ABSTRACT
It is a common complaint, both in Great Britain and in the Dominions, that it is well-nigh impossible to understand how things are going with the British Empire. People feel that they belong to an organism which is greater than the particular portion of the King’s dominions where they happen to reside, which is one of the greatest of human fabrics, but which has no government, no Parliament, no press even, to explain to them where its interests lie, or what its policy should be. Of speeches and writings about the Empire there is no end. But who has
time to select what is worth reading from the multitude of newspapers and reviews? Most people have no access to the best among them, and such as have are haunted by the fear that what they read is coloured by some local party issue in which they have no concern. No one can travel through the Empire – without being profoundly impressed by the ignorance which prevails in every part, not only about the affairs of the other parts, but about the fortunes of the whole. This ignorance naturally leads to misgivings, and people are frequently involved in disputes and controversies about the Empire which in most cases would immediately be solved if the facts were known. The truth, of course, is that all who have grown up under the Union Jack are in their hearts devoted to it, for it stands to them for a great tradition in the past, a great inspiration in the present – as the writer in India shows1 – and a still greater promise in the future. There is no British subject who has not
subscribed in some way to the cost of keeping it flying in the heavens, and who does not cherish the memory of some friend or some hero of his own who has died for it. But many associate imperialism with the projects of jingoes and capitalists, and object to it, just because they admire the ideals of liberty, and justice, and personal responsibility upon which the Empire rests, and which such projects would destroy. Nothing is further from their minds than that the Empire itself should be allowed gently to dissolve so long as it is true to its traditions. For not they alone, but the world, would be poorer from its decay. In order to dispel the ignorance on which misgivings rest, we need infor-
mation of two kinds. On the one hand we ought to know the truth of what is going on in the several portions of the Empire. On the other hand we ought to be able to find out how the Empire is faring as a whole. But how is the truth to be found? No one who has other business on hand can follow affairs on the Indian frontier, the reciprocity negotiations between Canada and America, the proposals whereby the British Constitution is to be mended or destroyed in a federal reconstruction, the Asiatic menace in Australia, the complications which might follow in Africa from a revolution in Portugal, and steer his way to a clear judgement about each separately, or of the upshot of them all. That would be a task to be entrusted to a council of the wisest men to be found. [ … ] Failing, therefore, a body which can speak for every part, we must contrive
a makeshift, and the makeshift is The Round Table. The aim of The Round Table is to present a regular account of what is going on throughout the King’s dominions, written with first-hand knowledge and entirely free from the bias of local political issues, and to provide a means by which the common problems which confront the Empire as a whole can be discussed also with knowledge and without bias. For that, in the opinion of the promoters, who reside in all parts of the Empire, is what is most needed at the present day. In order that The Round Table may achieve its first aim and may truly
represent the opinion of all parts it has been arranged that each part of the Empire should provide its own correspondent, whose business it will be to present the views of that part frankly, with local knowledge, and local ignorance perhaps, about its own concerns and the interests which it shares with the rest. The greater part of the Review will thus consist of articles actually written in the different Dominions and Dependencies. There will be no censorship of opinion. But it is an essential condition laid upon every writer that he should neither misrepresent facts nor persons nor subserve the interest of any party in the locality where he resides. Personal bias cannot be entirely excluded. But the reader will at least know that what he reads is straightforward opinion, and not a careful paraphrase of the facts put forth by a cunning partisan. If this part of the programme is fulfilled, The Round Table will present as
true a reflection of the present state of affairs as it is reasonable to expect. It
will reveal the wide divergence of opinion on common concerns. It will give readers the structural ideas in current controversies, and explain the broad movement of events. It will help them to understand the meagre cablegrams which flash fitfully across the wires, and to correct the glaring errors in fact and quotation which every citizen abroad notes in the news from his own home. But this is not enough. The founders of The Round Table have an uneasy
sense that times are changing, and that the methods of yesterday will not serve in the competition of tomorrow. They feel that if the various communities of the Empire have common interests they are singularly badly equipped to pursue them. If there is a conflict between the political systems of the British Empire and of Germany, as the writer on foreign affairs thinks,2 and if, as Captain Mahan says, ‘the balance of forces influences continually and decisively the solutions of diplomacy,’ it is an anomaly that there should be no means of marshalling the whole strength and resources of the Empire effectively behind its will, when its mind is made up. If its weight in the counsels of the world depends in the long run on man power and the type of human being that becomes a British subject, it is strange that its people should be left to drift to foreign lands, and that there should be no joint authority to assist the migration of British citizens from one portion of the Empire, where they are superfluous, to another where they are urgently required. If there is a common problem such as Asiatic immigration, there should be some other means than the circulation of formal official despatches, or a meeting of Premiers only once in four years, whereby it can be publicly discussed, and a decision quickly reached. [ … ] The Round Table will thus be concerned solely with Imperial affairs.
Nothing else, indeed, would justify its production, for there is already a plethora of admirable journals which at times discuss the problems of the Empire. But these journals have a common quality, which diminishes their value for our purpose. They are all written for a particular public and from the point of view of a particular locality. As is but natural the Editors have to consider the wishes of their readers, who are more anxious to learn about budgets which lighten their breakfast tables, or land laws which reach into their purses, than to follow misty proceedings at a distance, which may affect their careers not today or tomorrow, but in the far future. The ordinary journal, therefore, cannot help representing local prepossessions and being influenced by the local atmosphere, and if it is to sell at all it must concern itself with much besides the Empire. It is a main object of The Round Table to escape this quality, for its value
would disappear if it could be accused of local bias. It will do so, it is true, at the expense of being, perhaps, somewhat unsaleable. But this prospect does not dismay the promoters, who do not seek a large circulation or publicity but hope to create a review which will be of interest to all parts and will gradually accumulate the material on which a sound judgement of the Imperial problem can be based. [ … ]
