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Six Million Debt Slaves SLAVERY The peasantry, who comprise 80 per cent. of the population, exist under conditions of indescribable poverty and misery. Sixty per cent. are born in debt, live in debt, and die in debt, unable even to pay off the interest charged by the moneylender, which in some cases is as much as 300 per cent. The Indian Central Banking Inquiry Committee's report shows the rural in- debtedness in British India to be £692,376,920. There are more than 6,000,000 debt slaves, having to work as slaves for their creditors. The British Gov- ernment draws more than £22,000,000 yearly out of the total land revenues collected. It is this steady impoverishment and pauperisation of the mass of workers and peasants that has resulted in the total inability to purchase even one good meal a day or sufficient cloth to cover up their bodies. It was recently reported in the British press that, since the British Government forced the rupee off the gold standard in 1931, the export of gold from India to Great Britain amounted to £177,000,000, and this had been a considerable factor in maintaining the strength of sterling in the past four years. It was estimated that the value of gold in India was £300,000,00, and, if neces- sary, the British Government will exercise its gentle influence to remove the other £133,000,000 and more in their endeavour to prop up a depreciating currency. THE NEW CONSTITUTION The British Parliament has forced a new Constitution (the Government of India Act) on India, through which the ruling class hope to make their position more secure, to squeeze more and more wealth from India, to intensify the ex- ploitation, and thereby add to the misery of the mass of workers and peasants. In this nefarious task the British Government seek an alliance with the rulers of the Indian States. Despots like Patiala, Kashmir, and the deposed Alwar, with their feudal and brutal, autocratic methods, will be able to add something to the Fascist methods which the Viceroy as dictator will operate. The new constitution gives no measure of self-government to the Indian people; rather, on the other hand, it clamps the vice of British rule more firmly. Unlimited powers are given to the Viceroy and the power of the Indian Princes and landlords is strengthened. The new Constitution will be the instru- ment by which the ruling class will be able to intensify the exploitation of the mil- lions of Indian workers and peasants and thus lowering their already miserable standard of living which in turn must inevitably reflect itself on the conditions of the British working class. It is the same capitalist who is exploit- ing the workers here in this country and who is creating these appalling and miser- able conditions in India. ILLEGAL ORGANISATIONS Since 23rd July, 1934, the Government of India have declared 24 organisations to be illegal. These include the Communist Party, Young Workers' League, Peasant Organisations, Trade Unions and anti- imperialist organisations. BURMA A S a consequence of the first and second Burmese wars in 1824 and 1852, the British had been able to establish com- mercial centres along the coastal terri- tories of Burma. The third Burmese war was fought in 1885 and resulted in the occupation of Mandalay, the exiling of King Theebaw and the annexation of Burma to the British Empire. Intense economic distress in Burma, accompanied by heavy taxation, had pro- duced such misery and starvation that a large-scale insurrection broke out in the Tharrawaddy District, to the East of the Irrawaddy River, in December, 1930. It was only quelled after more than a year of bitter fighting, on the capture, after betrayal in the Shan States, of the Nationalist leader, Saya San, who was executed. For the purpose of suppressing the Bur- mese insurrection, the British Labour Government sent an expeditionary force from India of 7,000 British and Indian troops, and King George has awarded a special medal to those who took part in this murder campaign, in which it was stated by members of the Burmese Police Force that not less than 10,000 Burmese villagers were killed, although the official statements did not admit that the number killed was more than 1,000. The cost of sup- pressing the rebellion was 25 lakhs of rupees (£187,500). The barbarous methods resorted to by the British during the campaign aroused world-wide indignation, especially the de- capitation of sixteen rebels and the public exhibition of their heads in the military headquarters at Prome. Elsewhere we re- produce an actual photograph of the gruesome exhibition with comments of the "New Burma." (See Hansard, Vol. 261, No. 32 of February 8, 1932.) A photograph of this atrocity was printed in a letter addressed by U. Saw, member for Tharrawaddy South of the Legislative Council of Burma to the Secre- tary of State for India, entitled ''The Burmese Situation, 1930-31." The workers and peasants of Burma have been reduced to abject poverty in Meeting of port and dock workers, Ochterlony Monument, Calcutta. 8] 1475 25/184,500 [9

consequence of the heavy fall in the price of rice, of high taxation and the general policy of the British imperialism which has resulted in the impoverishment of the country. All working-class and youth organisa- tions who attempt to lead the struggle against these conditions are being sup- pressed by ordinance of the Government. Not Plaster Dolls— but Human Heads "It is reported that these heads were taken to the military headquarters at Prome for enquiry. This hideous piece of news is sure to be shocking in many quar- ters. Indeed, we ourselves, felt a certain heart-quake on hearing this gruesome ac- count of beheading the fallen rebels. It must be held that this is nothing short of an act of cruelty, repugnant and revolting to the modern conception of humanity. Even in an actual war during these days of enlightenment and civilisation, an act 10 ] similar to that perpetrated on the un- fortunate sixteen rebels would assuredly cause a world-wide horror and denun- ciation. It may be contended that these sixteen fallen rebels were beheaded just for the purpose of securing convenience in making enquiries. Surely there are other ways of securing convenience, without offending the ordinary canons of humanity and human conduct. But, is there any appreciable difference, worth the name, to secure convenience