Showing 1198 results

Reunion into my room. Never have I seen the light of triumph shine so brightly in any man's eye. "Harry, I've got you a drink just as you are about to leave my native land. It's permitted by law, and we are not breaking any regulations. It's sold in all respectable shops." He produced a bottle of Hall's wine! The label said it was good for "improving appetite, overcoming fatigue, irritableness, depression, shortness of breath, dyspepsia, con- stipation, and certain forms of skin trouble." Though I have none of these ailments, especially the last one, it tasted like nectar to me, despite the fact that it is manufactured in Bow, London, E.3. I even forgot how when I worked in Towlers Boiler Shop in Bow in 1919, I used to hold my nostrils when going over Stink Pot Bridge to get there. January 6 and 7. I HAD a haircut today that really makes me look a bit of a criminal. Then I did some shopping. Went into Cook's to cash a traveller's cheque. It was a C.W.S. one. They do not do business with the C.W.S., but kindly told me where I could cash it. Went to the National Bank of India; noticed with some slight trepi- 30 dation that all the guards carried rifles. Hoped it was not because of me. Bank officials very nice. C.W.S. a good name, and I came out with the doings. It went like a house on fire. I never discover how many relatives I have until I go abroad. Had a nice lunch and lay down for forty winks, which turned out to be a dead-beat sleep lasting four hours. Went to a reception. Met many prominent citizens, all of whom (pardon my modesty) thanked me for my speeches about peace and warning of the danger to India of the U.S.-Pakistan military alliance. Back to my hotel. Phone ringing and ringing asking for press in- terviews. Will I be glad to get on the Strathmore? I'll say I will. I have an idea that when I do, I shall wake up at Aden. But we shall see. On January 7 I got on board the Strathmore at 11.30 a.m. The comrades very disappointed that I would not allow any big send-off. But I was firm about this. Comrade Sanyal, who has travelled all over India with me and looked after me with such great care, came with me. Went down to my cabin. Very nice and roomy. We shook hands. Soon I am besieged by Indian pressmen wanting me to give them my impressions of India. I did. Then lay down and fell asleep until I heard the ship's siren. It was 3 p.m., and I found we were moving from the dockside. Remained on deck until Bombay was out of sight. Went to sleep again. Woke up in time for dinner. Then paced the deck for a while before realising prohibition was over. In bed by 9 p.m., and let there be no mistake, I slept the sleep of the just—sans mosquitoes, lizards and flying beetles. So another chapter in my life has ended. I can only hope I did some good while in India. 31

by HARRY POLLITT Selected Writings and Speeches 6/- 10/6 Serving My Time 5/- Labour—What Next? 3d. The People on the March 3d. by R. PALME DUTT The Crisis of Britain and the British Empire 25/- Britain and the Colonies 3d. Obtainable from progressive suppliers, branches of the Communist Party, or direct from CENTRAL BOOKS LTD. 2 PARTON STREET, LONDON, W.C.1.

The British Empire WHAT IT IS! "The Empire is Commerce. It was created by Commerce, it is founded on Commerce, and it could not exist a single day without Commerce." Joseph Chamberlain. Published by the League Against Imperialism and for National Independence 1D.

