第45章 Chapter 7(3)

So true is this, that even in those instances, such as the Finns and other fragments of the Russian imperial dominions, where a newly emerging nation has set out to go on its way without taking pains to safeguard the grievances of the old order, -- even in these instances that should seem to concern no one but themselves, the gentlemen of the old school who guard the political institutions of the old order in the world at large find it impossible to keep their Wands off and to let these adventurous pilgrims of hope go about their own business in their own way. Self-determination proves to be insufferable if it partakes of the new order rather than of the old, at least so long as the safe and sane gentlemen of the old school can hinder it by any means at their command. It is felt that the vested interests which underlie the gentlemen of the old school would not be sufficiently secure in the keeping of these unshorn and unshaven pilgrims of hope, and the doubt may be well taken. So that, within the intellectual horizon of the practical statesmen, the only safe, sane, and profitable manner of national establishment and national policy for these newcomers is something after the familiar fashion of the Balkan states; and it may also be admitted quite broadly that these newly arriving peoples commonly are content to seek their national fortunes along precisely these Balkan state lines; although the Finns and their like are perhaps to be counted as an unruly exception to the rule.

These Balkan states, whose spirit, aims, and ways are so admirable in the eyes of the gentlemanly keepers of the old political and economic order, are simply a case of imperialism in the raw. They are all and several still in the pickpocket stage of dynastic state-making, comparable with the state of Prussia before Frederick the Great Pickpocket came to the throne. And now, with much sage counsel from the safe and sane statesmen of the status quo ante. Czechs. Slovaks. Slovenes, Ruthenians, Ukrainians, Croats, Poles and Polaks are breathlessly elbowing their way into line with these minuscular Michiavellians. Quite unchastened by their age-long experience in adversity they are all alike clamoring for national establishments stocked up with all the time-tried contrivances for discomfort and defeat. With one hand they are making frantic gestures of distress for an "outlet to the sea" by means of which to escape insufferable obstruction of their overseas trade by their nationally minded neighbors, while with the other hand they are feverishly at work to contrive a customs frontier of their own, together with other standard devices for obstructing their neighbors' trade and their own, so soon as they shall have any trade to obstruct. Such is the force of habit and tradition. In other words, these peoples are aiming to become self-determining nations in good standing.

And all the while it is plain to all men that a national "outlet to the sea" has no meaning in time of pence and in the absence of national governments working at cross-purposes. Which comes near to saying that the sole material object of these new projects in nation-making is to work at cross-purposes with their neighbors across the new-found national frontiers. So also it is plain that this mutual working at cross-purposes between the nations hinders the keeping of the peace, even when it is all mitigated with all the approved apparatus of diplomatic make-believe, compromise, and intrigue. Just as it is plain that the peace is not to be kept by use of armaments, but all the while national armaments are also included as an indispensable adjunct of national life, in all the projects of these new nations of the Balkan pattern. The right to carry arms is an inalienable right of national self-determination and an indispensable means of self-help, as understood by these nation-makers of the old school. So also it is plain that national pretensions in the field of foreign trade and investment, and all the diversified expedients for furthering and protecting the profitable enterprise of the vested interests in foreign parts, run consistently at cross-purposes with the keeping of the peace.

And all the while the rule of Live and Let Live, as it works out within the framework of the new industrial order, will not tolerate these things. But the rule of Live and Let Live, which embodies the world's hope of peace on earth and a practicable modicum of good will among men, is not of the essence of that time-worn statesmanship which is now busily making the world safe for the vested interests. Neglect and disallowance of those things that make for embroilment does not enter into the counsels of the nation-makers or of those stupendous figures of veiled statecraft that now move in the background and are shaping the destinies of these and other nations with a view to the status quo ante.

All these peoples that now hope to be nations have long been nationalities. A nation is an organisation for collective offence and defence, in peace and war, -- essentially based on hate and fear of other nations; a nationality is a cultural group, bound together by home-bred affinities of language, tradition, use and wont, and commonly also by a supposed community race, --

essentially based on sympathies and sentiments of self-complacency within itself. The Welsh and the Scotch are nationalities, more or less well defined, although they are not nations in the ordinary meaning of the word; so also are the Irish, with a difference, and such others as the Finns and the Armenians. The American republic is a nation, but not a nationality in any full measure. The Welsh and the Scotch have learned the wisdom of Live and Let Live, within the peace of the Empire, and they are not moving to break bounds and set up a national integrity after the Balkan pattern.

The case of the Irish is peculiar; at least so they say.