Where did Hobbits come from?

[Bêthberry]

Child, your thoughtfulness has put to shame my rather flippant suggestion of the Great Eagles bringing the Stoor, Fallohide and Harfoot babies to the cabbage, turnip and beet patches. I had rather enjoyed that idea as it was in keeping with old folk tales. And I was so careful to avoid cauliflower, as les petits choux would have been too French for The Professor.

Your idea of a chosen tribe deliberately veiled is very suggestive and powerful. It, too, has tantalizing similarities to other mythologies (I use that word to avoid the "R" word with Tolkien).

However, there is one association which immediately springs to mind. If the hobbits do represent the wholesomeness of the sturdy English country stock, how does this idea fit in with that dodgy old idea of Pax Britannica and all the colonial apparatus that comes with the British Empire? Of course, I realise that this brings into juxtaposition two ideas that are not necessarily carved in stone, but it does make one wonder: Would Tolkien have wanted to inspire the idea that the English were the (new/next) chosen race?

This isn't so far fetched as it might seem at first glance, as the conceit is prevalent throughout English history. Time limits me giving sources, etc, but Child's post was so suggestive that I couldn't not post!