ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE 
 
 The Political Aims of the British 
 Empire in the War. 
 
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 THE POLITICAL AIMS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 
 IN THE WAR. 
 
 A STATEMENT ADDRESSED TO CORRESPONDENTS IN 
 THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, DRAWN UP 
 BY THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON RELATIONS 
 WITH AMERICA, AND ADOPTED AND 
 ISSUED BY THE COMMITTEE FOR 
 PROMOTING AN INTEL- 
 LECTUAL ENTENTE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 HUMPHREY MILFORD, 
 
 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, AMEN CORNER, E.C. 4. 
 1918,
 
 OBJECTS OF THE COMMITTEE. 
 
 To act as a centre of suggestion and co-ordination 
 in this country in all matters likely to promote an 
 Intellectual Entente among the allied and friendly 
 nations, and to serve as a single channel of communi- 
 cation with similar efforts abroad. 
 
 To strengthen and increase the ties between the 
 academies, associations, and centres of culture gene- 
 rally, in the allied and friendly countries. 
 
 To encourage the knowledge of English thought 
 and literature in those countries, and reciprocally to 
 assist a corresponding movement in our own Empire. 
 
 To acquaint societies and public bodies with the 
 importance of the movement, to invite them to study 
 in what way they can most effectively assist, and 
 generally to develop action and to correlate efforts. 
 
 To take all steps that from time to time may seem 
 desirable for increasing the intellectual intercourse 
 among those nations upon whom depends the shaping 
 of the path of human progress after the present 
 struggle.
 
 THE EOYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE. 
 
 COMMITTEE FOR PROMOTING AN 
 
 INTELLECTUAL ENTENTE AMONG 
 
 THE ALLIED AND FRIENDLY 
 
 COUNTRIES. 
 
 Tlio Right Hon. Arthur James Balfour, O.M., F.R.S., 
 LL.D., D.C.L., Chancellor of Edinburgh Uni- 
 versity; Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; 
 Vice-President R.S.L. 
 
 Arthur Christopher Benson, LL.D., Litt.D., C.V.O., 
 Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge; 
 Member of Academic Committee R.S.L. 
 
 The Right Rev. Sir William Boyd-Carpenter, 
 K.C.V.O., D.D., D.C-L., D.Litt., LL.D., Canon 
 of Westminster; Vice-President R.S.L. 
 
 Prof. William Leonard Courtney, LL.D., Fellow of 
 New College, Oxford; Editor of the Fortnightly 
 Review ; Professor of Dramatic Literature and 
 Vice-President R.S.L. 
 
 The Most Hon. The Marquess op Crewe, K.C, P.C, 
 LL.D., D.C.L.; formerly President of Board of 
 Education ; Vice-President and Hon. Director of 
 Foreign Affairs R.S.L.
 
 2 
 
 Prof. Walter de la Mare, Member of Academic 
 Committee ; Professor of English Fiction and 
 Member of Council R.S.L, 
 
 The Right Hon. Herbert A. L. Fisher, M.P., Litt.D., 
 President of the Board of Education ; Member 
 of Academic Committee and of Council R.S.L. 
 
 Prof. James Fitzmaurice- Kelly, Litt.D. ; Cervantes 
 Professor of Spanish at the University of London ; 
 Member of Council R.S.L. 
 
 Prof. Maurice A. Gerothwohl, Litt.D. ; formerly 
 Professor of Romance Languag-es, Trinity College, 
 Dublin ; Professor of Comparative Literature and 
 ■ Vice-President R.S.L. 
 
 Edmund Gosse, C.B,, LL.D., Late Librarian to the 
 House of Lords ; Member of Academic Com- 
 mittee and Vice-President R.S.L. 
 
 The Right Hon. The Earl op Halsbury, F.R.S., D.C.L., 
 High Steward of the University of Oxford; 
 formerly Lord High Chancellor of England ; 
 President R.S.L. 
 
 Thomas Hardy, O.M., LL.D., Member of Academic 
 Committee R.S.L. 
 
 The Very Rev. William Ralph Inge, D.D., Dean of 
 St. Paul's, London ; Member of Academic Com- 
 mittee and Vice-President R.S.L. 
 
