NORMAN ANGELL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1921, 2 December 1913, Page 5

NORMAN ANGELL.

PERSONAL IMPRESSION. HIS VIEWS ON THE JAPANESE & AUSTRALIA, [Bv P. V. Bnicnin,] (Specially Written for The Dominion.) London, October 17. One evening this week 1 was privileged to be present as a listener in an upper room of an hotel near Fleet Street, where Mr. Norman Angcll was conferring with u group of his followers.' About fifty peuplc crowded the room, and in the ten minutes of talk that preceded tho arrival of Mr. Angcll, I. noticed that tile gathering comprised some who.never woro evening dress, and some who never at that hour woro anything else. A young man with tho manner that traditionally goes with tho monocle, and is supposed to distinguish the "governing classes," sat in the back row, A lady of title chatted with

working man, and near them was a smooth-faced Japanese with wispy moustache and bright, brown eyes. The sexes were about equally represented.

His Portrait. Kven if I had not remembered an excellent portrait in "Everyman" and a hfe-like caricaturc in "Vanity Fair," I should liavo "spotted" Mr/Angell as soon as he entered tlio room. During his slow progress from the door to tho table, his friends pressed around him for little eager consultations, so that bo moved like a queen boo on her comb, surrounded by attendant workers. Do is a litt-lo man with a great forebead. Tho small, spare, but wellshaped and well set-up body seems to exist only for the head that it carries. The shaven, mobile lace is rather pallid. Tho wide thin-lipped mouth conspires in humorous Moments with tho ■ tor-inkling fives to givo the whole countenanco -a very pleasant and somewhat- Irish aspect, The light- brown hair is brushed flatly back. The chin is strong enough not to he overbalanced by tho wide and lofty forehead. One sees at a glance that, just- as tho queen bee is 'specialised for laying eggs, . so...the. author of "Tho Groat Illusion" "is specialised for propagating ideas. Ho is, in appearance, at any rate, the most perfect type I liavo yet discovered of the. intellectual man. Such is tlio founder of the "New Pacifism," the man who, according to some people, is opening jTdiyttU the: world the gates of a now era of'lasting peace and prosperity, and, according to others, is preparing tlio way.,,,(though, with tlio best intentions) for a. catastrophe in which a civilisation eiviaseulated by too much knowledge will bo overwhelmed by uninstnsctecl'' barbarians from beyond its borders.

How to Deal With Hecklers. I fomul that tho gathering jnto..which I had come almost by aceideaijifas tho last of a series of four classes/or talks, which Mr. Angcll had been holding with people who IccUire or intend to lecturo on international polity, as expounded in "Tho_Great Illusion." Ho was, in s act, training tho apostles of tho.'.'ffpw Pacifism." The proccdurd'tfas' something like -a round game. Mr. Angcll, seated at tho tabic-, had bei'orn liim a pile of written questions. Some of these had been handed to him by tho students, and others had been put at his lcctures to various audiences. "You clo not really know your own ease," he said, "until your know your opponent's ease.'' Then, in clear-cut words and ()uiet, pleasant voice, with an occasional emphatic rap on tho tabic, ho explained how all tho objections that had fiaen or could be brought against tho arguments of "Tho Great Illusion'' could bo divided into thrco elassc-s. and disposed of according to regular method. Tho messengers of the New Pacifism, one gathered, jioed never bo in terror of tho heckler.

Tlio demonstration which followed would have beesi of value to every practical politician or unpractical agitator. A lad.v and tliros mon volunteered to answer the questions. Each answer yeas criticisod by Jfr. Angeli, and it was. then, in the marvellous clearness and force oi his explanations, that his per'«ct 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 thero is no infallibility in matters of reasoning) I though that ohm or twice lio skated rather swiftly over thin ice.

