Editing Rudyard Kipling (section)

==After the war (1918–1936)==
[[File:Kipling TIME cover 19260927.jpg|thumb|upright|Kipling, aged 60, on the cover of [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] magazine, 27 September 1926]]
Partly in response to John's death, Kipling joined Sir [[Fabian Ware]]'s Imperial War Graves Commission (now the [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission]]), the group responsible for the garden-like British war graves that can be found to this day dotted along the former [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] and the other places in the world where British Empire troops lie buried. His main contributions to the project were his selection of the biblical phrase, "[[Their Name Liveth For Evermore]]" ([[Sirach|Ecclesiasticus]] 44.14, KJV), found on the [[Stone of Remembrance|Stones of Remembrance]] in larger war cemeteries, and his suggestion of the phrase "Known unto God" for the gravestones of unidentified servicemen. He also chose the inscription "The Glorious Dead" on the [[Cenotaph#The Cenotaph, London|Cenotaph]], Whitehall, London. Additionally, he wrote a two-volume history of the [[Irish Guards]], his son's regiment, published in 1923 and seen as one of the finest examples of regimental history.<ref>Kipling, Rudyard (1923). The ''Irish Guards in the Great War''. 2 vols. London.</ref>

Kipling's short story "The Gardener" depicts visits to the war cemeteries, and the poem "[[The King's Pilgrimage]]" (1922) a journey which [[King George V]] made, touring the cemeteries and memorials under construction by the [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission|Imperial War Graves Commission]]. With the increasing prevalence of the automobile, Kipling became a motoring correspondent for the British press, writing enthusiastically of trips around England and abroad, though he was usually driven by a chauffeur.

After the war, Kipling was sceptical of the [[Fourteen Points]] and the [[League of Nations]], but had hopes that the United States would abandon isolationism and the post-war world be dominated by an Anglo-French-American alliance.<ref name="Gilmour, David page 273">[[#Gilmour|Gilmour]], p. 273.</ref> He hoped the United States would take on a League of Nations mandate for [[Armenia]] as the best way of preventing isolationism, and hoped that [[Theodore Roosevelt]], whom Kipling admired, would again become president.<ref name="Gilmour, David page 273" /> Kipling was saddened by Roosevelt's death in 1919, believing him to be the only American politician capable of keeping the United States in the "game" of world politics.<ref>[[#Gilmour|Gilmour]], pp. 273–274.</ref>

Kipling was hostile towards [[communism]], writing of the [[October Revolution|Bolshevik take-over]] in 1917 that one sixth of the world had "passed bodily out of civilization".<ref name="auto6">[[#Hodgson|Hodgson]], p. 1060.</ref> In a 1918 poem, Kipling wrote of [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] that everything good in Russia had been destroyed by the Bolsheviks – all that was left was "the sound of weeping and the sight of burning fire, and the shadow of a people trampled into the mire."<ref name="auto6"/>

In 1920, Kipling co-founded the [[Liberty League (Historic)|Liberty League]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jot101.com/2015/11/the-liberty-league-campaign-agains/ |title=The Liberty League – a campaign against Bolshevism |website=jot101.com |date=20 November 2015 |access-date=2 January 2017 |archive-date=3 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103003545/http://jot101.com/2015/11/the-liberty-league-campaign-agains/ |url-status=live }}</ref> with [[H. Rider Haggard|Haggard]] and [[George Clarke, 1st Baron Sydenham of Combe|Lord Sydenham]]. This short-lived enterprise focused on promoting classic liberal ideals as a response to the rising power of communist tendencies within Great Britain, or as Kipling put it, "to combat the advance of Bolshevism."<ref>Miller, David and Dinan, William (2008) ''A Century of Spin''. Pluto Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7453-2688-7}}</ref><ref>[[#Gilmour|Gilmour]], p. 275.</ref>