 Prof. Frank Byron Jevons, Litt.D., Principal of 
 Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham ; Professor of 
 Philosophy in the University of Durham ; 
 F.R.S.L.
 
 Prof. William Paton Ker, M.A., Professor of English 
 Literature at University College, London; Fellow 
 of All Souls, Oxford ; F.R.S.L. 
 
 John William Mackail, LL.D., formerly Professor 
 of Poetry in the University of Oxford ; Member 
 of Academic Committee and of Council R.S.L, 
 
 Sir Philip Magnus, Bt., Member of Parliament foi- 
 London University ; F.R.S.L. 
 
 Arthur Maquarie, Hon. Foreign Secretary and 
 Member of Council R.S.L. ; Hon. Secretary. 
 
 Prof. Gilbert Murray, LL.D., D.Litt., F.B.A., Regius 
 Prof, of Greek in the University of Oxford ; 
 Member of Academic Committee R.S.L. 
 
 Prof. Sir Henry Newbolt, D.Litt. ; Member of 
 Academic Committee ; Professor of Poetry, 
 Treasui-er and Vice-President R.S.L. 
 
 Sir Arthur W. Pinero, Member of Academic Com- 
 mittee and of Council R.S.L. 
 
 George Walter Prothero, Litt.D., LL.D., Editor of 
 Quarterly Bevieiv ; Member of Academic Com- 
 mittee R.S.L. 
 
 J. Holland Rose, LL.D., Litt.D., Fellow of Christ's 
 College, and Reader in Modern History in the 
 University of Cambridge; F.R.S.L. 
 
 Sir John Edwin Sandys, Litt.D., Fellow of St. John's 
 College, and Public Orator in the University of 
 Cambridge ; F.R.S.L.
 
 SUB-COMMITTEE ON RELATIONS WITH 
 AMERICA. 
 
 The Right Hon. Lord Charnwood^ M.A., formerly 
 
 Lecturer in Balliol College^ Oxford; Member of 
 
 Council R.S.L. ; Chairman. 
 Edward Bullouqh, M.A., Fellow of Caius College, 
 
 Cambridge; F.R.S.L. 
 Prof. Henry Andrews Bumstead, Ph.D., Professor of 
 
 Physics in Yale University ; Scientific Attache 
 
 to the American Embassy. 
 Prof. John Buknet, LL.D., F.B.A., Professor of 
 
 Greek, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts in St. 
 
 Andrews University. 
 Major J. E. Dunning, U.S.R., European Representative 
 
 of the National City Bank of New York. 
 Major William Endicott, A.B., American Red Cross 
 
 Commissioner for Great Britain. 
 Robert Grant (Jun.), A.B., London Representative of 
 
 Lee, Higginson & Co., Boston, U.S.A. 
 Jerome D. Greene, A.M., formerly Secretary of the 
 
 Rockefeller Foundation, New York. 
 Prof. J. C. Irvine, K.C, LL.B., Dean of the Faculty 
 
 of Science, St. Andrews University. 
 Sir Alfred Keogh, G.C.B., Rector of Imperial College 
 
 of Science and Technology; formerly Director- 
 General of Army Medical Service. 
 Arthur Maquarie, of the Entente Committee ; Joint 
 
 Hon. Secretary. 
 Sir Henry Newbolt, of the Entente Committee.
 
 Sir William Osleb, Bt., M.D., F.R.S., Regius Pro- 
 fessor of Medicine, Oxford ; Hon. Professor of 
 Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. 
 
 The Very Rev. Frank Ilsley Paradise, A.B., formerly 
 Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans, 
 U.S.A. ; Joint Hon. Secretary. 
 
 Francis E. Powell, President of the Anglo-American 
 Oil Co. 
 
 A. L. Smith, M.A., Master of Balliol College, Oxford. 
 
 Lt.-Col. Sir Campbell Stuart, K.B.E., Vice-Chairman 
 British War Mission to America. 
 
 Capt. E. H. Wells, A.B., U.S.R., Assistant Military 
 Attache, American Embassy.
 
 " We must he free or die who speak the tongue 
 That Shakespeare spake, the faith and morals hold 
 That Milton held:' 
 
 William Wordsworth ; 1803. 
 
