MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
THE Conservative Party represents a large and valued section of the community : it is unfortunate that so many of its members should be inarticulate. For whereas the Liberal can .(with no more than a glance at his notes) talk for a whole hour upon the place of virtue in twentieth-century politics ; whereas the Socialist is never at loss for a word when discoursing upon vested interests ; whereas the Independent can prove without fear of contradiction that everybody has been wrong everywhere, except himself ; and whereas the prophetic tones of Common Wealth excite to emulation and self-sacrifice not merely our own people and the Empire beyond the seas but the citizens of distant Alberta and the comrades of the Kirghiz and Buriat Republics ; the Tory often does not know exactly what to say about himself. The younger Tories, being well aware that reticence is not in the end a profitable political instrument, have, it is true, recently published a manifesto which is both precise and wise. But the elder Tory, being seemingly unaware either of the history or the philosophy of his own Party, is apt to indulge in methods of elastic defence and to retire to positions for which in fact he is singularly unprepared. To those who have no party prejudices or affections, who wish only that all parties could expound their philosophies with equal rapidity and ease, it is distressing that the fine theory of conservatism should so frequently be either betrayed or ill-expressed. It is true, of course, that it is far, far easier to be bright and voluble about the new than about the old ; it is true that attack gives power to even the most rudimentary gifts ; it is true that most audiences prefer those who assure them that with a few deft changes all will become a garden of unending delight ; and it is true that there are many fools who (being ignorant of political history) tend to regard Tory reformers as belated and therefore insincere. The Conservative Party, none the less, possesses a tremendous tradition, a fine creative theory, and an important future function. It is a matter for regret that it should not expound its philosophy with greater frequency and strength.
* * * *
I am glad for these reasons that Mr. L. S. Amery, the Secretary of State for India and Burma, should have collected some of his recent articles and addresses into book form. He calls this collection The Framework of the Future (Oxford University Press, 6s.), which, as a title, is both modest and assertive. Mr. Amery is not among the Tory defeatists. On the contrary, he assumes throughout that the Conservative Party has in front of it an epoch of increasing opportunity and power. For him the internationalist individualism of the Liberals and the mechanical conceptions of•the Socialists are " survivals of an earlier stage of political thinking and of world conditions which are passing away." " The future," he assures his fellow-Conservatives, " is ours if we but realise it." " Con- servatism," he informed an Oxford audience a year ago, " is coming into its own. But to do so it must think of itself, not as a mere defender of the past, but as the leading and shaping force of the future. The Conservatism of the future, your Conservatism, must be not a mere compromise between an obsolete Liberalism and an obsolescent Socialism, but a living positive creed. It must be a creed and an inspiration which will carry the nation with it on a broad tide of thought and emotion comparable to that broad tide of Liberalism which dominated and shaped our life over the greater part of the last century. It must be a creed covering the whole range of public affairs, domestic, Imperial, international It is for you, for your generation, boldly to develop that creed in all its implications, knowing that, whatever conflicting eddies and counter- currents you may have to contend against, the sweep of the tide will be with you."
* * * * These are brave words, and we must admit that for the moment the sweep of the tide does not appear very vertiginous. But Mr. Amery is not the sort of man to indulge in meaningless rhetoric or to say things to young people which he does not feel himself. His convictions are based upon a theory which is not untenable
and certainly not the paradox which it may seem. To him the Liberal and the Socialist ideas are ideas which are becoming out- moded ; it is the Conservative idea which will be the seed-bed of new creative thought. If the Conservative cause is in fact to become the " cause of the future," it must be based upon a concept which is something more than the concept of continuity. What is this underlying principle which can give such modernity to the Conservative idea? It is the conception of the community as an organism rather than as a mechanism. It is based not upon any unsystematic opposition to revolutionary changes, but upon the necessities of the modern world as demonstrated by science, psychology and the processes of evolution. Liberal internationalism, with the abstract doctrine of laissez-faire, created a wholly artificial distinction between political and economic man—a distinction which all now recognise to have been both dangerous and false. Socialism, with its purely mechanical conception of the relation between the State and the Individual, becomes, not inhuman merely, but abstract. It is only the Conservative principle which can vivify that relation in terms of something national, concrete and organic The trend of the world in future will draw men away from individualism and materialism towards humanism: it is for the Conservative philosophy, with its fundamental conception of the State as an organism, to give concrete application to these tendencies which for long will remain instinctive and vague.
* * * *
Mr. Amery during his life, and in the addresses collected in this book, has given much thought to the means by which this " con- crete application " can be achieved. He is not among those who believe that greatness can be acquired without effort or peace preserved by methods of appeasement. " If our freedoth means anything to us," he said on the occasion of his denunciation of the Munich agreement, "we must make sacrifices to preserve it." Still less is he a man who regards the Commonwealth and Empire as some static property which can be abandoned or neglected ; to him it is the very nerve and muscle of our new opportunities. Nor does he imagine for a moment that it-is either possible or desirable to reverse the hands of the clock. " We are not fighting," he writes, " to restore the nineteenth century, but -to protect the - twentieth century from lapsing into savagery." Inevitably to his mind the future prosperity and power of this island depend upon the develop- ment of the 'Imperial idea. " The British Empire and Common- wealth," he writes, " is not only the essential framework within which and through which each of its members can best defend its own freedom, best rapand its resources, and best build up its social well-being, but also the best instrument by which it can contribute to the peace and prosperity of the world." And it is thus in his bold and confident conceptions of the future of Commonwealth relations, both economic and political, in the future of India, that he provides the most encouraging suggestions as to the manner in which the Conservative idea can be realised in concrete terms. It is a wide vision, a deep experience, which gives authority to this idea.
* * * *
Behind it all are love, and faith, and hope. Love of this " decent kindly England " which has done so well. Hope that when once victory has been achieved " a wonderful vista of leadership and creative effort will open before us." And-" faith in the Empire, faith in the work it has done, faith in the work it is yet destined to do" ; faith in the fact that " it has been the greatest agency for freedom and justice that the world has ever seen." Were I a young man today—sickened by the ordeals which have been thrust upon me, angered by the fate which has robbed me of my youth, nauseated by the unreality of politics—I should think of these ideas and "feel the brine salt on my lips and the large air again." And I should catch from this firm but modest voice the assurance of opportunities to come.
Previous page
