" EVERY COUNTRY BUT HIS OWN."

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 167, 15 July 1907, Page 4

" EVERY COUNTRY BUT HIS OWN."

We have no doubt that in some respects Mr Keir Hardie is a man -who deserves the distinction that he has apparently gained as a representative of the rights and aspirations of Labour at Home. But we do not expect that his achievements in this respect will constitute his chief claim to fame with the historian of the future. It is as the unpatriotic Englishman, the man who instinctively took sides with the enemies of his country whenever the opportunity arose, that Mr Keir Hardie will fill a unique place in our records. "My country, right or wrong," is a, maxim that has often seduced better men than Mr Keir Hardie into bigotry and oppression. But there is something splendid in the nature of patriotism, however misguided, that ennobles even tyranny. What can be said for the man whose first instinct is to defend the cause and fight the battles of every nation and every country but his own?

But we beg pardon of Mr. Keir Hardie. He has explicitly told us that he does not believe in fighting. He has condemned in choice, vituperative terms those who aspire to strike a blow in defence of country or family or home; for are they not preparing themselves to indulge in the " hellish practice of slaying their brothers"? And he has further assured the world at large that the workers whom he represents will never be induced to fight for their country or its flag. We refuse to do Mr. Keir Hardies supporters at Home the injustice of assuming that they are as craven-hearted as he represents them to be.. But for himself he has left us no chance of misconstruction. He belongs to that small but noisy class of so-cailed " cosmopolitans " who are so thoroughly persuaded that aliens are their brothers, that they forget all about their relationship and their responsibilities to their own countrymen.

We must admit that Mr. Keir Hirdie's philanthropy is very comprehensive. He has been pro-Boer, pro-Zulu. pro-i.:rypt-ian, in turn, and now he i 3 pro-Hindu. The bare fact that anybody in the ■world is making a complaint against England, is eitoagli to induce Mr. Keir Hardie to hail >»"n as a brother. And even those -who sympathised with his j»fo-Boer iviews five years ago, -would be

hard put. to it to find an excuse for his efforts to encourage the Zulus to fight for their "rights," while they were murdering helpless British settlers in Natal. Now it is India, that he is anxious to patronise and protect; and he raises the cry, "Home Rule for India," without a thought of its real meaning; without ever casting a glance at the hopeless ■welter of bloodshed and anarchy, and misery from which India has been rescued only through the establishment of British rule.

The fact that neither Hindus nor Egyptians have ever given any proof that they are able to govern themselves, ajid that they have received the inestimable blessings of justice, security and peace at the hands of England, is all less than nothing to Mr. Keir Hardie. And insignificant as he personally is, his position as a member of the British Parliament gives his words power for evil among the ignorant agitators who are striving- to undermine England's Empire in the East. Remembering all that the maintenance of British authority means to the Hindus and to the Empire, we may well ask if it is not possible to make too much of a fetish of our boasted right of free speech, and consider whether it would not be in the highest sense just and wise to restrain by appropriate penalties, such dangerous outbursts of hysterical and treasonable iolly.