 " / have often pondered over the dangers which were 
 incurred by the men who assembled here and framed 
 and adopted the Declaration of Independence. I 
 have pondered over the toils that were endured by the 
 officers and soldiers of the army which achieved that 
 independence. I have often inquired of myself what 
 great principle or idea it was that kept the Con- 
 federacy so long together. It was not the mere 
 matter of separation of the colonies from the Mother- 
 land, it was the sentiment in the Declaration of 
 Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the 
 people of this country, but I hope to the world, for 
 all future time. It was that which gave promise 
 that in due time the weight would be lifted from the 
 shoulders of all men.'' 
 
 Abraham Lincoln; in the Hall of independence, 
 Philadelphia, 1861.
 
 A STATEMENT OF 
 
 THE POLITICAL AIMS OF THE BRITISH 
 
 EMPIRE IN THE AVAR. 
 
 The entry of the United States of America into 
 the War was welcomed in this country with profound 
 emotion. It wns generally and gratefully recognised 
 as the end of an estrangement between kinsfolk. 
 Thoughtful people perceived in it, moreover, the rise 
 of an influence capable hereafter of ensuring the 
 peace of the world. There are still, however, large 
 sections of our people to whom America is but very 
 vaguely known ; and we are not surprised to learn 
 from correspondents that there are those in America 
 also who do not realise how fully their own aims in 
 the War are shared by us. Now, though collectively 
 we have no concern with the details of the problems 
 of statesmanship, yet indivi(iually each one of us has 
 from the beginning of the War been in close touch 
 with some department of our national effort, and 
 moreover, acting as we now do for such a body Us the 
 Royal Society of Literature, our statement cannot be
 
 supposed to be coloured by any party or financial con- 
 siderations. We can speak, therefore, with assurance 
 as to the fundamental sympathies of our country in 
 the present struggle, and we think that our statement 
 concerning them may be of value to our correspon- 
 dents in the United States. 
 
 The Community of our Political Ideals. 
 
 We wish not so much to discuss special problems 
 raised by the War as to emphasise tlie community of 
 political ideals which existed between the United 
 States and the Bi'itish Empire long before the War, 
 though, probably on both sides, it was too little 
 recognised. 
 
 The United States of America have been called " a 
 nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the pro- 
 position that all men are created equal." In other 
 words, there has increasingly prevailed among 
 patriotic Americaus a conviction : of the high worth 
 of self-government to every people capable of form- 
 ing a real desire for it ; of certain elementary claims 
 of every human individual to which no just govei'n- 
 ment can be blind ; of the need for greater equality 
 of conditions than actually exists in any society ; and 
 (side by side with so much control by government as 
 is required for the sake of such equality) of the value 
 of personal liberty in the development of every 
 individual. And in all declarations of these, the 
 principles of America, it has been implicit, that you
 
 9 
 
 asserted for all men (so far as your influence might 
 extend) the privileges which you demanded for 
 yourselves ; that, indeed, the ultimate loyalty of man 
 is bounded by no local patriotism ; his citizenship, in 
 the last resort, is in no limited, no earthly state. 
 
 When the Fathers of your commonwealth first 
 gave voice to such principles, they expressly claimed 
 to be reverting to an older and a better tradition of 
 the mother country than that which at the moment 
 prevailed there. We assert that these same political 
 sentiments have, in fact, been characteristic of our 
 country for a long time past, that they have domi- 
 nated increasingly our domestic policy and our 
 relations with the outside world. Their influence has 
 been subject to the infirmity of ordinary human con- 
 duct ; but upon these sentiments there is among us 
 no fundamental difference between parties or between 
 classes ; and, though selfisli interests and momentary 
 passions have played their part in our country as in 
 yours, neither in our country nor in yours has there 
 been lasting infidelity to these sentiments. We say 
 this without fear of conti-adictiou from any man of 
 knowledge and candour. The rate of progress has fluc- 
 tuated in both countries, and for short periods has been 
 suspended altogether, the period at which we parted com- 
 pany politically having been one of the chief examples 
 in our case. Bat in respect of our lasting ideals the 
 real difference between us has been only the natural 
 difference between a nation deliberately created at a 
 definite moment upon avowed principles, and a nation 
 which has grown slowly out of dark ages, animated
 