between the conveyance of the dead bodies and the transport of the heads alone for a distance of a few miles only? Where is the rap- ture? Where is the beatitude to disfigure a dead body? Only a cannibal would re- lish in this sort of bloodthirsty act. To mutilate a dead body in cold blood, what- ever the circumstances and the exigen- cies of the moment may be, is revolting to the extreme. Devilish, satanic and in- fernal, these are the suitable adjectives to qualify an act such as the one per- petrated on the dead bodies of the sixteen rebels."" New Burma," June 10, 1931. The WEST INDIES SLAVERY, BLOOD, SUGAR SINCE the occupation of the Bermudas in 1610, the history of the West Indies, one of the earliest of British possessions, is one of amassing huge fortunes for a brutal system of slavery, exploitation, misery and death. First, the native Carib population of the islands was wiped out by successive massacres by British, French and Spanish naval "heroes." Then after all the existing wealth of the islands had been plundered, the slave trade from West Africa was developed to provide the labour for the white settlers and "owners" living in luxury in Europe. These islands yielded sugar, rum, cotton, indigo and tobacco in abundance, and in the middle of the seventeenth century more than one hundred ships came every year to Barbados to load with rum, sugar, molasses. The extent of the exploitation can be gathered from the fact that in the year 1656 this island-equal in size to the Isle of Wight-had a white population of 25,000 and more than 35,000 Negroes. Jamaica, the pearl of the West Indies, captured from Spain in 1660, had a popu- lation of 50,000 in 1698, which had grown to 210,000, including 192,000 slaves, in 1775. The population of the island existed almost exclusively on the production and sale of sugar. The greed of the British was so great and the exploitation so ruthless that Froude in his book "The English in the West Indies" wrote:- "They had been regarded as precious jewels which hundreds of thousands of English lives had been sacrificed to tear from France and Spain. The Caribbean Sea was the cradle of the Naval Empire of Great Britain. There Drake and Hawkins intercepted the golden stream which flowed from Panama into the ex- chequer at Madrid. . . . "In those waters, in the centuries which followed, France and England fought for the ocean empire, and England won it." On April 2nd, 1931, the Archbishop of the West Indies was also compelled to sound the note of alarm. He wrote to "The Times" as follows:-- "The Sugar Commission of 1929 de- scribed the wage received by estate labourers then as hardly sufficient to maintain more than bare subsistence. . . . "The Government, therefore, in order to avert actual starvation, gave relief work on roads. They paid the most in- adequate wages of 5s. a week to men and 2s. 6d. a week to women and lads for five days' work. "But it is common knowledge that the authorities at home authorised in the first instance a maximum of 3s. a week for relief work! It was only at the urgent representation of the Relief Committee that the maximum was raised to 5s. a week. "The position in St. Kitts and Nevis is similar. . . . Sir H. Norman's Commis- sion of 1896-97 described the conditions among the great majority of the labouring classes in a part of this colony as one of squalor and degradation." At the commencement of the harvesting of the sugar crop on the island of St. Kitts in January, 1935, the Negro cutters re- fused to go into the plantations at the rate of wage paid last year, which amounted to two shillings per ton, to be divided among the cutters, tiers, cartmen and packers. Now it takes an expert cutter to get one ton of sugar cane a day. Divided among the gang, the cutter would get one shilling per day, the others receiving fourpence per day each. This originated on Backley's Estate, [ 11

where the manager shot four strikers. This cold-blooded action aroused the town workers, who joined the strikers and re- fused to leave the estate until the manager had been arrested. When clergymen had succeeded in separating the town workers from the strikers the Riot Act was read aloud, and at its conclusion the police fired directly into the unarmed crowd, killing three and seriously wounding another eleven. We can ask the Empire builders: Has the economic, social and cultural condi- tion of the people of the West Indies im- IRELAND: Exhausting SPEAKING in a general way, taxation in Ireland goes back to the time of Henry VIII; at least the provision of revenue roughly dates from that period. Thereafter, the king's resources multi- plied, and consisted of crown rents, quit rents, customs, excise, prisage on wines, license duties, fines, forfeits, first fruits and so on. Thus originated the army of bailiffs, gaugers, jobbers, land-sharks and para- sites that have since afflicted society. Soon after the coming of King William, a poll-tax of a shilling was placed on every individual except the very poor, bachelors over thirty to pay a double tax. Then a land tax was tried and dropped, a tax on horses suggested, and a tax placed on tobacco, to keep barracks in repair. As time went on, duties were placed on all spirits, paper, meal, flour and so on. As a result of putting the Dutchman on the English throne, England incurred a National Debt of £16,000,000. Marl- borough's European campaign added £50,000,000. The war which resulted in American Independence added a further £130,000,000. The French wars which opened in 1793 added £650,000,000. In 1817, when Ireland was arbitrarily saddled with two-seventeenths of Eng- land's National Debt, it was up to 12 ] proved under the guidance of the rapacious British bondholders? The facts show the contrary. The late Lord Olivier, in his article on Barbados in "The Times" (30.3.31), stated:- "There is acute poverty. The death rate of infants is 380 per thousand. . . . Labourers' wages have been cut down by one-fifth, their work to three or four days a week, without unemployment relief." This, written of Barbados, is true of all the West Indies, which, like most other colonies, have been bled white by the pre- datory imperialism of Britain. Taxation £900,000,000. Yet, in spite of England's world-wide wars for a whole century, the Debt was down in 1899 to £635,000,000. And in spite of the Boer War, which added another £160,000,000, it was down again in 1914 to £650,000,000. Why? Because for 750 years England had been steadily robbing Ireland. At the coming of King William, Ireland had no National Debt. About the middle of the eighteenth century, Ireland first had a National Debt of £500,000. In 1782 it was about £2,000,000, due entirely to con- tributions by a subordinate "Irish Parlia- ment" to England's military enterprises. By 1800, at the Union, it had been driven up to £28,500,000, England saddling Ireland with the cost of the Rebellion she had herself provoked for her own ends. And when the two Exchequers were autocratically amalgamated in 1817, Eng- land had artificially forced the Irish National Debt up to £112,000,000 Over and above all that, England, be- tween the amalgamation of the Ex- chequers and the Treaty of 1921, over- taxed Ireland to the tune of at least £500,000,000. All attempts of the Irish people to resist this financial draining of their country is met with all the reactionary forces of British imperialism. To-day the economic boycott and exces- sive tariffs imposed on Irish cattle have im- poverished thousands of small farmers and agricultural workers to an appalling degree. Is the Irish Free State Free ? The Irish "Free State" is still held by military and economic chains in the bond- age of the Empire, by the Treaty of 1922, which separated the industrial centres of Ulster from the agricultural areas of the South. The Treaty, which Irish representatives signed after the horrors of the Black and Tan régime, and under the threat from Lloyd George of open war on Ireland, safe- guarded all the essential interests of British imperialism in the twenty-six counties of the Free State. The Admiralty permanently maintains dockyard and har- bour defences and aircraft stations at Free State ports; submarine cables and wireless stations are controlled by the British Government, which at the same time restricts the strength of Ireland's defence forces, and requires facilities for British forces in Ireland in time of war. Thus the first vital interest of im- perialism to hold Ireland as a war base- is secured. And in spite of the withhold- ing of the Land Annuities by the De Valera Government, the economic grip of British capital on Southern Ireland is still un- broken. The banks, which take their tribute from every section of the people and particularly from the farmers, who are more and more forced into debt, are largely British-owned. Industries on a large scale are almost wholly limited to the British-owned enterprises in the North, and while Irish capitalists are trying to extend manufacturing industries in the South behind tariff walls, British capital still draws its large share of profits through the banks, the distributive trades and the transport industry. Economic conditions in Ireland, where the effects of the world crisis have been sharpened by the economic war main- tained by the British Government, have meant growing poverty for every section of the working people: lower agricultural prices, seizure of farm stocks to pay taxes which the farmers cannot meet, higher cost of living in the towns through in- creased duties on imports, and repeated attacks on the wages and conditions of industrial workers. But these very condi- tions are bringing the workers and work- ing farmers into the close alliance which alone can win the fight for a united and independent Ireland, an alliance which no longer relies on the Irish capitalist class to lead the struggle. In the words written by Connolly: "The Irish toilers from henceforward will base their fight for freedom not upon the winning or losing of the right to talk in an Irish Parliament, but upon their progress towards the mastery of those fac- tories, workshops and farms upon which a people's bread and liberties depend." PALESTINE "THOSE who do settle in Palestine are likely to be of real political and com- mercial service to the Empire, for Pales- tine is the Clapham Junction of the Com- monwealth. The air routes, as well as the ocean routes, east and west, and north and south, cross here, where one flank rests on the Suez Canal and the other on the port of Haifa, the natural trade base of Meso- potamia. With pipe line and railway de- bouching from Haifa under Carmel, the British Fleet can look after the Near East in comfort and safety." -J. C. Wedgwood ("The Seventh Dominion.") [ 13

OLDEST COLONY STARVES IN June, 1497, John Cabot, an Italian navigator, sailed from Bristol, in the West of England, with letters-patent granted him by Henry VII, charging him to discover unknown lands. Cabot had ideas about the north-west passage to India. He failed in the project, but landed in Newfoundland, and so he rendered the merchant class an invaluable service. The first official mention of Newfound- land was in an Act of Parliament in 1540, under the name of Newland as a fishing centre, and to this island fishermen from all countries gravitated. In 1578 50 Eng- lish vessels visited the island, as also did 100 Spanish, 50 Portuguese and 150 French. The British had gained considerable strength since John Cabot sailed from Bristol in June, 1497; so much so, in fact, that it is recorded that the interest of the Bristol men led them to go ashore on this island in order to keep an eye on the fish- ing ground. Quite! History makes no mention of other fishermen wishing to keep an eye on the fishing ground. But in 1583 that renowned West of England pirate, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, arrived with five ships and solemnly took possession of Newfoundland in the name of the Crown. The English had acquired the art of colonisation. The people of Bristol, trained in the gentle art of buccaneering, were en- trusted with the care of the island, and so in 1610 a band of colonists installed themselves at Cuper's Cove on the shores of Conception Bay. Here was the beginning of the perma- nent colonisation by the English of the coast of Canada. This island has felt the full blast of the world economic crisis, and the majority of 14 ] the population have been forced to suffer untold hardship. When in 1933 the financial obligation to the bondholders could not be fulfilled, the British Government suspended the con- stitution and the island is now governed by a Commission, who is responsible to Whitehall. During 1935 thousands of workers were on the verge of death through starvation. Many of the houses are devoid of furniture and, in the intense