TO GRAHAM, THE MORE insidious consequence of imperialism was its impact on indigenous peoples and the environment through colonisation, not simply by foreign settlement, but by the imposition of foreign ideas, lifestyles, and economics. During his early political career he rarely looked overseas, but this would change after his electoral defeat in 1892, when his writings would become dominated by the destructive impact of the hand of man, and what he ironically termed ‘progress’.

His first reference to this encroachment appeared in the Labour Elector in January 1890, where he wrote about the emigration scandals and corruption in Argentina, which already had 2,700 miles of railway, and was experiencing a huge influx of poor European immigrants, who were being confined in ever-expanding cities:

As a precursor to this, between leaving the Labour Elector, and just prior to contributing to the People’s Press, Graham had a story published in a short-lived journal called Time, edited by Belfort Bax, entitled ‘Horses of the Pampas’. In his own words, ‘these rambling and incoherent reminiscences’ were prompted by a letter from a friend in Argentina, which caused his thoughts on the Eight Hours Bill to become ‘vaguer and dimmer’. Here is the first occasion on which he wrote nostalgically of his earlier life in South America, which could hardly be more different than his current circumstances. The piece was described by Watts and Davies as: