But these justifiable occasions do not exhaust the whole field.  Sometimes diplomacy is brought to bear on much more doubtful issues.  It is used to support the concession-hunter, and to coerce a relatively powerless nation to grant concessions.  It backs up a bank which has financed a company to build railroads or develop the internal resources of a country; or to exploit mines or oil-fields, or to do those thousand-and-one things which constitute what is called “peaceful penetration.”  Think of the recent dealings with Turkey,[16] and the international rivalry, always suspicious and inflammatory, which has practically divided up her Asiatic dominions between European States—­so that Armenia is to belong to Russia, Syria to France, Arabia to Great Britain, and Anatolia and I know not what besides to Germany!  Think of the competition for the carrying out of railways in Asia Minor and the constant friction as to which power has obtained, by fair means or foul, the greatest influence!  Or let us remember the recent disputes as to the proper floating of a loan to China and the bickering about the Five-Power Group and the determination on the part of the last named that no one else should share the spoil!  Or shall we transfer our attention to Mexico, where the severe struggle between the two rival Oil Companies—­the Cowdray group and the American group—­threw into the shade the quarrel between Huerta and Carranza?  These are only a few instances taken at random to illustrate the dealings of modern finance.  Relatively small harm would be done if financiers were allowed to fight out their own quarrels.  Unfortunately, however, diplomacy is brought in to support this side or that:  and ambassadors have to speak in severe terms if a Chinese mandarin does not favour our so-called “nationals,” or if corrupt Turkish officials are not sufficiently squeezable to suit our “patriotic” purposes.  Our armaments are big not merely to protect the nation’s honour, but to provide large dividends for speculative concerns held in private hands.

[16] Turkey has now thrown in her lot with Germany.

INVESTING MONEY ABROAD

The truth is, of course, that the honourable name of commerce is now used to cover very different kinds of enterprise.  We used to export goods; now we export cash.  Wealthy men, not being content with the sound, but not magnificent interest on home securities, take their money abroad and invest in extremely remunerative—­though of course speculative—­businesses in South Africa, or South America, concerned with rubber, petroleum, or whatnot.  Often they subscribe to a foreign loan—­in itself a perfectly legitimate and harmless operation, but not harmless or legitimate if one of the conditions of the loan is that the country to which it is lent should purchase its artillery from Essen or Creusot, or its battleships from our yards.  For that is precisely one of the ways in