cold, men, women and children can be seen in hundreds around the soup kitchen, semi-clad. Demonstrations of unemployed, who only receive the appalling sum of 3d. per day for relief, have had pitched battles with the brutal forces of imperialism. Whole families were on the verge of star- vation. A typical example was that of a girl nine years old found dying beside her semi-conscious mother in the same bed. Two other girls in the same house, age 2 and 4 years, and two boys, age 6 and 8, were helplessly ill, crouched in boxes on the floors. CYPRUS "WE took Cyprus for strategical pur- poses because it was considered necessary to have a station in the Eastern Mediterranean to enable us to maintain our trade route to the Far East if the Empire had to fight for its existence. It has never been of much use to us, and when the League of Nations is established its value will go down altogether." -MacDonald, "Labour and Socialist International Conference," Berne, 1919. AFRICA and CECIL RHODES "IT was in the 'seventies that Mr. Rhodes began to make money and connections in the Kimberley diamond fields. In the early 'eighties he was already in the Cape Parliament, occupied partly in opposing the imperial faction and conciliating the Dutch, but mainly in preparing for a great financial coup in Kimberley. "At last, in the year 1888, the whole Kimberley group of competing diamond companies had been swallowed up in De Beers', and Mr. Rhodes, as manager of De Beers, was in receipt of a princely in- come, had four seats in the Cape Parlia- ment absolutely at his disposal, as well as a big secret fund provided for in the trust deeds of the new company." (J. L. Ham- mond: Liberalism and the Empire, p. 52.) Rhodes and his compatriots were mixed up with a lot of sticky business and all those who take off their bonnets to him would be above suspicion if in the future they kept covered. If the empire cru- saders have any doubts as to the rascality of Cecil Rhodes the following will probably convince them. "By 1893 it was pretty plainly seen that the company was a financial failure. Its shares were quoted at barely above par, and it had become clear that there was no gold worth speaking of to be obtained in Mashonaland. "At the same time, reports began to be circulated that though there might be no gold in Mashonaland, there was plenty to be had in Matabeleland. About the same time, moreover, reports began to be circu- lated that the Matabele chief, Lo Bengula, whose conduct up to then had been uni- versally praised, was getting 'cheeky,' and would have to be settled with. "By means of organised misrepre- sentation and judicious use of the tele- graph wires, it came to be believed in this country that the settlers in Mashonaland were in imminent danger of being wiped out by a 'horde' of savages. "The Chartered Company's forces in- vaded Matabeleland, and by great good luck managed to seize Bulawayo with trifling loss. The event, according to the Rhodesia Herald, November 10, 1893, 'Changed the face of Heaven and Earth.' "A brisk business was immediately done in Chartered Company's shares at an en- hanced price, while in Engalnd the addi- tional capital that was needed to mend the rents in the Company's financial garments was raised without difficulty. The fact that some thousands of Matabele lost their lives, as well as a detachment of gallant Europeans, was of little importance in the opposite scale. "Such an appearance of prosperity was created that the chief holders of Chartered Company's shares were able a little later to unload them upon the public at a very heavy profit." (Liberalism and the Empire.) "The profits realised by some of the principal shareholders for their operations were exposed in the House of Commons at this time by Mr. Labouchere and were cal- culated on a moderate basis as follows: Name Profit Duke of Abercorn . . . . £14,324 Duke of Fife . . . . 14,708 Earl Grey . . . . 27,612 Lord Gifford . . . . 38,388 Sir Horace Farquhar . . . . 60,928 Mr. Rhodes . . . . 546,3761 Mr. Beit.. . . . . 459,520 Mr. Rochfort Maquire . . . . 228,860 Goldfields of S. Africa . . . . 477,108 Lord Rothschild . . . . 167,596 Beit and Rhodes . . . . 837,9641 Rhodes and Beit . . . . 45,6001 Rhodes, Rudd and Beit . . . . 68,0001 1 Compare Mr. Rhodes' speech to his shareholders, "Times," May 2, 1900: "I should have liked to take more (than 200,000 shares), but during the last ten years I have devoted myself to politics; and politics and the accumulation of money do not run together." (Liberalism and the Empire.) [ 15

So much for Cecil Rhodes the land buccaneer and pirate—the Empire Builder! If additional evidence is required, L. Woolf, in his book "Economic Imperial- ism" relates a striking story of how the ruler of Matabeleland and his people were robbed of their land and cattle. "In 1889 the British South African Com- pany received a Royal Charter. The object of this joint-stock company, as defined in the Charter, was the acquisition and use of concessions in the country north of Bechuanaland and the South African Republic, now known as Rhodesia. Its operations were controlled by Cecil Rhodes and his lieutenant, Dr. Jameson. "A year after the grant of the Charter the Company occupied Mashonaland with armed force. Two years later Rhodes and Jameson raised an alarm force for the in- vasion and occupation of Matabeleland. The terms of enlistment were significant: every trooper was to be entitled to choose for himself about nine square miles of Matabele's land and to share the loot—i.e., cattle—with the Chartered Company. "The Company then picked a quarrel with Lo Benguela, the Matabele king, and its mercenaries invaded his country and defeated him. "By this conquest a joint-stock com- pany, situated in 2, London Wall Buildings, London, E.C.2, claimed to become the abso- lute owner of 148,000 square miles of terri- tory and 700,000 Africans situated between latitudes 16 and 22 south of the Equator." —("Economic Imperialism," pp. 47-48.) This was, of course, the usual method of "acquiring" Empire. Of course, some would feel upset if men like Rhodes and Jameson were accused of barefaced robbery and plunder. CROMWELL "IN Cromwell we see an imperial states- man of the first order: 'perhaps the only Englishman who has ever understood in its full sense the word Empire' (Egerton) . . . Throughout his policy, indeed, Cromwell continues the school of Raleigh, with its union of religious zeal, imperial spirit, and mercantile aims." —"Expansion of the British Empire" William Harrison Woodward. 