Disquisition by Scripps, E.W., The heir to England, July 22, 1909

              Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://media.library.ohiou.edu/scripps
July 22, 1909.
THE HEIR TO ENGLAND.
It would be more than rash to say that the British Empire is
on the eve of breaking up.
On the other hand not even the most sanguine Briton fails to
recognize the possibility of a great catastrophe, such as a well-aimed
blow at the :llilpire' s heart by some single great power or combination of
powers. Apparently perfectly sane British wri ters 1 and level headed
ones too, are coming to admit the fact that a military strdggle between
England and Germa.n:;r is all but inevitable.
The organization of the British Empire, as a whole, is very.
,
crude and ineffective. The English colonies, which are now ~~pied
by peoples maki~ an aggregate popUlation of upwards of twelve millions,
ar,so far from being elements of strength, frmJ1 a military point of
view .. to the British Empire... the reverse.
. I /
For many years there has been an attempt made to get all the
countries of the British Empire to first recognize the necessity of and
then to organize the Empire into a centrally and homogeneously governed
nation.
Face to face with a possible great militarJ emergency in the
next ten years it seems impossible that an effective organization of
the British Empire CW1 be effected.
England is embarassed with tremendous territorial possessions
whose extent are so great as to require more than a century for popu­lations
to so increase as to make anyone outlying section of the pres·
"Emt Empire formidable in opposing an attack made by any of the first or
second rate powers of Europe; on the other hand, for practical purposes,
Germany has no other territory than that little fragl1ent of Europe, which
is only geographically fifty per cent larger than the state of California.
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