negroes can work for the whites; but with that privilege they must be content.
The Schism between Classes
The National Union of Railwaymen banned Mr. Arthur Birch from holding office in the Union because he refused to pay the political levy. He protested in the courts against this decision, and won his case. This drew an approving leader from the Daily Mail (26-5-50), which went on to deplore the trade unions’ intervention in politics—“Perhaps he saw that this very obsession with political power was largely responsible for the schism between the bosses and the workers.” So the “schism between bosses and workers” isn’t due to the fact that the former are exploiting the latter; the “obsessions” of the trade unions are “largely responsible.” The leader-writer of the Daily Mail is driven to ridiculous extremes to explain the rift between the two classes in society which is the natural result of the capitalist system.
How We Got the Empire
The Daily Mirror (22-5-50) carried a report of the Bishop of Croydon’s sermon at an Empire Youth Service in Westminster Abbey, which was attended by 2,000 people, including Princess Margaret. An occasion of this kind would give the bishop, one might have thought, a good opportunity for talking about some aspect of Christianity. Instead, he took it upon himself to defend British Imperialism. “Between the wars we were led by some people to believe that the Empire had been built up by grab, and that it was held together by the wilful under-development of the native races. How far from the truth that is.” Evidently the bishop has not forgotten that in the first place a state-church is created to prevent the religious feelings of the nation being turned into channels hostile to the interests of the state. Or perhaps he was afraid that Princess Margaret had been listening to the agitators in Hyde Park.
Mr. Rank and Religion
Why do great capitalists build up new companies? Mr. J. Arthur Rank threw some new light on the subject in an interview with the Methodist Recorder in 1942, quoted in “Lilliput” of May 1950. Mr. Rank said “If I could relate to you some of my adventures and experiences in the larger film world, you would not only be astonished, but it would I think be as plain to you as it is to me that I was being led by God.” It seems that the search for even greater profits does not come into it. When one surveys the vast field of Mr. Rank’s business enterprises, it becomes clear that he must have more pull in Heaven than most of us.
When Wars Were Fought by Gentlemen
A recorded talk by the late Lord Baden-Powell which was broadcast on May 20th contained some reminders of the progress we have made during so short a time as the last fifty years. When the Boers were advancing on Mafeking, Baden-Powell had boxes of sand buried at intervals round the perimeter, and put it about that they were mines. This was reported to the Boers, and when they came up to the town their commander sent in an indignant mote demanding that the mines be taken away immediately, since their use was contrary to the rules of warfare observed by civilised nations. What would the Boer commander have said about the atom-bomb?
On Sundays there was no fighting; the Boers and the British, in full view of each other, came out of their fortified positions and stretched their legs. But these polite ways of fighting were already on the way out; and as more and more countries entered the struggle for markets and raw materials, they vanished altogether. In the modern world, both totalitarian and democratic states are compelled to fight total wars. With the advent of bacteriological and atomic warfare, it seems as if the ideas of six-days-a-week fighting will be left even farther behind.
Notable Victory
Tom Driberg, in Reynolds News (7-5-50), tells of yet another advance on the day-to-day front. “Under George Buchanan’s benign chairmanship, the National Assistance Board is moving steadily further from the old, cold, bureaucratic outlook. Will Paling, M.P. for Dewsbury, has just scored a notable victory for an old lady in his constituency. She draws only five shillings a week from the Board, 2s. of which is for laundry; but Paling has persuaded them (on medical advice) to allow her a further 3/6d., for the purchase of brandy.” Driberg must be short of news about the achievements of the Labour Party if he is forced to draw attention to a case where the charity received by an old lady from the National Assistance Board has been increased by the sum of 3s. 6d. weekly.
A. W. E.