16 ] RHODES the Hero? MR. RHODES was convicted of crimes not hitherto regarded as venial in public or private life, yet he received a welcome from London which would have been appropriate to a great national hero. He counts divines amongst his apolo- gists, Court personages and an ex-Premier amongst his friends, the chief newspapers amongst his private organs, and a Poet Laureate as a kind of pocket Homer to his Achilles. Mr. Chamberlain's dictatorship is an- other milestone on the long road of degradation of character. He lies under a grave charge, and a great part of the press affects surprise at the demand that a Minister of the Crown should clear his character. . . . There is another moral to be drawn from our complacent indifference to Mr. Rhodes' conduct. The Matebele were first duped and cajoled into making concessions to the Goldfields Company, then deliberately provoked into war, and finally crushed with every circumstance of brutality and horror. Mr. Rhodes, after securing the transfer of British Bechuanaland to Cape Colony in 1895, made a slight disturbance the pretext for a great campaign, hunted, shot down, and starved out the Bechuana, and deported 2,000 of them to Capetown. The Chartered Company introduced, as Sir Richard Martin reported, a system of forced labour into Rhodesia. These things were done in the name of England. (J. L. Hammond, "Liberalism and the Empire 1900.") Rhodes' successors have well carried on what he begun. Margarine and Massacre BY an ordinance the British Govern- ment declared all the land of Kenya not already in the possession of foreigners to be Crown land. In short, the British declared Kenya to be theirs and took it. Both British East Africa and Nigeria were stolen through the operations of Chartered Companies, who received their Charters from the British Government. And these areas are now safely in the hands of the bondholders and the soap combines. There is also a deadly indictment of Labour imperialist rule in Nigeria, which only dates back to 1929. The big combine Lever Bros. (now Unilever), which control the entire soap and margarine industries from the raw material to the finished product, were forcing down the prices of raw materials paid to Nigerian women. So desperate was the situation that the women attacked the station of Aba on December 14, 1929. Not less than six women were shot dead by the police. Two days later a larger number of women col- lected at Opobo. They were attacked by troops, who killed nineteen, fatally wounded another ten and pushed a further eight into the river, who were drowned as a result of the panic that followed. While this massacre was carried out the soap and margarine combines were making enormous profits; in this case 300 per cent. was made in 1930 and 50 per cent. of the issued ordinary capital was placed to re- serve. The general reserve of this combine in 1930 was 13 million pounds! It is now to be increased to 17 million pounds! EGYPT SINCE 1878, when an International Debt Commission was appointed to take con- trol of Egyptian finances, Britain has been interfering in Egyptian affairs. The process by which that country has been exploited by European imperialism has been the usual one: money (£91,000,000) advanced by financiers in London and Paris to an autocratic ruler, the Khedive Ismail, at 12 per cent., the money squan- dered, nothing to show for it except the Suez Canal, the profits of which do not go to Egypt, the people of Egypt saddled with the debt. The British Government, obedient to pressure by the bankers, in- vites France and Italy to join in interven- tion. They decline—Britain proceeds alone; bombards Alexandria and defeats the Egyptian army at Tel-el-Kebir (1882). Hostilities continue intermittently for years. In 1885 General Gordon is killed on the capture of Khartoum by the Mahdi. In 1898 Kitchener leads an expe- ditionary force into the Sudan, defeats the Khalifa, successor of the Mahdi, at Atbara and Omdurman, and gives an exhibition of "Kultur" by desecrating the Mahdi's tomb, exhuming and decapitating the body and flinging the remains into the Nile. In 1899 a Convention was signed placing the Sudan under the joint control of Britain and Egypt, the latter paying for administration. After the outbreak of war, 1914, Britain did not annex Egypt outright, but placed the country under martial law and declared it a British Protectorate. At the conclusion of peace, Britain refused to re- nounce the Protectorate or to evacuate the country. A nation-wide agitation de- veloped in support of the demand for Egyptian independence. The British refused passports to the Egyptian Indepen- dence Mission to Europe and deported Zaghlul and his co-delegates to Malta. [ 17

Malaria Slays over 80,000 in Ceylon GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE THIS year one of the devastating malaria epidemics swept Ceylon. Over 500,000 persons were affected or one- tenth of the population. "Times" Correspondent, 20-6-35:- "Deaths in Ceylon from the malaria epidemic and allied causes for seven months November-May (1935) are esti- mated at 81,404, this being the excess over the corresponding period a year ago." In the Galli area, out of a total popula- tion of 365,000, no fewer than 250,000 have been attacked by the disease and the mortality has been specially severe among the children, who were dying at the rate of 100 a day. In certain villages the whole of the child population have been wiped out. For this severe mortality the Govern- ment alone is responsible. The possible outbreak of malaria was forecast with precision, but no effort was made by the Government to spray the malarious water with oil nor was prophylactic treatment organised. But the main cause of the severe mor- tality is to be attributed to anæmia caused through undernourishment. P. E. Pieris, Trade Commissioner for Ceylon, Ceylon House, Aldwych, W.C.2, in a letter to "The Times" of July 27, 1935, says:- "... Fortunes have been made out of tea and rubber plantations, yet the villagers are left on the borderline of starvation. They lack the reserve of physical energy needed to resist the recurrent attacks and they have no reserve of money with which to purchase adequate sustenance during illness. A village woman if she can find employment will earn 4d. a day, but