VIII. The British and the World
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart.
RUDYARD KIPLING
We have no eternal allies and no perpetual enemies; our interests are eternal, and those interests it is our duty to follow.
LORD PALMERSTON
More than any other Western European nation, Britain has been involved in mankind. Geography placed these islands on one of the main routes between the Old World and the New. Ambition, avarice, and absent-mindedness combined to create the greatest of modern empires. Knaves and heroes, sinners and saints, fools and wise men took the blunt Saxon tongue across the snarling seas and into silent jungles. Now the Empire nears its end. But the drain of two world wars and the changes in the world make it more vital than ever to Britain that she remain a leader of international intercourse—a trader, a diplomat, a financial clearing-house for much of the world.