 10 
 
 by silent, but not therefore less powerful, traditions. 
 It is hardly necessary to point out that these political 
 ideas, which have long been at work in both countries, 
 have produced here a system of popular government 
 as vigorous and in practice as truly democratic as 
 your own. Well-informed Americans do not need to 
 be told that in the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland the real sovereign power is that of the 
 popular vote, exercised under a franchise law, which 
 for long has made no distinction of class or wealth ; 
 that the ancient forms, gladly retained by us for their 
 peculiar use in our peculiar conditions, impose even 
 less restraint upon the popular will than constitutional 
 devices of another kind impose in other democracies ; 
 and that the tendency towards legislation of a highly 
 democratic character has been even stronger here 
 than in France or in America. But it may be well 
 for us to speak in some detail of present conditions of 
 the British Empire, a complex and unprecedented 
 institution, imperfectly understood among ourselves. 
 
 The True Character of the British Empire. 
 
 The War has added strength to an impulse long felt 
 for closer unity between us in the United Kingdom 
 and the other parts of this widely scattered Empire. 
 The drawing together of the Dominions subject to 
 the British Crown is entirely consonant with the 
 growth of a closer friendship between us and our 
 kinsmen in the United States. Both objects are
 
 11 
 
 increasingly desired here because tlie War has 
 made us appreciate more keenly our responsibili- 
 ties throughout the world and the existence of 
 high human interests not bounded by our shores. 
 It must be frankly recognised that the existence 
 of these widely spread Dominions, of whose con- 
 ditions public opinion in this country is naturally not 
 always well aware, complicate for us the issues which 
 will have to be determined after the War. It makes 
 the Bintish Government guardian of the legitimate 
 interests not of one, but, in a sense, of many countries, 
 and responsible, as it were, to several different public 
 opinions. This need be no cause of discord within the 
 Empire or with our Allies, but it necessitates a certain 
 caution and patience in the definition of policy. 
 
 It is partly on this account that we invite your 
 attention to the character of the British Empire ; but 
 we have a further reason. The whole people in both 
 our countries ought to be awake to the vast power 
 for good which must arise from the frank and loyal 
 co-operation of these two great portions of the Eng- 
 lish-speaking world, of which the United States is the 
 greater in respect of the number of inhabitants of 
 European race, and the British Empire the greater in 
 respect of its geographical distribution, its extent of 
 undeveloped land, and the multitudes of Asiatic or 
 African race subject to its control. 
 
 We need hardly dwell on the causes which have 
 created this Empire. Whatever darker episodes 
 there may have been in its history, men of English 
 race will regard it, on the whole, with pride, just in
 
 12 
 
 proportion as they themselves value all sucli agencies 
 as promote justice and freedom in the world. South 
 Africa sufficiently illustrates the tangled controversies 
 which abound in that history, and the prevalence, in 
 the main, of an influence which it sustains us in this 
 conflict to remember. For the two most illustrious of 
 those who, when this century dawned, were leading 
 the Boers in a gallant struggle (rightly or wrongly 
 taken up) against ourselves a.re to-day British generals 
 who have won great successes in the War : one is the 
 Prime Minister of a united (British and Dutch) South 
 Africa; the otlier is now present in this country as 
 not the least trusted among the statesmen wlio direct 
 our counsels. 
 
 In the actual constitution of the Empire the most 
 essential fact is the distinction between the self- 
 governing Dominions (Newfoundland, Canada, Aus- 
 tralia, New Zealand, and South Africa) and the vast 
 regions in Asia and Africa of which India is in 
 some degree the type, with an intermediate class of 
 Colonies, closely comparable to Territories of the 
 United States not yet admitted to the Union. 
 
 The Position of the Self-Governing Dominions. 
 
