ruthless exploitation of natives
and a constant conflict among the interested nations. The nationals of
one country conspire against those of another for a control of the
native government. If, for example, we were to leave the Philippines
entirely alone, various enterprising capitalists would immediately
organise and support corrupt native governments, lend money at usurious
rates and secure exclusive concessions. To upset these arrangements,
financiers of a rival nation would foment revolutions, and the country
would be split up into political factions, supported by money from
various European capitals. The political leaders though talking
grandiloquently of independence and native sovereignty, would be, and
perhaps would know that they were, merely pawns in a financial chess
game.

The second method, now more or less usual, of {264} establishing
national spheres of influence, also leads to friction and the threat of
force. The crucial difficulty of this plan lies in the fact that great
nations which have come late into the colonial competition are left
without a sufficient agricultural base for their industry and live in
fear of having the colonies of rival powers shut against them. The
whole plan is based upon the assumed right of each nation to monopolise
the resources of colonies, in other words, to use exclusively what
might be used jointly. As a result of this method the temptation to go
to war over colonies is immensely great. If by a single war, Germany
could secure enough colonial territory from France to maintain her
industry for three or four generations, it might well be worth her
while to fight. It is the lives of one or of two million men to-day
against tens of millions of lives a generation hence. A nation which
would not fight for a somewhat larger share in the exploitation of a
given colony would be tempted to fight for a sole and monopolistic
possession.

The third plan of distribution is what may be called the
internationalisation of colonies. It is a step in the direction of an
international imperialism, as opposed to the nationalistic imperialism
of to-day. There have been numerous proposals to secure a machinery
for such internationalism in colonies. Especially during the last
decade or two many men in Europe and America have come to the
conclusion that the danger of the present international scramble for
colonies is so great that any change, even though not in itself
unassailabl