Lenin CW-Vol. 23.pdf - From Marx to Mao

IMPERIALISM AND THE SPLIT IN SOCIALISM109by which we have won our Indian Empire has been doneby natives; in India, as more recently in Egypt, greatstanding armies are placed under British commanders;almost all the fighting associated with our African dominions,except in the southern part, has been done for usby natives.”The prospect of partitioning China elicited from Hobsonthe following economic appraisal: “The greater partof Western Europe might then assume the appearance andcharacter already exhibited by tracts of country in theSouth of England, in the Riviera, and in the touristriddenor residential parts of Italy and Switzerland, littleclusters of wealthy aristocrats drawing dividends andpensions from the Far East, with a somewhat largergroup of professional retainers and tradesmen and a largerbody of personal servants and workers in the transporttrade and in the final stages of production of the moreperishable goods: all the main arterial industries wouldhave disappeared, the staple foods and semi-manufacturesflowing in as tribute from Asia and Africa.... We haveforeshadowed the possibility of even a larger alliance ofWestern states, a European federation of Great Powerswhich, so far from forwarding the cause of world civilisation,might introduce the gigantic peril of a Westernparasitism, a group of advanced industrial nations, whoseupper classes drew vast tribute from Asia and Africa,with which they supported great tame masses of retainers,no longer engaged in the staple industries of agricultureand manufacture, but kept in the performance of personalor minor industrial services under the control of a newfinancial aristocracy. Let those who would scout sucha theory [he should have said: prospect] as undeserving ofconsideration examine the economic and social conditionof districts in Southern England today which are alreadyreduced to this condition, and reflect upon the vast extensionof such a system which might be rendered feasible bythe subjection of China to the economic control of similargroups of financiers, investors [rentiers] and politicaland business officials, draining the greatest potentialreservoir of profit the world has ever known, in order toconsume it in Europe. The situation is far too complex,