NORMAN ANGELL.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14836, 29 November 1913, Page 5

NORMAN ANGELL.

«. . PERSONAL IMPRESSION.

HIS VIEWS ON THE JAPANESE AND AUSTRALIA.

(Bt S. V. Brachek.) (SPBCIALLT WBrnKX FOB "Till PEES 3.") LONDON, October 17. Ono evening this week I was privileged to bo present as a listener in an upper room of an hotel near Fleet street, ffhoie Mr Norman Angell was conferring with a group of his followers. About fifty people crowded tho room and in tho ten minutes of talk that preceded tho arrival of. Mr Angell, I noticed that tho gatherng comprised some who never wore evening dress, and some who never at that hour wore anything else. A young man with the manner that traditionally goes with tho monocle, and is supposed to distinguish the "governing classes," sat in tho back row. A lady of title chatted with a working man, and near them was a smooth-faced Japanese with wispy moustache and bright, brown eyes. Tho sexes were about equally represented.

HIS PORTRAIT. Even if I had not remembered an excellent portrait in "Everyman" ar.d a life-like caricature in "Vanity Fair," I ehould have "spotted" Mr Anßoll as soon as he entered tho room. During his slow progress from the door to the table, his friends pressed around him for little consultations, so that lie moved like a queen bee on her comb, surrounded by attendant workers.

Ho is a little man with a great forehead. Tho small, spare, but wellshaped and well set-up body seems to exist only for tne head that it carries. Tho shaven, mobile face is rather pallid. The wide thin-lipped mouth conspires in humorous moments with tho twinkling eyes to give the whole countenance a very pleasant, and somewhat Irish aspect. Tho light brown hair is brushed flatly back. The chin is strong enough not to be overbalanced by tho wide and lofty forehead. One Gees at a glanco that, just as the queen bee is specialised for laying eggs, so the author of "The Great Illusion" is specialised for propagating ideas. Hβ is, m appearance, at any rate, tho most perfect typf I have yer, discovered of the intellectual man. Such is <ho founder of tho "New Pacifism.'' the man who, according to some people, is opeaing for all i|-lio world tho gates of a new era of lasting peace And prosperity, and, according to others is "preparing the way (though with ihe best.intentions) for a catastrophe in which n civilisation emascu- i lated by too much knowledge will be overwhelmed by uninstructed barbarians from beyond its borders. HOW TO DEAL WITH HECKI.EKS. I found that the gathering into which I had come almost by accident was tho last of a series of four Classes, or taIKS, which Mr Angell had been holding with people who lecture or intend to lecture on international polity, as expounded in, "Tho Great Illusion." Ho was, m fact, training the apostles of the "New Pacifism." The procedure was something like a round game. Mr Angell, seated at the table, had before him a pile of written questions. _Some of these had been handed to him by the students, and others had been put at his lectures to various audiences. "You do not really know your own case," he said, "until you know your opponent's case." Then, in clear-cut words and quiet, pleasant voice, with an occasional emphatic rap on the table, he explained how all the objections that had, been or could be brought against the arguments of "The Great Illusion" could be divided into three classes, and disposed of according td regular method. Tho messengers of the New- Pacifism, one gathered, need aiover be in terror of tho heckler. ~ , : The demonstration which followed would have been of value to every practical politician or unpractical agitator. A lady and three men volunteered to answer, the questions. Each answer was criticised by Mr Angell, and it was then, in the marvellous clearness and force of hie explanations, that his perfect' mental "fitness" was most apparent. To listen was an intellectual luxury. And yet (I shall confess it, for a cat may look at a king, and there is no infallibility .in matters of reasoning) I thought tbst once or he skated rather swiftly over thin ice.