Exploiting One Quarter of Entire THE British Empire is a vast slave colony, upon which the British ruling class battens. Millions of square miles have been forcibly an- nexed, stolen or bought. Millions of human beings have been reduced to bondage for centuries. The total area of this slave camp on which "the sun never sets" is 13,909,782 square miles, equivalent to one-quarter of the earth's surface, with an estimated population of one-quarter of the entire human race, i.e., 493,370,000. These toiling and oppressed millions exist under the domination of a hand- ful of "whites," 46 million being the population of Great Britain. The remainder include some 360,000,000 in India and Ceylon, 40,000,000 Africans, 6,000,000 Arabs, 6,000,000 Malays, 1,000,000 Chinese, 1,000,000 Polynesian and, among others 100,000 Red Indians in Canada. The British Empire is equally dis- tributed over the northern and southern hemispheres, but unequally distributed east and west, two-thirds lying east and one-third in the west. Constitutionally the Empire consists of: (1) Great Britain. (2) The Indian Empire. (3) The Dominions: Commonwealth of Australia (with mandate over Papua territory of New Guinea), the Dominion of Canada, the Dominion of New Zealand (with mandate over Western Samoa), Newfoundland, the Union of South Africa (with mandate over South-West Africa), the Irish Free State. (4) Colonial Possessions in Africa: Basutoland, Bechuanaland, British Cameroon, Gambia, Gold Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Nyasaland, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, British Somaliland, the Sudan, Swazi- land, Tanganyika, Uganda, Zanzibar. 2] Human Race (5) Colonial Possessions in West Atlantic: The Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Falkland Islands, British Guiana, British Honduras, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Windward Islands. (6) In Asia: Borneo, Ceylon, Hong- Kong, Malaya, Sarawak, Burma. (7) Other Colonies: Channel Islands, Cyprus, Fiji, Gibraltar, Malta, Mauri- tius, Pacific Islands, Palestine, St. Helena, Seychelles, Tristan da Cunha, Aden. Mandatory Spheres: Parts of the former German colonies in Africa and the former Turkish government of Palestine. The Dominions are "self-governed," the other "possessions" are despotic- ally governed from Whitehall. EMPIRE FOR WHAT? The British Empire, conquered by the sword and governed by the sword, exists to provide the British exploiters with raw materials for their industry, cheap food for the industrial population, markets for their manufactured goods and an advantageous reserve for in- vesting their surplus capital. INVESTMENTS The amount of British capital in- vested overseas in Dominion and Colo- nial Government loans in 1933 was esti- mated at £1,061,262,000, the income of which was £45,137,000; in Municipal Loans £85,828,000, the income of which was £4,001,000;in railways £251,400,000, the in- come of which was £7,476,000, with a fur- ther sum of £91,000,000, with an income of £4,650,000, according to "The Economic Journal" September, 1935, it is estimated that British capital employed in all forms of oversea investment is calculated at the end of 1933 to be £3,666,000,000, and an estimated income of £158,300,000. A glance at the figures for ten years of British trade with the Empire coun- tries will tell its own tale. During the period 1924-1933, the Empire bought from Great Britain £2,604,239,649 worth of goods and sold to Great Britain goods to the value of £2,937,554,679. In order to see how much the British ruling class depends upon its colonial countries we must examine these colossal trade figures in more detail. Let us take the exports and imports of private merchandise of India alone for 193334. The imports into India during this period were valued at £86,537,000, of this amount 41.3 per cent. was ex- ported from Great Britain, whilst the exports of India were valued at £109,738,000, of which 31.8 per cent. was exported to Great Britain. Peasants Get Less but Have To Pay More RAW MATERIAL During the last five years prices of agricultural products have shrunk by almost fifty per cent. "But neither Government nor the money-lenders' demands have been reduced proportionately. More- over, the imposition of heavy import duties on all foreign goods that cul- tivators need makes the position of agricultural interests in India still more precarious." "Indian Finance," March 2, 1935. There has been no such decrease in the prices of manufactured imports, as can be seen from the following examples: - COURSE OF PRICES FOR COLONIAL PRODUCTS AND INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURES (i.e., iron and steel products controlled by monopoly organisations) IRON AND STEEL MANUFACTURES (EXPORT PRICE) Steel Rails per ton £ End of: 1929 ... ... 8.50 1930 ... ... 8.50 1931 ... ... 8.50 1932 ... ... 8.50 1933 ... ... 8.50 1934 ... ... 8.50 Jan., 1935 ... ... 8.50 June, 1935 ... ... 8.50 Tin Plates per box s. d. 18 9 15 6 14 6 16 0 16 7½ 18 2 18 2 18 2 Galv. Sheets per ton £ s. d. 12 12 6 11 5 0 11 5 0 11 15 0 10 10 0 11 5 0 11 5 0 11 5 0 Iron Bars per ton £ 10.75 10.75 10.00 9.75 9.75 9.62 9.62 9.62 COLONIAL PRODUCE Coffee per cwt. s. d. End of: 1929 165 0 1930 122 6 1931 112 6 1932 94 0 1933 72 0 1934 73 6 Jan., 1935 75 0 June, 1935 75 0 Sugar (B.W.I.) per cwt. s. d. 22 3 20 6 19 10½ 17 4½ 18 9 18 7½ 18 6 17 6 Cocoa per cwt. s. d. 62 6 49 6 46 0 42 0 35 0 42 0 38 0 38 0 C. Oil per ton £ 34.00 25.50 25.00 23.00 17.00 20.00 23.00 23.5 Rubber per lb. d. 8.06 4.25 3.31 2.42 4.25 6.40 6.00 5.93 Tea per lb. d. 13.12 14.25 10.18 7.31 13.84 11.34 10.37 9.87 Jute per ton £ 27.75 15.50 19.25 14.75 15.62 16.94 17.37 20.25 [ 3 * Restriction schemes operating.

