THE ORIGINS OF ROBERT BLATCHFORD'S SOCIAL IMPERIALISM.

This article examines the history of the concept of social imperialism in Great Britain originated by publisher and editor Robert Blatchford in 1891. For the doctrinal origins of Blatchford's defencism, one need go no deeper than his belief that gradual means were in every way the best for the attainment of socialism, and that Britain and its white dominions constituted the friendliest political environment for gradualism ever known. The periods when Blatchford was most vocal on the invasion danger were during the Boer War and from 1907 on. The later threat soon came to seem the more serious, and over the years Blatchford's insistence lost him more admirers and the Clarion more readers than anything else in the paper's history. Though agreeing with other socialists that the South African war was one of economic aggression, Blatchford refused to attack British soldiers or admire their Calvinist enemies. Among other gradualist leaders, one could note that Hardie, while agreeing with the socialist diagnosis, was remarkably vague as to whether this reinforcement of international finance at the expense of his Boer idols would prove a bad thing in the long term.