Peoples Without Space?

PEOPLES WITHOUT SPACE? CHRISTOPHER C. RoBTNSON Nothing, we believe, presents so fair a field for economical analysis, even in this age of new lights, as the subject ofcolonization. . . . So grateful to our national pride has been the spectacle, that we have never paused to inquire if our interests were advanced by so much nominal greatness. [~ichard Cobden, England, Ireland and America, 1835.] All the advantages claimed for the mother country are for the most part illusions.... A colonial policy for us would be just like the silken sables of Polish noble families who have no shirts. tBismarck, 1868 and 1871.] Relations between Italy and Abyssinia have for many years been on a satisfactory footing, and it is Italy's.interest that Abyssinia should remain an independent state and increase in prosperity and civilization. [Luigi Villari, The Expansion of Italy, 1930, p. 51.] We are faced to-day with the necessity of creating an Empire. [Lavoro Fascista, June 20, 1935.1 I T HE Have-nots are clam.ouring that they are "people~ with~ut s~ace," and ar~. disturbing the world wlth the1r clatms for expanston. Germany is arming; Italy is fighting; Japan, having done the immediately necessary :fighting, is digesting her gains, and steadily, though less spectacularly, absorbing more. The Haves are counter-arming, with growing anxiety. The Haves are disturbed in more than their peace and comfort; they are disturbed in their consciences too. They ask themselves whether it is possible or sensible to 149 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY sit on the safety-valve; but they also ask themselves whether it is fair for them, with their great colonial possessions, to ignore these claims of the Have-nots, and to apply sanctions to Italy when she seeks "a little corner in the sun." Surely it is as natural that the Have-nots should be "dynamic, as that the Haves should be "static." The rich, in every national society, have had to make enormous concessions. Must not the rich in the international society do the same? Is it not clear, on every consideration of conscience as well as of common sense, that the Haves must pay the price of peace ?1 England, the most conspicuously endowed and most envied·of the Haves, has agreed that the question should be considered, and has said that she is ready to consider it. It becomes, therefore, a practical question. It rnay closely affect Canada. Her immense territory, rich in natural resources and inhabited by only eleven millions, makes her prominent among the Haves. Undoubtedly, if the I-laves are to pay a price for peace, Canada will be expected to contribute. The Have-nots make it plain that they feel a grievance, and equally plain that their grievance endangers peace. But it is not so plain that the Haves can remedy this grievance, or even that they ought to try; nor is it at all·plain ·what kind of re1nedy would be effective. Least of all is it plain that the remedy lies in some sort of colonial concessions. All these questions depend on the nature of the grievance-whether it is rnaterial, political, or psychological. What, really, . do the Have-nots want, and why do they want it? It is extremely difficult to ·answer this question, and 1For a recent, forcible, aod widely accepted statement of this view, see F. H.·Simonds and Brooks Emeny, Tlze Price of Peace, London, 1935, and The Great Powers in World Politics, New York, 1935. 150 PEOPLES WITHOUT SPACE? i1npossible to answer it with certainty. Yet in all ordinary _ business-dealings the first obligation of anyone asserting claims against another is to state his claims definitely. \Vhat is equally important, if he vvants his claims considered , is that he must state them exhaustively, since clain1s in themselves reasonable may fairly be thought unreasonable if their satisfaction is to be made a steppingstone to further claims. So far, the Have-nots have not thus stated their claims, still less indicated what assurances they are·willing to give that if these clai1ns are settled they will not claim more. No one knows ·what Gern1any wants, or what Italy wants, or ·what Japan wants. Months of...