"Held by the Sword" — "We did not conquer India for the benefit of the Indians. I know in missionary meetings it is said that we conquered India to raise the level of the Indians. That is cant. We conquered India as the outlet for the goods of Great Britain. We conquered India by the sword, and by the sword we shall hold it. (Shame!) "Call it shame if you like. I am stating facts. I am interested in missionary work of that kind, but I am not such a hypocrite as to say that we hold India for the good of the Indians. We hold it as the finest outlet for British goods in general and for Lancashire cotton goods in particular." LORD BRENTFORD (SIR W. JOYNSON- HICKS), reported in the "Daily News," October 17, 1925. 4 ] 1919 MASSACRE at Jallianwalla Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab. April 13—troops fire into unarmed crowd— killed 379, wounded officially estimated at "possibly three times the number of deaths." 1921 PRINCE OF WALES landed in Bombay. Workers demonstrate against him—53 Indians killed—298 wounded. After the Moplah rising hundreds of prisoners were packed in goods vans—80 died of suffocation. 1922 CHAURI CHAURA rising—228 peasants were subsequently sen- tenced to death, and 19 were hanged. 1929 DISTURBANCES through use of Blacklegs in Bombay—116 killed, 700 injured. INDIA HELD BY THE SWORD 1930 CALCUTTA, April 1, 5 killed, 50 injured. Peshawar, April 23, 65 killed, 150 wounded (Garhwali Riflemen re- fused to shoot down unarmed workers). Sholapur, May 8, 25 killed, 100 wounded. 1931 CAWNPORE, March 24, 141 killed, 386 wounded. 1935 KARACHI, March 19, 47 killed, 134 wounded. AJRA, 7 peasants shot down. POLITICAL PRISONERS 1930-34 80,000 political prisoners Horrors of Child Labour CHILDREN ON TEA PLANTATIONS The practice throughout Indian planta- tions varies considerably. At least one association admitted that, on the planta- tions of its members, "children aged 4 or 5 were all working children." Another association declared that it had no policy on the matter, and that indi- vidual members exercised their own dis- cretion. As a result, where one manager admitted that children started work at 4, 5, or 6 years of age, and another that they started on light tasks as soon as they could walk, yet others stated that their children did not become workers before 9, 10, or even 11 years of age. The normal practice seems to be to allow children to accompany their parents at any age, their earnings being added to those of their parents, although in some gardens the managers are accustomed to send home young children found at work with their parents. In many areas children are not normally entered separately in the wage books as employed persons until about 10 years of age. TEA PLANTATION WORKERS "No limit is imposed on individual earnings and in some cases workers have been able to earn as much as Rs. 1 (1s. 4d.) or even Rs.1/4 (1s. 9d.) in a day. "No official statistics of average earnings are available, but we were informed by the representatives of the Docars Planters' Association that the average monthly earnings in 1929 were Rs. 12/4/1 (£1 0s. 9d.) for men, Rs.10/5/8 (14s.) for women, and Rs.2/14/5 (4s.) for children." "The representatives of the two Planters' Associations admitted that there was an understanding among their members not to raise the rates of wages." Assam Valley: The average monthly earnings in the Assam Valley are Rs.13/8/7 (1) for men, Rs.11/1/7 (14s. 6d.) for women, and Rs.7/8/6 (10s.) for children. Surma Valley: Average monthly earn- ings in the Surma Valley are Rs.10/11/0 (14s.) for men, Rs.8/6/1 (11s. 6d.) for women, and Rs.5/6/2 (7s.) for children. Madras Presidency: Basic rates per day (1 anna is a little over 1d.): Men, 7 annas; women, 5 annas; children, 3 to 4 annas. Death Rate Double that of England DEATH RATE Deaths from plague in India 1910-14 1,503,878. In 1918 11,000,000 died of influenza. Death rate for India in 1931 was double that of England and Wales, Sweden and Switzerland, three times that of Aus- tralia and New Zealand, one-and-a-half times that of France, Hungary, Spain and Portugal, two-and-a-half times that of the Netherlands, Canada and South Africa (white population). [ 5