 The self-governing Dominions are in a somewhat 
 similar position to that which Chatham on the one 
 side and Franklin on the other once desired for tlie 
 original American Colonies, only they are far more 
 independent. The supremacy of the British Parlia-
 
 13 
 
 ment over them is a legal form, convenient to both 
 sides and never exercised except in accordance with 
 the known will of the Colonies. For example, the 
 Constitutions of the Commonwealth of Australia and 
 of the Union of South Africa are contained in Acts of 
 the British Parliament ; but those Acts were framed 
 entirely by the Colonies concerned, and in the case of 
 South Africa our Parliament unanimously adopted, in 
 deference to a majority in South Africa, a decision in 
 regard to the enfranchisement of the natives which it 
 unanimously thought unwise. A special responsibility 
 for naval and military defence rested for long u|)on 
 this country and therewith went a supremacy, in the 
 last resort, in the direction of foreign policy. Tt 
 cannot be said that in the past that supremacy has 
 always been welcome, for it has been exercised 
 against the npinion of many in Canada to preserve 
 good relations witli the United States, and against the 
 opinion of many in Australia to preserve the Entente 
 with France, but it has manifestly been exercised in 
 no insular British interest, but in a spirit of trustee- 
 ship for the whole Empire. Of late years there has 
 been a steady growth of participation in the burdens 
 of defence (which the Dominions have never grudged 
 to this country since first they could afford it) and 
 participation in the control of policy (which this 
 country has never grudged to the Dominions so far as 
 they have been prepared to accept it). From the 
 moment that War broke out the co-operation of the 
 whole Empire has been in practice complete. With 
 the end of the War it must assume a more regular
 
 14 
 
 and permanent form. The difficulty in settling that 
 form does not arise from discord but from distance. 
 To this it sliould be added that far from exploiting 
 these Dominions, as certain British statesmen of the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries no doubt desired 
 in some degree to exploit the Colonies which then 
 existed, the sovereign power in this country has for 
 a long time past left them free to foster their 
 own infant industiies by protective tariffs against 
 foreigners and ourselves alike, though more recently 
 some of them have voluntarily given a preference to 
 this country in their tariffs. 
 
 Great Britain and the White Man's Burden. 
 
 The position of the countries which are in truth 
 subject to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland requires very little explanation. The moral 
 claim of this country to dominate over them to-day 
 rests — and the British people are well content that 
 it should be tried by this test — upon the fact that 
 it is the only defence of these subject peoples against 
 incui-able anarchy or hopeless and often dreadful 
 oppression. The British Government and our 
 greatest administrators in such countries, have in 
 Miauy instances tried to foster in them the seeds of 
 a self-government, of which the native mind in the 
 most civilised of these countries had previously no con- 
 ception. Progress in this has in most cases been slow. 
 The difficulty is that where the sense of freedom
 
 15 
 
 and the sense of public interest are undeveloped, 
 nominal self-government readily turns into the 
 exploitation of the bulk of the people by a small 
 and interested, but comparatively intelligent, class. 
 From any possible charge that it has itself exploited 
 subject races the British Government is manifestly 
 clear. Their revenues are without exception devoted 
 to the purposes of their own administration, internal 
 development, and defence. Moreover, in the raising 
 of those revenues any burdens that have been 
 imposed upon trade have operated against this 
 country as much as against any foreign power. As 
 regards other commercial and expanding countries 
 we have established no economic monopoly in any 
 corner of the world. As regards the countries 
 governed by us, the action of the peoples and of 
 the native princes of India during this War has 
 demonstrated, hardly less than the splendid and 
 unsolicited efforts of the self-governing Dominions, 
 what the British Empire really means. 
 
 Justice and Generosity in Ireland. 
 
 The melancholy shadow in this picture is supplied 
 not by any subject territoiy but by Ireland, an 
 integral portion of this United Kingdom. The Irish 
 question is our one remaining legacy from the religious 
 wars of an age long past. It has been aggravated 
 by the natural poverty of large parts of that island. 
 For thirty-two years it has been the chief cause of
 
 16 
 
 political controversy among the people of Great 
 Britain, including the authors of this statement, 
 largely because it has sharply divided a portion 
 (which may be safely estimated at over one-quai^ter) 
 of the people of Ireland against the rest. We do 
 not flatter ourselves that a perfect solution of the 
 question can speedily be found. We welcome un- 
 reservedly the interest of Americans in this con- 
 troversy. For we believe that the moral influence 
 of America will be a beneficial influence upon Ireland, 
 if, that is, American influence is guided by knowledge 
 not of relatively ancient history but of modern fact. 
 Ireland, let it be noted, has a full — indeed, in pro- 
 portion to population, aver}' excessive — representation 
 in our Parliament, and the Irish Nationalist party 
 frequently occupies a commanding position in that 
 Parliament. Legislation intended to remedy Irish 
 distresses has for a generation occupied more of the 
 time of Parliament than any other class of legislation. 
 Financially the gain to Irish people from the Union 
 (which has made possible the buying out of landloi'ds, 
 and the granting of old age pensions, as well as many 
 beneficent public works) has upon the balance been 
 enormous. The chief Irish industry, agriculture, 
 had in the twenty years before the Wai- advanced 
 in prosperity to an astonishing degree. The enforce- 
 ment of law and order, once oppressive in Ireland 
 and apt to be equally so in parts of Great Britain, 
 is now so far from harsh that it stands accused of 
 laxity; and Ireland has been exempted until the 
 present emergency from the compulsory military
 
