YOUNG NATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 135, 8 June 1911, Page 5

YOUNG NATIONS.

THEIR POWER AND PERiL HON. DR. FIND-AYS AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS. A VIVID LETTEii. The Hon. Dr. Findlay (Attorney-Gen-eral and Minister of Justice), who is accompanying the Prime Minister on his English visit, was able to renew his acquaintance with Canada and the United States during the journey to England, and he has given tbe. benefit of his impressions to his colleague, the Hon. George Fowlds. From this exceedingly interesting letter we have been able to make extracts which deal vividly with subjects of world-wide Importance. "You will observe that we are crossing the Atlantic in the R-M.s. Eusitania, of 32,000 tons register and something over 68,000 horse power," writes Dr. Findlay. "What strikes mc most is the strange congeries of nationalities on board. There seems to be about a dozen foreign tongues spoken almost as mucl as one's own. These people, however, but merely represent modern America Forty-nine different tongues are now spoken in New York. America still ac cepts whatever likes to come, so lonf as it has a few dollars in its pocket anc cannot be regarded as physically or men i tally defective. The influx still goes on I and' the best estimates made by expert I looking into the future make it clea ! that within forty years more thai seventv-nve per cent of the whole popu Nation'of the United States will eithe be foreign-born or of foreign extraction Of course, it is impossible to predic what effect this is going to have i" producing a new type, but that it mus profoundly modify the Anglo-Saxon typ

is perfectly clear. It has. as I have observed already, done so. Its chief significance for us is that it impairs that racial sympathy with the Anglo-Saxon nation which we are disposed to attribute in too great a degree to America of to-day. One of the questions which every British subject feels to be a vital one is: What is the national attitude (as regards friendliness) of America to ( our Empire? No question is harder to i answer, and on some of my visits to the J States, when I have met members and " I descendants of old families, like the late 1 H. D. Lloyd, I have been disposed to -' think that there was a living and spon- * taneous friendliness on the part of the < American people for those of our nation. SENTIMENT TOWARDS GREAT ] BRITAIN. , "It is the view of the better class : that is most frequently expressed in the < leading journals, but tbe true measure ■ of a national feeling on such a mattPr i as this is not what the best class think, but what is the regard of the bulk of the people —the. general attitude of the man in the street? Now, it cannot for a moment be denied that the feelings of America have grown more friendly towards us. When I recall tbe bitterness I saw there eighteen years ago. there was abundant room for some such change; but I am satisfied that we in New Zealand over-estimated the friendliness of the. great hulk of the American people towards the Empire. We think too much of the fact that the two nations speak the same tongue: we talk loosely of their inheriting the same traditions, overlooking tho fact that foreigners form a considerable majority of the whole population throughout the country. A very large majority in all the centres have not our traditions, either from their language or their history, but on the contrary have to a large extent inherited national dislikes and racial antipathies to tbe British nation. "HAS TWELVE O'CLOCK STRUCK?" "Of course it is impossible to deny, even in this year of the Christian era, that national hatred throughout the world is more common than national affection, and national jealousy commoner than either. America's regard : for us has improved largely because her 1 jealousy has decreased. She has already 1 twice tbe population of the United ' Kingdom, and she has outstripped us in ■ many directions in which we deemed " ourselves matchless. Everywhere one - hears in the United States a self-com--1 placent tone of pitying superiority towards our Motherland. I was told by several shrewd men who are more than usually friendly to our Empire that the British had struck their 'twelve o'clock,' and that America must soon leave her far in the rear as a progressive and manufacturing nation. THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 3 "You will remember that reciprocity I between the States and Canada is just " now the question of the hour. Upon !it the people of Canada are greatly i divided, although there seems to be little doubt that both countries will adopt 'the I proposed treaty. This aims at ultimately establishing free trade for the ! [principal raw products and some of | the manufactures of each country. Behind the proposed reciprocity tariff mauy . Canadians have raised the bogey of _ I annexation, or. at least, of the merger „I of Canada into her greater neighbour. _\ I What both Canada and the States fear j} is. no trouble on the eastern, but on li the western, coast. There is a genuine and growing apprehension of trouble with Japan and China. There are already 140.000 Japanese and SO.OOI) Chinamen in the United Slates; and a very large number of both nationalities in Canada. THE CLOUD IN THE WEST. n ! "Are you aware that the States have, "* i partly by legislation, and partly by ° i treaty arrangement, shut out both II Chinese and Japanese immigration, but

with the growth of Japan's sea power, and with the possible combination of | China and Japan, there is in the minds of many of the leading men. both in Canada and America, a genuine apprehension of trouble from 'the East? It is r ' felt by many of the leading Americans n that, in view of this peril, it is in the 1 highest degree desirable that a British 0 dominion like that of Canada should be united with the States in strong pro tective action against this possible in- •" x i vasion. } A closer alliance between Canada and' ' the States in the proposed reciprocal j . j treaty would help to bring America and , n | England closer together. Canada — the ■ greatest daughter of the Empire—should i become the closer friend of America, i and so help to bring, perhaps, only in i the far future, the Great Western Eng-lish-speaking people into one union with ourselves, to secure the peace of the , world. t h ; CANADA'S OUTLOOK, ne | "The Canadian future is difficult to re I foretelL She has trodden in 'the footin- i steps of heT great neighbor— l . A con30* tinuoun and __nse vofnn_ of foreign pßunipatioaii _£-*r_otabi*i_to Canada*

No doubt a large factor of her present immigration is British, but the. foreign element is larger. Still Canada opens j her gates, even more widely than the | States to this element. Already in her I large cities a great foreign element is j found. In Winnipeg there are in one-1 quarter of this centre 40,000 foreigners, j and. as you are aware, the foreign clement ; in Montreal is larger still. It seemed to j mc that Canada, too, will one day have less Anglo-Saxon than foreign stock j within her borders. The ir_luence of, this stock upon Imperial solidity and loyalty may already be seen in the | French element of Canada to-day. I j have travelled Canada from east to west, and have stayed in various centres on two occasions since the Boer War, and one cannot help questioning whether the loyalty of Canada to the Motherland has the same strong, genuine spontaneousness which marks the loyalty of New i Zealand. The Canadians are proud of our Empire, and of their association with it, but they are certainly not British people in the full degree which ; New Zealanders are. So sagacious a man as Bryce, the British Ambassador, declares that within the limit of existing lives America may have three hundred millions of people, Canada may have one hundred million, and if the two nations, totalling four hundred million souls, stand together, with all tbe power their wealth, intelligence. and vigour imply, their ability to promote and secure some means of universal arbitration in place of war will be incalculable. One thing is clear that tho Americans are. and will be, wholly uu the side of peace. They hate the aggressive military spirit of the Germans, and believe that our empire stands for peace. But this is a long way from feeling inclined to join us in any struggle to maintain peace."