[[File:Rudyard Kipling at St Andrews 1923.jpg|thumb|left|Kipling (second from left) as rector of the [[University of St Andrews]], Scotland, in 1923]]
In 1922, Kipling, having referred to the work of [[engineer]]s in some of his poems, such as "The Sons of Martha", "Sappers", and "[[McAndrew's Hymn]]",<ref>Kipling, Rudyard (1940) ''The Definitive edition of Rudyard Kipling's verse''. Hodder & Stoughton.</ref> and in other writings, including short-story anthologies such as ''The Day's Work'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/dayswork04kiplgoog |title=The day's work |work=Internet Archive|year=1898 }}</ref> was asked by a [[University of Toronto]] civil engineering professor, [[Herbert E. T. Haultain]], for assistance in developing a dignified obligation and ceremony for graduating engineering students. Kipling was enthusiastic in his response and shortly produced both, formally titled "[[The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer]]". Today, engineering graduates all across Canada are presented with an [[Iron Ring|iron ring]] at a ceremony to remind them of their obligation to society.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ironring.ca/ |title=The Iron Ring |publisher=Ironring.ca |access-date=10 September 2008 |archive-date=30 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430202754/http://www.ironring.ca/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ironring.ca/background.php/ |title=The Calling of an Engineer |publisher=Ironring.ca |access-date=24 November 2012 |archive-date=3 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003141912/http://www.ironring.ca/background.php/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1922, Kipling became [[Rector of the University of St Andrews|Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews]] in Scotland, a three-year position.

Kipling, as a [[Francophile]], argued strongly for an Anglo-French alliance to uphold the peace, calling Britain and France in 1920 the "twin fortresses of European civilization".<ref name="Gilmour, David pages 300">[[#Gilmour|Gilmour]], p. 300.</ref> Similarly, Kipling repeatedly warned against revising the [[Treaty of Versailles]] in Germany's favour, which he predicted would lead to a new world war.<ref name="Gilmour, David pages 300" /> An admirer of [[Raymond Poincaré]], Kipling was one of few British intellectuals who supported the French [[Occupation of the Ruhr]] in 1923, at a time when the British government and most public opinion was against the French position.<ref name="Gilmour, David pages 300-301">[[#Gilmour|Gilmour]], pp. 300–301.</ref> In contrast to the popular British view of Poincaré as a cruel bully intent on impoverishing Germany with unreasonable reparations, Kipling argued that he was rightfully trying to preserve France as a great power in the face of an unfavourable situation.<ref name="Gilmour, David pages 300-301" /> Kipling argued that even before 1914, Germany's larger economy and higher birth rate had made that country stronger than France; with much of France devastated by war and the French suffering heavy losses meant that its low birth rate would give it trouble, while Germany was mostly undamaged and still with a higher birth rate. So he reasoned that the future would bring German domination if Versailles were revised in Germany's favour, and it was madness for Britain to press France to do so.<ref name="Gilmour, David pages 300-301" />

[[File:Rudyard Kipling, by Elliott & Fry (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Kipling late in his life, portrait by [[Elliott & Fry]]]]
In 1924, Kipling was opposed to the Labour government of [[Ramsay MacDonald]] as "Bolshevism without bullets". He believed that Labour was a communist front organisation, and "excited orders and instructions from Moscow" would expose Labour as such to the British people.<ref>[[#Gilmour|Gilmour]], p. 293.</ref> Kipling's views were on the right. Though he admired [[Benito Mussolini]] to some extent in the 1920s, he was against fascism, calling [[Oswald Mosley]] "a bounder and an ''arriviste''". By 1935, he was calling Mussolini a deranged and dangerous egomaniac and in 1933 wrote, "The Hitlerites are out for blood".<ref>[[#Gilmour|Gilmour]], pp. 302 and 304.</ref>