 17 
 
 service which we have imposed on ourselves. Lastly, 
 so far from suppressing- Irish national sentiment, the 
 Government of the United Kingdom has steadily con- 
 tributed public funds to the revival of the ancient Irish 
 language, the teaching in schools of an exclusively 
 Nationalist history, and the support of a sectarian 
 religious teaching to which public money would not be 
 given in Great Britain. All these are facts which 
 English Home Rulers recognise, and which any com- 
 petent investigator from another country would 
 speedily find out for himself. 
 
 But, as English Unionists freely admit, these facts 
 do not do away with the considerations that Govern- 
 ment should be made acceptable to the people 
 governed, and that the fullest development of local 
 liberties within the Empire is in itself a great object 
 for desire. The standing difficulties in the way of 
 realising that desire are two-fold. In the first place, 
 Home Rule for Ireland as a whole has been opposed 
 by a solid and considerable portion of that country 
 with even greater persistence and vehemence than 
 has been displayed by the rest of Ireland in claiming 
 it, nor has any scheme for a division of Ii-eland yet 
 been found which would satisfy either party. In the 
 second place, those Irishmen who demand Home 
 Rule naturally desire for their country, with no less 
 earnestness, equal pecuniary advantages to those 
 which union with a richer country affords it ; and, 
 apart from any want of generosity on the part of 
 the people of Great Britain, this gives rise to a 
 practical problem of the most baffling complexity. 
 
 L
 
 18 
 
 To these difficulties there has been unhappily added 
 a thii'd and a greater difficulty arising from the 
 machinations of Germany. We state these difficulties 
 plainly, without the smallest wish to suggest that 
 they are not to be overcome. The hope that they may 
 be overcome by an agreement in Ireland itself still 
 lingers, and is cherished by our Government ; and, 
 while any negotiations with this object continue, it 
 would be undesirable for us in Great Britain to 
 discuss the matter in more detail. We content our- 
 selves with having stated frankly the one substantial 
 qualification to our claim that, throughout the Empire 
 government does, in fact, "derive its just authority 
 from the consent of the governed." 
 
 American Policy and the Allies. 
 
 This being indeed the actual character to-day of 
 the British Empire, called by our former antagonist. 
 General Smuts, "The British Commonwealth of 
 Nations," it follows that differences of policy between 
 you and us, unless due to some guilty lapse of 
 statesmanship, will be confined to tliose questions 
 of minor detail upon which there may be temporary 
 misunderstanding on either side. 'I'lie declarations 
 of policy made by President Wilson have been 
 welcomed here as supremely able statements of the 
 aims for which we, like you, contend. 
 
 [t is in no spirit of mere vindictiveness that you 
 and we are determined to continue this War to the
 
 19 
 
 end. But we are compelled to recognize that the 
 present aims of our enemies are opposed to all that 
 we value in the woi-ld. The desire for a league of 
 nations, excluding no nation which honestly desires 
 to enter it, is common ground between us. But so, 
 too, is the knowledge that a league on paper would 
 be worthless without goodwill, and that a league 
 worthy of the name can arise only from the mutual 
 fidelity of the present Allies. The judicial settlement 
 of international disputes is an object to which our two 
 countries will remain true, with the obvious reserva- 
 tion that the existing rights which an international 
 ti'ibunal can maintain must first, as far as possible, be 
 settled on principles of liberality and justice. Those 
 principles include the utmost possible determination 
 by every people for itself of the Grovernmeiit under 
 which it shall live, a thing which has always enlisted 
 deep popular sympathy in this country as in yours ; 
 but on both sides we shall be on our guard against 
 possible frauds upon this principle, of which the 
 simplest example (by no means fanciful) would be 
 wholesale deportations by the power in possession of 
 the people to whose votes a territorial question might 
 be referred. It is, perhaps, esjDecially in relation to 
 the former German Colonies that conflicting principles 
 may suggest themselves, and tliat claims for the 
 apparent advantage of the Britain Empire may arise. 
 We desire, on our own behalf, to express our hope 
 that in the settlement of every question of this order 
 reasonable security for the good and liberal govern- 
 ment of the population mainly concerned will be made
 