Massacre of the Mothers MATERNAL MORTALITY British India: 15.4 maternal deaths per 1,000 births—4 times that for England and Wales. Percentage of Revenue spent on Maternity and Child Welfare in different provinces—nil to 2 per cent.; in some exceptional cases, 5 per cent. CHILD MORTALITY Of the total deaths in British India 48.7 per cent. were of children under ten years of age, while in England and Wales this proportion was only 13.6 per cent. INFANTILE DEATH RATE British India: 178.8 per 1,000 live births —2¾ times that for England, Wales and South Africa; 5½ times that for New Zealand; 3 times that for Switzerland; 3½ times that for the Netherlands; 2¼ times that for France; and more than double that for Germany. Peasants Who “Live” on Three Farthings a Day How precarious is the life of those who depend upon agriculture for a livelihood is seen from the following extract taken from a leading article in the “Manchester Guardian,” January 17, 1935:— “The wages paid to the Indian peasantry are barely credible by outside standards; figures for a typical group of farmers in the Punjab show that the average net income per man fell from about ninepence a day in 1928-29 to about three farthings a day in 1930-31.” Such is the “Empire,” where mil- lions die each year of “fever”— starvation. 6 1 THE BODIES of three Bombay workers shot dead by police during a strike. MINE WORKERS The following facts are quoted from the Whitley Commission's Report:— “The average monthly earnings of a coal cutter are in the neighbourhood of Rs.10 to Rs.15 (13s. 6d. to 20s.):” (This refers to the Jharia Coalfield, which is considered the best in India.) In the stone quarries throughout India the daily wage varies from 5 annas (pence) to 8 annas for men and 4 annas to 5 annas for women. STRIKES The total number of working days lost during 1934 due to strikes was 4,775,559. Population of India 352,837,778, of whom 321,628,003 were illiterate (1931 Census). The “BRIGHTEST JEWEL” of the Crown “It is only when you get to see and realise what India is—that she is the strength and greatness of England—it is only then that you feel that every nerve a man may strain, every energy he may put forward, cannot be devoted to a nobler purpose than keeping tight the cords that hold India to ourselves.” LORD CURZON, “Life,” Vol. I., p. 193. IN this Empire, India is by far the largest and most important possession from the point of view of imperialist ex- ploitation. It is a rich, fertile country, possessing vast natural resources. And yet, after 177 years of British rule, there is a mass illiteracy, grinding poverty, misery, disease, and merciless exploitation for the mass of workers and peasants, whilst the British investors squeeze from India an annual tribute of some £100,000,000. In order to drain this wealth from India the mass of workers and peasants have been subjected to a reign of raging terror. To-day, in India, Empire Day celebrations will be organised under the shadow of aeroplanes and machine guns; there are certain parts of India which are perman- ently under martial law. Hundreds of political prisoners are tor- tured and lie rotting in Indian prisons. More than a thousand Bengal youths are in the concentration camps of India with- out trial. Working-class leaders are arrested and kept under restraint or deported without trial, whilst the dreaded Andaman Islands devour the political prisoners. To-day in India there is no freedom of speech, press, or organisation. EXPLOITATION The working class of India are forced to labour under most barbarous con- ditions. Only for a very limited number of workers are the hours of labour limited to 10 per day; the rest work 14, 16 or more. The Royal Commission on Labour Con- ditions in India is a condemnation of the exploitation by the agents of the exploiters, whilst other official reports show that out of 86,417 women workers employed in the mines over 14,000 work underground. The Mines Inspector's report shows the employment of 8,548 children under 12 years of age in the mines. “Miners' wages in 1931 were cut by 33 per cent., the aver- age wage being reduced from 9d. to 6d. per day.”—“ Capital” (a Calcutta paper), January 7, 1932. The recent India Mines (Amendment) Bill provides that the hours to be worked above ground, along with any intervals for rest, shall not on any day spread over more than eleven hours and the hours under ground shall not on any day spread over more than nine. In unregulated factories, such as tan- neries, carpet and bidi factories the worker toils any number of hours for slave wages; as the Royal Commission report states: “The length of the working day being de- termined by the workers' own poverty.” [7

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