Above us sails the banner of His Majesties British Imperial Burma.
Oh for the days of rightful Empire!
"Come you back to Mandalay!"
The Indian Raj, and assorted mayhem.
When the sun never set on fish'n chips,
...and the Goon Show!
The heavily gunned Dreadnaughts of His or Her Majesties' Royal Navy sat in ports all over the Imperial Kaki, and Red-coated World.
A Glorious time before Yanks upstart Wogs, and a renewed Imperial China took over the World.
Empire, and Tea!
6 comments:
“Empire, and Tea!”
And opium. Don’t forget opium.
I’d give anything to have the carefre existence of a British imperial gentleman.
As long as I didn’t have to notice or think about the coolies on whose broken backs my lifestyle rested - in other words, as long as I didn’t have a conscience. That is always the problem with empire.
Dratted conscience! Damned useless, as Huck Finn rightly observed.
Z
Aye, we fought three wars with the Chinese to make sure they bought our opium.
We didn't do everything right but we tried as best we could for the prevailing times and at the end of it even if we were skint after defending the rights of democracies, more or less on our own, we gave it all up with reasonably good grace.
Will you ?
I think we all know the answer to that one. Viz., - NO!
Let’s face it, Americans are not gracious people. Also, mine & Sid’s countrymen aren’t too bright. Just look who we have for President.
It’s true, the Brits did step down from empire relatively gracefully. But then, the USA was ready to pick up the reins and let the Empire down fairly softly. Our fall will be harsher; nobody’s going to pick up our pieces. I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for us; the US empire has been as brutal as any other.
I have to go now to my foreign language class. I hope to use it should I be lucky enough to leave the country, whose future is not rosy.
Z
Is it something I said?
Sorry. I guess we should have just tucked into the fish & chips and put up our feet on the ottoman. A handy volume of Kipling wouldn’t hurt either, preferably a hard bound edition embossed with gold font; but I’m just going to spend my time admiring the lavish wainscoting in the common room of my gentlemen’s club. I *love* rich interiors.
Z
Indeed perhaps I should take rooms at the club myself.
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