Despite his [[anti-communism]], Kipling was popular with Russian readers in the interwar period. Many younger Russian poets and writers, such as [[Konstantin Simonov]], were influenced by him.<ref name="auto7">[[#Hodgson|Hodgson]], pp. 1059–1060.</ref> Kipling's clarity of style, use of colloquial language and employment of rhythm and rhyme were seen as major innovations in poetry that appealed to many younger Russian poets.<ref>[[#Hodgson|Hodgson]], pp. 1062–1063.</ref>
Though it was obligatory for Soviet journals to begin translations of Kipling with an attack on him as a "[[fascist (insult)|fascist]]" and an "imperialist", such was Kipling's popularity with Russian readers that his works were not banned in the [[Soviet Union]] until 1939, with the signing of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]].<ref name="auto7"/> The ban was lifted in 1941 after [[Operation Barbarossa]], when Britain become a Soviet ally, but imposed again with the [[Cold War]] in 1946.<ref>[[#Hodgson|Hodgson]], p. 1059.</ref>

[[File:Kipling swastika.svg|left|upright|A left-facing [[swastika]] in 1911, an Indian symbol of good luck|thumb]]
[[File:Kipling cover art.jpg|thumb|Covers of two of Kipling's books from 1919 (l) and 1930 (r), showing the removal of the swastika]]
Many older editions of Rudyard Kipling's books have a [[swastika]] printed on the cover, associated with a picture of an elephant carrying a lotus flower, reflecting the influence of Indian culture. Kipling's use of the swastika was based on the Indian sun symbol conferring good luck and the [[Sanskrit]] word meaning "fortunate" or "well-being".<ref name="Smith">Smith, Michael.[http://www.kipling.org.uk/facts_swastik.htm "Kipling and the Swastika"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303163342/http://www.kipling.org.uk/facts_swastik.htm |date=3 March 2013 }}. Kipling.org.</ref> He used the swastika symbol in both right and left-facing forms, and it was in general use by others at the time.<ref>Schliemann, H, ''Troy and its Remains'', London: Murray, 1875, pp. 102, 119–120.</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/arts/072900tank-swastika.html |title=One of the World's Great Symbols Strives for a Comeback |first=Sarah |last=Boxer |date=29 June 2000 |access-date=7 May 2012 |publisher=The New York Times |work=Think Tank |archive-date=18 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118172914/http://www.nytimes.com/library/arts/072900tank-swastika.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a note to [[Edward Bok]] after the death of Lockwood Kipling in 1911, Rudyard said: "I am sending with this for your acceptance, as some little memory of my father to whom you were so kind, the original of one of the plaques that he used to make for me. I thought it being the Swastika would be appropriate for your Swastika. May it bring you even more good fortune."<ref name="Smith" /> Once the swastika had become widely associated with [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[Nazis]], Kipling ordered that it should no longer adorn his books.<ref name="Smith" /> Less than a year before his death, Kipling gave a speech (titled "An Undefended Island") to the [[Royal Society of St George]] on 6 May 1935, warning of the danger which [[Nazi Germany]] posed to Britain.<ref>Rudyard Kipling, ''War Stories and Poems'' (Oxford Paperbacks, 1999), pp. xxiv–xxv.</ref>

Kipling scripted the first [[Royal Christmas Message]], delivered via the BBC's [[BBC World Service|Empire Service]] by [[George V]] in 1932.<ref name="Knight">{{cite web |last1=Knight |first1=Sam |title='London Bridge is down': the secret plan for the days after the Queen's death |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/16/what-happens-when-queen-elizabeth-dies-london-bridge |website=The Guardian |access-date=12 October 2017 |date=17 March 2017 |archive-date=27 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527080852/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/16/what-happens-when-queen-elizabeth-dies-london-bridge |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Kenneth |author-link=Kenneth Rose |title=King George V |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |year=1983 |location=London | pages=394 |isbn=978-1-84212-001-9}}</ref> In 1934, he published a short story in ''[[The Strand Magazine]]'', "Proofs of Holy Writ", postulating that [[William Shakespeare]] had helped to polish the prose of the [[King James Bible]].<ref>''Short Stories from the Strand'', The Folio Society, 1992.</ref>