A Smile. Tho game was saved from being too dcvastat-inely intellectual by the parfeet friendliness and courtesy of tho cnicf player. Before showiiio; how an answer could be bettered, Wdelighted to give the effort of the student a pnerous praise. If Volunteer Number Two save an answer hopelesslr wide of the mark, Mr. Angel!, with a smile so charming that it must- have been as pleasant to Number Two as to anybody else, would simply ask Number Three to have a try. ft seemed that lie was equally determined not to criticise wiih- . cut p raising. not to praise vrhnre no 'praise was due, and not to give the* least twinge of unnecessary pain. Here w!is the personal outcrop' of some of those qualities tint have drawn into tno propaganda of "Nprman Angcllism" men as diverse as tlio soap-box nntimilitarist on the one hand and Mr. A. .1. Balfour (as a. trustee of the Oarton Foundation) on the other. "It is quite possible," said Mr. Aiigeil, "to be a member of the National Service League and n thorough believer in 'Tha Great Illusion,' jmt as it is quite nossiblo to be a Quaker a H( 'j a thorough bslievfir in 'The Great Illusion.' "

Australia art 3 the. Japanese. " . " Towards the end he invited questions from the audience. A lady leaned eagerly forward and said thfit a" i'rielid of hers, who had gone out to Australia, had written to her that ne-'arfy evorybodv slto met talked of tho danger of a Japanese invasion'. How should she answer tliem ? "She has asked me to put the question to you, and J,. .will iakedowii your answer and" Scflf it to her." 3l>. Angeli did not hesitate n moment. Beginning with a reference to the Beer war, he went on: "If it took 400,000 men 50 millions of money and three years t» overcome a population of about 100,(tO'il 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, hew many men, what, amount-lot .money, and' how many years would"it', t'ako to conquer a country -10 times; tho population, a country perfectly able to support them tho year round, and.to manufacture the best arms and ammunition in the world —tho invaders, moreover, not having free communication by sea as the English had in tho. Transvaal war? Why, it would take 40 million ! men thirty years and two thousand i millions of money. Japan has "riot got an army of '10 million men," (illfi could not speiul thirty years in such, a jr.sk, she has not not two thousand millions of money. The thing is a physical impossibility. The Australians are as good fistilting men as the Boors.- Their country is not like France,' Whofd the German* conkl descend upon tho capital and iwr.il.vse the whole economic life <>f the nation. Suppose tho Jajmneso did descend upon Canberra—l think tlmt is the name of the place—that • would not trouble the Australians very much. There never was ;i.' country bette;- fitted to defend itself than Aus-. t l atin -

"Then loni; at. (lie Japanese, They | are so poor that thousands of their | workmen never hnvo enough capital to | buy the blankets they sleep under, Tlieijp.n'in the evenhijr to a pawnbroker ami Ijvny a fraction of a farthina for th<»

hire of a blanket, They cannot afford to cat tjio rice they grow: they export it, and btnr inferior rice. The- taxes are 30 per cent, of tho total income of tiio jimjilo, and if a wealthy Japanese has an incomo of ten tliousniid pounds find obeys tho .law, 'ho must surrender nearly eight thousand in taxation. <V country lilio that is not "bio to tindertake such an enterprise as tlio conquest of Australia," This brought tlio Japanese in tho v)v>(■ 1c row tu bis feet. Ho thought nobody paid so much in taxation as Mr. Aiigcll bad stated, but be added l : "'Our heavy taxes confirm to a certain extent wiiat you have said, We, have 1 bad a jverv bitter cxjjerif.Mce in our .new terriI iorics of Formosa and Korea, Wo have too much to do there. You may know from our history that we are not an aggressive people. Wo have been; pus-b----ed to tho wall and have had to defend our Kmpiro against aggression." "Is the idea of invading Australia seriously entertained in any quarter ill Japan?" asked Mr. Angcll. "Docs any statesman or any party regard an invasion of Australia as practicable?" "Sonic statesmen aiul military men talk of attacking tho Philippines," replied the. Japanese, "but there arc aono who think of attacking any countr/ further south."

A Now Parliamentary Policy. Finally Mr. Angell gavo his hearers a- very interesting piece of news in advance of the rest of tho world. Hitherto ho aiul his co-workers had been content, to arouse discussion and to spread ideas, hut they found that people wanted practical proposals to arguo about. He bad therefore drawn up. a _ Parliamentary policy, and. ho hoped it waukl appear in a pamphlet to bo published in a few days by the Labour party, Tho policy consisted of t-hreo proposals: — (1) All money for armaments, except a certain* low minimum, to bo taken out of visible sources of revenue, earmarked for tlio purpose, such as tho incomo 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 sua. (3) No secret diplomacy. (4) No military convention with Franco, So doubt theso proposals will mftko tho propaganda of "Norman Angcllism" a good deal keener; but will thev command tho -anited support of Mr. Balfour and the soap-box anti-militarist?