MIA > Archive > Arthur Rosenberg
From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 1 No. 7, 11 November 1921, pp. 55–56.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2019). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Ireland once more proves to be the evil genius, so to speak, of the British Empire. If indications are not all deceptive, Lloyd George has been prevented from taking part in the Washington Conference, because of the danger of a new civil war in Ireland. Of all the leaders of the Entente governments, Mr. Harding will be able to greet only Mr. Briand in person, while from England only the lesser personalities will make the trip across the ocean. And yet the situation at Washington will be so difficult for British policy, that all the adroitness and authority of a Lloyd George would be needed, to open a way out with honor for the English bourgeoisie. It is possible to observe at present that the crisis of Ireland and of the Pacific Ocean are not mere external coincidences. The Irish question is of considerable importance for the present and future relations of England and America. In the last century millions of Irishmen driven out of their native land by English big landed property and big capital, have made their way to America. A very considerable portion of the population of the United States is of Irish extraction, and this is true not only of the proletariat, but also of the American bourgeoisie. The natural economic opposition between England and the United States experiences a particularly intense re-enforcement through the Irish element with its inborn hatred for England. It is known that the Irish Republican movement and together with it also the Republican army are being substantially financed from America. But the English government has put up with this circumstance in silence, because in spite of all unfriendly acts it is careful not to provoke a break with the United States. If Lloyd George has for weeks been so patiently parleying at the conference table with delegates of the Irish Republic, he did it, in a large measure, out of regard for America and all those Irishmen who hold important public offices in the United States. The Anglo-American agreement, which the English bourgeoisie considers at present to be at least a temporary way out of its world-political difficulties, can never come about if English soldiers in Ireland are burning down peasant’s farms and estates and shooting down women. America’s Irish friendship is not, however, only regard for one of the most important elements of the population of the United States, nor is it simply sentimentality, but it is the clear realization that an independent Ireland would be merely an outpost of American capitalism and imperialism in Europe.
Upon what does the present understanding between British capital and the Sinn Feiners hinge? It certainly does not hinge on the question whether George V shall be recognized at Dublin as toy-monarch just about as much as in Cape Town, Sydney or Montreal, where no serious person bothers about the so-called sovereignty of His Majesty the King of England. But the question is as follows: Shall Ireland remain what it has been for centuries – a colony of English capital – or shall it become economically independent? The Irish petty-bourgeoisie, the peasants and the intellectuals from among whom Sinn Fein recruits its followers, desire Ireland’s rise to a position of economic independence, freed from the chains in which the land has been held until now by English capital. In order to achieve this, Ireland must have not only its own ministers, judges, police, but, what is more important, also be in control of its own customs policy like the Dominions of the British empire – Canada, Australia, etc. The Irish want to have the right to close the doors to English goods, when necessary, and to enter into trade agreements with foreign governments, which will enable the nationalist Irish bourgeoisie to rise to wealth. It appears that the English negotiators at this long-winded Conference were prepared to make this concession; but with one reservation which again spoiled everything. Economically and nationally, Ireland is divided into two parts: first, the larger, agrarian, petty-bourgeois South of Ireland in which the Irish Catholics predominate, and secondly, the smaller, highly industrial, North – the Ulster district with Belfast. There the population is in the main English Protestant. An independent Ireland, however, can possess economic vitality only if the factories and wharfs of Belfast are included in it. English capital knows this, and is proceeding accordingly. On pretended national grounds it proposes to tear Ulster from the rest of Ireland and to give it a government of its own. Naturally, autonomous Ulster is to remain on terms of closest relations with England. And now Lloyd George comes before the Irish delegates with his best horse-trader’s mien and promises them what they want all the glories of self-management: national flags, national postage stamps and as on – but all this without Ulster. But De Valera was even more cunning. He signified that he would accept His Majesty King George, but only – with Ulster. In this way the English capitalist government saw that it would have to show the colors – does it really wish, to guarantee to the Irish effective economic independence or not. According to the latest news from London it appears that Lloyd George does not want to make this honest concession, and so the break is sealed. The last House of Commons speech in which England’s Prime Minister defended his Irish policy in presenting it for a vote of confidence, clearly showed this possibility of a break.
If the worst comes to worst, the English delegates at Washington will try to make amends for the painful impression caused by the development of the Irish question by making further concessions to America. Since the last conference of the British Empire at London made it clear that the great overseas dominions would in no case join hands with Japan to fignt against America the course followed by Great Britain until now in its world policy becomes impossible. With that skill with which they excel in these things, England’s bourgeois press has prepared the change in these last weeks. Japan, the beloved ally of the last decade, is now suddenly represented as an evil genius to the honest middle-class newspaper readers. The connection has been hammered into the mind of the English public that England has nothing to gain from an alliance with Japan, but on the contrary, it has much to lose. The deciding word has been spoken by the real king of England, who is neither George V nor Lloyd George, but Lord Northcliffe, the London newspaper king, owner of the Times, the Daily Mail and of several dozen other factories of public opinion, and who is the mouthpiece of the moot influential and fearless capitalist groups of the City. Lord Northcliffe is now “accidentally” touring the Pacific Ocean countries. And just as accidentally he received a representative of the official English Reuter agency, a few days ago at Hongkong, to whom he said that in his opinion the existence of the Anglo-Japanese alliance is no longer justified. The solution of the Chinese question should be sought for, not with Japan, but with America. And if it should come to a conflict in the Pacific Ocean, England will be found on the side of the United States. This declaration by Lord Northcliffe has caused the biggest sensation at Washington. It is the real keynote for the International Conference. Japan has until now been in control of a large part of China, economically and politically, and has aspired to the remaining part of the immense Eastern Empire. England now supports the “open-door” policy. The domination of Japanese capital in China is to be smashed, China is to be placed under international guardianship, and America will have the first word on its board of guardians. It is hoped that the united pressure brought to bear at Washington by America, England, France and the Dominions will force Japan to retreat, and so the world war will be for the time avoided. Even a compensation for Japan has been thought of in England, and it has been hinted that Japan may receive indemnity in Eastern Siberia for the loss of domination in China.
What does England expect from America in return? England wishes American capital to cease its offensive against English shipping and to have more consideration for the existence of the English bourgeoisie. A few weeks ago, for instance, the American Senate passed a bill according to which the English ships passing through the Panama Canal, the thoroughfare for world commerce, would have to pay a toll, whereas American ships would be exempted from payment. President Harding has declared, however, that this law, together with other measures of a similar nature, all hostile to English shipping, would be laid over till after the Washington Conference. Thus possibilities are opened for further negotiations.
In all these arrangements of the bourgeoisie the proletariat is the only sufferer. The Irish working-class must realize that the future Sinn Fein Republic will also be only a prison for them. And the understanding among the big capitalist cliques which will be sought at Washington can only pile new burdens on the workers of America, England and Japan. The international capitalist conferences must be made harmless through international proletarian action.
Last updated on 27 December 2018