A SMILE.' The game was saved irom being too devastatingly intellectual by the perfect friendliness and courtesy of the chief player. Before showing how an answer could bo bettered, he delighted to givo the effort of the student a generous praise. If Volunteer Number Two gave an answer hopelessly wide of the mark, Mr Angell, -with a smile bo charming that it must have been as pleasant to Number Two as to anybody else, would simply ask Number Three to have a try. It seemed that he was equally determined not to criticise without praising, not to praise where no praise was due, and not to give the least twinge of unnecessary pain. Here was the personal outcrop of. some of those qualities that have drawn into the propaganda of "Norman Angellism ' men as diverse as the eoap-box antimilitarist on the one hand and Mr A. J. Balfour (as a trustee of the Garton Foundation) on the other. "It is quite possible," said Mr Angell, "to ue a member of the Nat'onal bero'ce League nnd a thorough believer in "The Great Illusion' just as it is quite possible to be a Quaker and a thorough believer in 'The Great Illusion.' " AUSTRALIA AND THE JAPANESE.

TowaTds the end he invited questions from the audience. A lady leaned eagerly forward and said that a friend of hers, who had gone out to Australia, had written to her that nearly everybody she met talked of the danger of a Japanese invasion. How should she answer them? "She has asked mc to put the question to you. and I will take down your answer and «md it to her."

Mr Anffell did not hesitate a moment. Beginning with a reference to the Boer war, he went on: — "If it took 400,000 men, 50 millions of money and three years to overcome a population of about 100,000 adults in a" territory that could not support them all the year round, that could not manufacture a pound of' gunpowder or a fowling piece, how many men, what amount of money, and how many years would- it take to conquer a country 40 times the population, a country perfectly able to support them the year ronnd, and to manufacture the best arms and ammunition in the world— the invaders, moreover, not having free communication by sea as the English had in the Transvaal war? Why, it would take 40 million men, thirty years and two thousand millions of money. Japan has not got an army of 40 million men, she could not spend thirty years in such a task, she has not got two thousand millions of money. The thing is a physical impossibility. The Australians are as good fighting men as the Boers. Their conntry is not like France where the Germans could descend upon the capital and paralyse the whole economic life of the nation. Suppose the Japanese did descend upon Canberra—l think that is the real name of the place—that would not trouble the Australians very much. There never was a country better fitted to defend itself than Australia. "Then look at the Japanese, They are so poor that thousands of their

workmen never have enough 'capital to buy tho blankets they sleep under. They go in tho .evening to a pawnbroker and pay a fraction of a farthing for the hire of a blanket. They cannot afford to eat the rice they grow; they export* it and buy inferior rice. I The taxes are 30 per cent, of the total income of the people and if a wealthy Japanese 'has an income of ten thousand pounds and obeys tho law, he must surrender nearly eight thousand in taxation. A country like that is not able to undertake such an enterprise as the conquest of Australia*" This brought the Japanese in the back row to his feet. He thought nobody paid so much in taxation as Mr Angell had stated, but he added: "Our heavy taxes confirm to a, certain extent what you have said. We have had a very bitter experience in our new torn-. tones of Formosa and Korea. We have too much to do there. You may know from our history that wo are not an aggressive people. We have been pushed to the wall and have had to. defend our Empire against aggression." "Is the idea of invading Australia seriously entertained-in any quarter in Japan?" asked Mr Angell. "Does any statesman or any party .regard an inv-asion of Australia as practicable?" "Some statesmen and military men talk of attacking!,the Philippines," replied the Japanese, "but there are none who think of attacking any country further south."

A NEW PARLIAMENTARY POLICY. Finally Mr Angell gave his hearers a. very interesting piece of news in advance of the rest of the world. Hitherto ho and his co-workers had been content to arouso discussion and to fiproad ideas, but they found that people wanted practical proposals to argue about. Ho had therefore drawn up a. Parliamentary policy, and he hoped it would appear in a pamphlet to be published in a few days by the Labour Party. The policy consisted of three proposals: —(1) All money for armaments, except & certain low minimum, to be taken out of visible sources of revenue, earmarked for the purpose, such as the income tax, so that people would know that a new battleship would mean such and such an addition to the income tax. (2) Immunity of private property from capture at sea. (3) No secret diplomacy. (4) No military convention with France.

No doubt these proposals will make the propaganda of "Norman Angellism" a good deal keener; but will they command the united support of Mr Balfour and the soap-box anti-militarist?