Imperial Defence

Dilke and Wilkinson argue in this 1892 book that, while hoping to avert war by diplomacy, the Government has a duty to maintain a naval and military force to protect the interests of its citizens. They take as examples the cases of recent military actions in India and Afghanistan.

The liberal Radical MP Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke (1843–1911) campaigned for (among many other causes) votes for women and labourers, legalisation of trade unions and universal education. His republican sentiments damaged his political reputation, and earned him the hostility of Queen Victoria. However, despite his views on the monarchy he was an imperialist, and his early work, Greater Britain (1868; also available in this series), was widely read. In the 1890s he became known as a parliamentary expert on military, colonial and foreign affairs. This 1892 work, co-written with Spenser Wilkinson (1853–1937), a journalist and military historian, together with Dilke's earlier work, Problems of Greater Britain, led to the founding of a parliamentary committee on imperial defence. The book argues that, while hoping to avert war by diplomacy, the Government has a duty to maintain a naval and military force to protect the interests of its citizens.