Bernard Shaw has accomplished
many difficult feats, but none of them, in my opinion, excels that of
drafting for the Society and carrying through the manifesto called
"Fabianism and the Empire."
It was published as a shilling volume by Grant Richards, and although it
was widely and favourably noticed in the Press the sales were only
moderate, just over 2000 copies to the end of the year. Some time later
the Society purchased the remainder of 1500 copies at 1d. and since sold
them at prices, rising as the stock declined, up to five shillings a
copy!
The theme of the manifesto is the overriding claim of efficiency not
only in our own government, and in our empire, but throughout the world.
The earth belongs to mankind, and the only valid moral right to national
as well as individual possession is that the occupier is making adequate
use of it for the benefit of the world community. "The problem before us
is how the world can be ordered by Great Powers of practically
international extent.... The partition of the greater part of the globe
among such powers is, as a matter of fact that must be faced approvingly
or deploringly, now only a question of time" (p. 3). "The notion that a
nation has a right to do what it pleases with its own territory, without
reference to the interests of the rest of the world is no more tenable
from the International Socialist point of view--that is, from the point
of view of the twentieth century--than the notion that a landlord has a
right to do what he likes with his estate without reference to the
interests of his neighbours.
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