Excerpt from England's Strength in Asia In the first place, what do we mean by strength? Strength may be political and moral, or it may be military and physical; it may depend on area or geographical posi tion, on population or on wealth; and as all these condi tions are more or less interdependent, acting and reacting on one another, we get a tolerably complicated problem before us, admitting undoubtedly of very wide divergences of Opinion in detail, and too complicated to admit of our doing more than touching on a few ...
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Excerpt from England's Strength in Asia In the first place, what do we mean by strength? Strength may be political and moral, or it may be military and physical; it may depend on area or geographical posi tion, on population or on wealth; and as all these condi tions are more or less interdependent, acting and reacting on one another, we get a tolerably complicated problem before us, admitting undoubtedly of very wide divergences of Opinion in detail, and too complicated to admit of our doing more than touching on a few broad principles this evening. Politically and morally, then, how does England stand in Asia? What is the value of English prestige relatively to other Asiatic Powers? Naturally it will not be admitted in Asia, beyond the geographical limits of our political influence, that we hold a paramount position. We need not expect it. Amongst Asiatic peoples political Opinions are even more a matter of education than they are in Europe. The average Asiatic believes only what he is taught. He has no basis for independent opinion, unless some big war involves him in personal action and new lessons are impressed by physical force. Thus, compara tive prestige becomes, under normal conditions, a question of geographical position. Throughout India, to the borders of the Indian Empire, the 'izzat' Of the 'sarkar -the prestige of the British Government - is undoubtedly supreme. Nothing short of a successful invasion of the peninsula would ever affect this conviction, which is born of educated observation, and is not exactly an expression of loyalty so much as a belief in the inevitable dispositions of Providence, which has arranged that England should rule Asia. It is important to note the distinction. People discuss the loyalty of the Indian native without clearly defining what is meant by the term. Personal loyalty there is, and it has its quality of reverence, almost of affection. Few English people, Ithink, understand the sentiment with which our late Queen was regarded in India, and even beyond India. In Tibet Queen Victoria is an incarnation. She still lives there as a truly beneficent influence, albeit under an unpleasant form. In the utmost wilds of the Central India jungles I have been able to recognise the same sentiment. I doubt if the great white Queen' is dead to the famished women kind of the Gond aborigines, who daily place their little swings of twigs and sticks by the wayside with a scanty Offering of rice to propitiate the great mother (mam) who comes into their houses and carries away, gently and happily, the child who has died of small-pox; and the war - worn sowar, who can only remember, of all that he had seen in England, that the Queen spoke to him in Hindustani, and who would have given his life to serve her as cheerfully as any Japanese soldier for his Emperor, is only one of many such. There is personal loyalty in India, deep and strong, but there is beyond that loyalty a practical faith in the length and strength of England's arm, mingled with a light -hearted contempt for the might-of other nations, which is not always shared by the Englishman. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at ... This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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