the classes from whom the majority of the malaria victims are drawn do not always have the opportunity of earning even this." The interests of the capitalist com- panies who dominate the internal economy of Ceylon prefer to grow tea, rubber or 18 ] coffee rather than rice. So under British rule foodcrops are of secondary importance. As a result of this situation coupled with long hours of labour and extremely low wages the peasants are reduced to such a weak state that they are unable to resist when attacked by malaria. With a population of 5,312,548, the main source of wealth is provided by the cultiva- tion of tea and rubber. Of the total acre- age devoted to their production, 80 per cent. and 40 per cent. respectively is con- centrated in European hands. The export of these commodities in 1934 was: Tea, 218 million pounds, valued at Rs. 145 million Rubber, 186 million pounds, valued at Rs. 59 million Other exports are Cocoa, Cinnamon, Cardamoms, Citronella, Copra, Cocoanut oil, Gems, etc. It is intended to make Ceylon one of the war bases of the British Empire and an area near Trincomalee is reserved at the request of the Air Ministry as an air base. Trincomalee is one of the finest natural harbours in the world and is the base of the British East India Squadron. World's Raw Material Production The countries of the British Empire control more than 50 per cent. of the world's cocoa, ground- nuts, wool, jute, rubber, nickel and gold; 30 per cent. or more of the world's manganese ore, chrome ore, zinc, lead, and tin ore; and more than 20 per cent. of the world's wheat, vegetable oils, copra, cotton, coal, and copper; and just on 20 per cent. of the world's silver. -"The Economist, 26/10/35. What Means This Empire? WHY YOU SHOULD STAND SOLID WITH COLONIAL PEOPLES WHAT DOES THE EMPIRE MEAN TO THE WORKERS IN BRITAIN ? Does it mean that they benefit from the exploitation of markets, etc.? So the im- perialist preaches, and "patriotic" labour leaders echo them, in a propaganda that is as shortsighted as it is criminal. For it is only a small upper section of the workers that has received a minute share of the spoils in the shape of privileged conditions of employment. The realities of the question of Empire for the workers in Britain are very dif- ferent from this imperialist propaganda. First, it means that the surplus ex- tracted from the labour of the workers in Britain goes, not to develop production in Britain and increase employment, but to further the plunder schemes of the capi- talists overseas in the hunt for ever higher profits. These higher profits of colonial plunder lead to relative neglect of development of industry in Britain, backwardness of equip- ment, growth of parasitism, and so to ever renewed attacks on the standards of the workers in order to maintain a competi- tive level. The principal period of im- perialism since the end of the nineteenth century coincides with steadily worsening conditions of the workers in Britain. Second, the profits of empire give to the capitalists reserves of strength to enable them to fight more successfully against the working class in the home country. Third, international working-class soli- darity is broken by the division of im- perialist and coloured workers, of white and coloured workers, as seen con- spicuously in the problems of the seamen, or in a country like South Africa. Capital plays off one against the other; and the drive becomes increasingly to bring all down to the "coolie standard." COLONIAL SPOILS Fourth, the ever growing conflicts of the imperialist powers over the spoils of colo- nial plunder lead to growing militarism and wars. Such was already the war of 1914-18 for the division of the world, and renewed and yet more intense war of the imperialist powers threaten. Poverty and worsened conditions, work- ing-class division and ever renewed capi- talist attacks, militarism and war-these are the consequences of imperialism for the workers. Against this system of imperialism the colonial peoples all over the world are in revolt. This revolt is spreading and extend- ing in its range year by year, above all since the world war, which revealed to all the contradictions and inner rottenness of imperialism, and since the Bolshevik Revo- lution which freed the subject peoples under Tsarism. FIGHT GOES FORWARD In India and Egypt, in Burma and Malaya, in Palestine and Nigeria, the fight goes forward. Hundreds of millions are awakening. Colonial wars, military opera- tions, police terrorism are ceaseless, but cannot stay the movement of revolt. What is the only possible policy of the British working class in relation to the struggle of the colonial peoples for freedom? It is to support that struggle as part of a common fight against capitalism. It is to support their fight for freedom without reserve, up to the full right of secession and independence. The only alternative is inevitably unity with capitalism to shoot down the colonial masses. There is no half-way house. The [ 19

choice is before us, and is heavy with re- sponsibility for the whole future of the working class. Imperialism is the common enemy. Unity is strength. Imperialism will be overthrown by the combined struggle of the working class and the colonial peoples. England The Slave Trader THE slave traffic was the monopoly of the Portuguese, who were master pirates of the Guinea coast about 1600, and were the only people who took part in the transportation of human cargoes. In the next century this monopoly was broken by the Dutch. The English at that time took little part in the nefarious trade. John Hawkins carried five shiploads of Negroes from Guinea to Haiti in 1562. In the eighteenth century this vile traffic was almost entirely in the hands of the god-fearing English. It is recorded that between 1783 and 1793 some 303,737 slaves, valued at £15,186,850, were transported from Africa to America. The peak of this trade was reached about 1770, when 197 English ships in all were employed. Of these, 107 were from Liverpool, 57 from London, and 33 from Bristol. From the accumulated lucrative profits of slave-driving the basis was laid for large-scale industry in Lancashire and other parts of England; in fact, the foundation of the Empire was built on slavery. EMPIRE leads to WAR WE cannot have an Empire and have peace, and we cannot have an Empire and in the long run preserve our own liberty as a working class