 20 
 
 the principal object, whatever risk may thereby be 
 incurred by ourselves or any other power of appearing 
 to seek territorial aggrandisement. Subject to this 
 dominant consideration (and in real agreement with 
 it), we trust that in dealing with the undeveloped 
 regions of the earth the practice among civilised 
 powers of sciambling for selfish advantages may be 
 from henceforth obsolete. 
 
 We have purposely stated these principles in a 
 form which plainly suggests any points at which 
 possible doubt of their just application may arise. 
 We do not ourselves believe that upon any one of 
 tliese points friction among the Allied nations can 
 occur, provided that every difficulty is approached 
 with the patience which it demands. But we think 
 this statement may be of use to you, not only by 
 assuring you of the sympathy which unites us, but 
 by eliciting from you or youp friends obser- 
 vations or questions on any point in which 
 British aims, or British action or inaction, 
 stand in need of such explanation as your 
 British correspondents in private station can 
 supply. Where mutual goodwill is so abundantly 
 present, absolute frankness is the way to enduring 
 friendship. 
 
 Fellow-Guardianship of Human Liberty. 
 
 Two conclusions, however, emerge at once from the 
 considerations which we have laid before you : the com-
 
 21 
 
 plete harmony with which our two countries can work 
 together with one ainij and the tremendous obliga- 
 tion laid upon them to do so. Discord between 
 us now, were it possible, might ruin the hopes of 
 civilisation for ages to come. Concord between us 
 is founded upon a real community of spirit, going 
 deep into the history of both countries. Other nations 
 have made their specific contributions to that pro- 
 gress of civilisation in which we may concede that our 
 French and Italian allies have played a greater part 
 than our own, but in the practice of political liberty 
 our two countries have a common and a peculiar heri- 
 tage, held in trust not for our children only but for 
 the world. We have spoken of the salient facts of the 
 actual present British Empire just as we are endeavour- 
 ing to make plain among our own people the salient 
 facts in the rise of your great Commonwealth ; we 
 have spoken of that British Empire from no national 
 vanity, but believing that you will rightly see in it 
 the triumph, in the main, of a spirit which your own 
 greatest men have laboured to maintain. We suggest 
 no immunity on our part or on yours from human 
 weakness, but, in the main, we confidently say that 
 in our country and in yours patriotic effort has long 
 devoted itself to ends higher even than patriotism. 
 Our two peoples alike are instinct with a love of country 
 which is all the stronger l)ecause it is reverently sub- 
 ordinated to the love of God and man. The gravity 
 of the issue before us is a fact, and it is due to snch 
 honest people in either country as may still be faint- 
 hearted in this struggle that the fact should be held
 
 22 
 
 before their eyes. You and we may jointly say, in 
 tlie words of a great American : ''We accepted this 
 war, we did not begin it; we accepted it for an 
 object, and when the object is accomplished the War 
 will end, and we hope to God the War will never end 
 till that object is accomplished." 
 
 On behalf of the Entente Committee, 
 
 {Signed.) CREWE. 
 
 On behalf of the British members of the 
 Sub-Committee on Relations with 
 America, 
 
 {Signed.) CHARNWOOD. 
 
 In accordance with the regulations of the Defence of the Realm 
 Act, the addresses of the above signatories are here given : 
 
 The Most Hon. The Makquess of Ckewe, Nether Woodcote, 
 
 Epsom. 
 The Eight Hon. Lokd Cuarnwood, Stowe House, Lichfield. 
 
 PKINTED BY ADLAKD AND SON AND WEST NEWMAN, LTD., 
 23, BAKTHOLOMEW CLOSE, LONDON, E.C. I.

 
 STAMPED BELOW.