here at home. There is no doubt whatever, from the im- perialist point of view, that the possession of an Empire is a good thing. If the 20 ] British capitalist class are boasting now that we have weathered the crisis better than they have in Germany or Italy or the U.S.A., that weathering of the crisis is precisely due to the possession of this huge colonial Empire. EMPIRE AT ANY COST Consequently we have in the world to- day not merely the desire to protect their Empire, but we have also the desire on the part of other capitalist countries, which have no empire, to build an empire at any cost. And so we have the invasion of Japan into Manchuria, the challenge thrown down to the old treaties under which they divided up China, the man- œuvres of British imperialism in Tibet and Chinese Turkestan, the driving of Ger- many for an empire, the invasion of Abyssinia by Italy, and this imperialist struggle is becoming more acute because of the colonial policy of the British im- perialists. Cabinet Ministers glibly express the great desire of the governing class of this country for peace. Yet there is not one who would be prepared to give up un- conditionally one single inch of the British Empire either to the colonial peoples within the Empire or to any competing imperialist Power. A survey of the trade within the British Empire shows that as a result of the Ottawa Agreement British imperialism has succeeded in diminishing the share of its imperialist rivals in Empire markets and increasing its own. This only accentuates the struggle for markets throughout the world. URGED ON BY CRISIS In fact, the whole development of the crisis has shown every imperialist Power the importance of colonies and an empire as a sphere of exploitation. The operation of the Ottawa Agreement, the drive to- wards a "closed Empire" has roused the colonial rivalry of the British and American imperialists. At the same time British imperialism is seeking to effect a political and economic compromise with Japanese imperialism in order to obtain Japanese support against the United States and in order to direct the Japanese expansion drive towards the Soviet Union. Furthermore, we see the dangerous situation which has arisen in East Africa owing to the conflict between British and Italian imperialism over Abyssinia. Besides the large economic interests possessed by Britain in Abyssinia, the prosperity of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan depends upon the headwaters of the Blue Nile situated in Abyssinia. Italian capitalism, on the other hand, must obtain colonial markets and the monopoly of a source of raw materials. Abyssinia is the only remain- ing free territory in Africa, and has thus attracted Italian imperialism as well as British interests. Similarly German capitalism must find colonies at the expense of those who have them, and is arming in preparation for a war to obtain them. Imperialist an- tagonisms are therefore creating another world war for the redistribution of colonies. Empire and Peace there cannot be, because both are contradictory terms. Children and the Empire In every school the Teachers will tell the children about the great British Empire, in school history books the chil- dren read of the great Empire, at the cinema they see and hear of the great Empire, and what a wonderful thing it is that little Britain should rule over great countries wheres there are millions and millions of coloured people. But the children are never taught that the coloured people of the colonies are everywhere terribly poor, with not enough food or clothes. They work far longer than your father and mother do-growing rice and tea and corn, working in the mines, carrying heavy loads on their heads or backs. The children also have to work because their parents cannot earn enough to keep them. Instead of going to school, the children in many colonies have to work all day long under the hot sun, digging or plant- ing seeds with a stick, or carrying water. A great many die through hunger while they are still tiny tots. In the towns, they work in the cotton mills, ten or twelve hours a day, minding the machinery. They get so tired that they fall asleep at the machines, and often get badly hurt by moving machinery. The children often eat and sleep, as well as work in the noisy, dirty factory. They earn only a few pence, and are very thin and pale, and many die young. If you ask about this, you will most likely be told that coloured people can live on a basinful of rice a day. This is not true; any more than it is true to say that you can live on porridge and nothing else. The white rulers do not treat the coloured people well. They beat them severely for the slightest offence. All this is done by a few rich people from England who want to become richer. These are the same rich people for whom your father or your mother or grown-up brothers have to work. The rich are enemies of the workers in every country. The workers everywhere should be brothers and friends of one another, whether they are white or brown or yellow or black. When you grow up, stand up for your brothers in the colonies. Remember that the rich people's Empire means slavery for millions of people. [ 21

HOW THE SOVIET UNION SOLVED THE NATIONAL PROBLEM TSARIST Russia was a great Empire, built up by the sword over many cen- turies. Less than a third of its population (56 millions out of over 170 millions) were Russians. But the Russian ruling class— landlords, manufacturers, bankers and merchants—controlled the fates of over a hundred million Ukrainians, White Rus- sians, Georgians, Jews, Armenians, Kazaks, Uzbeks, Turkmenis, etc. Only a tiny handful of landlords among these subject nationalities shared in political power. The subject peoples had no local govern- ment of their own, except in Finland. They could not receive education in their own language, save in a few religious schools in the Asiatic provinces. They were consequently debarred from the higher posts in all professions. While in European Russia nearly a quarter of the people could read and write, in the Caucasus the figure was only 12 per cent. and in Central Asia 5 per cent. Their countries were kept as sources of raw material, food grain, flax, peat, cotton, oil and industrial development was held back. The subject peoples represented a huge mass of peasants, living at the very lowest degree of misery, disease and ignorance, contemptuously treated as “natives” in- capable of thinking like the white man— the Russian with a small sprinkling of workers earning five or six shillings a week for a 12- or 14-hour day. In short, the Russian Empire was just as much a “prison house of peoples” as the British Empire, and ruled like the British Empire with the help of bayonets and machine-guns. 22 ] For years the Bolsheviks had preached that Socialism could never be achieved by the Russian workers unless they helped the subject peoples to gain complete indepen- dence, including the right if they pleased to separate completely. The Bolsheviks always supported to the utmost any strike or national revolt of the subject peoples. Immediately the Soviet Government was established by the revolution of November 1917, the Bolsheviks set about fulfilling their promises. The “Declaration of Rights of the toil- ing Peoples of Russia”—later incorporated into the Soviet Constitution—gave full freedom to all subject peoples to decide their destiny as they pleased. Moreover, the Soviet Union from the beginning pursued the policy of special economic assistance to the former subject peoples, in the shape of huge expenditure on irrigation and drainage works, on edu- cation, on agriculture and above all on the development of the national industrial wealth of their countries. Mines, factories, railways have covered the face of previous blank spots on the map, adding vastly to the resources of the former subject peoples, and moreover under the new Soviet conditions—seven- hour day, free social insurance, equal pay for equal work, workmen’s committees in control of conditions, etc. National jingoism—such as “race propa- ganda,” anti-semitism, contemptuous treat- ment of the former “natives,” etc.—is sternly repressed. But the Bolsheviks of every one of the national States of the Soviet Union strive to lead their own people—the workers, col- lective farmers and individual peasants— by the shortest and quickest path towards a completely classless society, in which no trace of the former national privileges and inequalities remain. Instead of 101 provinces of the old Tsarist Empire governed by fire and sword from St. Petersburg, the Soviet Union in 1932 already consisted of seven Federal Re- publics (the principal Sovereign States), with 16 autonomous Soviet Republics (i.e., enjoying Home Rule), 17 autonomous national Regions, and hundreds of self- governing national districts and even vil- lages in their midst. За боевое КОМСОМОЛЬЦЫ! Чыгы вајd 46 rajona SOMOLLAR Since then dozens have been added to their number, and scores of districts, regions and autonomous Republics have moved up into a higher status as their eco- nomic and social progress made it possible. Never has there been in the history of the world a country presenting such a variety of national units, all based on national self-expression, and all in a state of continuous growth. Yet never in the world has there been a state so united, powerful and free from ex- ploitation and parasitism of any kind as the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Happy and Free Workers in Soviet Central Asia [ 23

AN APPEAL to YOU! THE League Against Imperialism and for National Independence serves as the concentration point for all anti-imperialist, national-revolutionary movements, whether these movements are in the colonial coun- tries, or movements of oppressed peoples and national minorities in Europe. The League undertakes the task of uniting these movements with the struggle of the workers and peasants in the imperialist countries in a joint struggle against im- perialist oppression. On the basis of this united front of all anti-imperialist forces in the colonial and semi-colonial countries and in Europe, the League aims at secur- ing complete national independence for the colonial and semi-colonial countries, and the full right of self-determination, including the right to separate from the State to which they are at present attached. We appeal to all genuine anti-imperialist fighters and to all those who sympathise with the national revolutionary struggle of the oppressed people for freedom to join the League, whose basic demands are:— (1) The complete national independence of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples. (2) The full right of self-determination for all oppressed nationalities. (3) Complete freedom of movement for all national-revolutionary organisations, and in particular for all revolutionary work- ing-class and peasant organisations. (4) The removal of the imperialist armed forces from all colonial and semi-colonial countries. (5) The confiscation without compensation of all undertakings, mines, banks, plan- tations, lands, etc., at present in the pos- session of the imperialists, and the nationalisation of the same. The aboli- tion of all debts to the imperialists, and the abolition of all reparation payments. (6) The confiscation without compensation of all lands at present in possession of rich landowners, and the distribution of same amongst the working peasants. MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM. TO THE LEAGUE AGAINST IMPERIALISM, 53, Gray's Inn Road, London, W.C.1. I wish to become an individual member of the League Against Imperialism, and enclose.................................. as subscription (donation). This organisation .......................... desires to affiliate to the League Against Imperialism, and encloses .................... as affiliation fee. Please send further information on con- ditions of affiliation and membership. (Strike out if not applicable.) Name .................................... Address .................................... .................................... Date.................................... The subscription for individual members is 2s. per annum (can be paid quarterly). The affiliation fee for local organisations is 2s. 6d. per annum. The affiliation fee for national organisa- tions is £1 per 1,000 members, and 10s. for each additional 1,000 members, or part. Printed by the Marston Printing Co. (T.U.), Nelson Place, Cayton Street, London, E.C.1.

CONGRESS OF PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP WITH THE U.S.S.R. LONDON 6th, 7th and 8th DECEMBER, 1935 OFFICIAL PROGRAMME AND CATALOGUE ARA MEMORIAL 499 LIBRARY PRICE THREEPENCE Issued by the Congress Organising Committee, from 35, Great James Street, London, W.C. I