MOULDING THE EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 126, 28 May 1917, Page 7

MOULDING THE EMPIRE.

jBEEDOM TX UNITY. rtVnm Our Sped—l Correspondent.^ LONDON. March __. ..on is seething with schemes for _f__ioning this Empire of ours, which. Topsv --_rowe4," how and why , ami '« n tcil P rccisel . v - More Br >- '.,-,__ it is a work of slow evolution i development. But liere and now we -.-fronted by a moment fraught -i life or death to the greatest Empire world has seen. Not that such downit fate one way or other is imminent. - of us living will know truly which ,v the verdict will tend, lie:— it is that the meeting whicli -cembled yesterday at which Mr. and' Sir Joseph Ward were pre*_is one at which all the world will in d. future look back with—thanksgiving - regret! i B ___ the many marshalling, of facts .} .trans of schemes and policies, one ,itie most interesting is that issued by !-.. "Manchester Guardian." to whi?h Jr. UoyJ George writes foreword >_ded "Freedom in Unity.'' The Prime jjjist.r says: 'So_ie are more anxious HOtrt the unity; others, particularly rj_T colonial statesmen, about the free_S_ .• • '^ c older Empire." he ssiid, •.aintiined a unity which paid little -rjrd to the rights of ncwly-.von lands. u_ in consequence risk.d and often exdisruption. The real founders _ oar Imperial unity were those who ".ached freedom first. For eighty years .. have been on the whole steadily ados—off in the direction of aug_leuti—g ..liberty and the responsibility of the Tv_ni_ions, and it. is essentially out of t_ liberty that the sentiment of unity _i! grown. It is because we nave not ta„ them that they tax themselves for ■_. It is because we demand neither men ur— oney as of right that they send us r_i and money as a gift. Assert the r_.t, and the gift may be withdrawn. lipose a unity and you will almost of [«c__ity everywhere build up a party of i.tcnomy which will also tend to be a mrtT of separation. The new nations of iu.-—ja, Xew Zealand, and Canada tare their own typ<_ of civilisation and _[_Jb of society and government. Tbcy its far more democratic than the Mother I it—try. and they fear—or large partit-s ii—in them fear—the imposition of oldTork! ideals, the structure of capit.lUt Sti-ty. the old landordis—l, tbe new _i_tari-ni. They want freedom for denicpaient. .A? long as this can be enured within the Imperial pale they arc nY. content."

Further, he added: "If each part of tie Empire is to preserve its political • to-omy. that must, in the future as in lie past, carry with it fiscal autonomy." So much for the general, what for the ftrticular line of development? As to rie machinery of it. the schemes range item the elaborate and bureaucratic to lII q more than a mild extension of the ttesent regime, and that under stress of tir may be all that can be a;!i ; _ved. Hi 'Times" to-day says of the lirperi.il War Conference that it is plainly pro-t-ional.

"Too important thins; i = that the first Hep has been taken towards an Imperii.! E-ttßtive. That executive is for ihe

m«_e_t charged primarily with the contat oi the war. and. as we Mope, with th: preparations for peace. T:io permanent Imperial Executive must obviously incitide. in addition, of course to th. Frdpra] Prime Minister, the S"»crotarie. of State for Foreign Affairs, for India, for tbe Colonies, for War. and the First lxrd of the Admiralty, a Federal Minis-t-T of Finance, and possibly two or three other Ministers dealing with Imperial crei—eree. communications, and so forth.''

This raises the question, to what is 15. new Imperial Executive responsible? Does not the creation of an Imperial Executive involve, if not now, ultimately. J legislature to which it is responsible Ihe "Times" considers such a scheme intra ctieabie.

One of tho detailed schemes which has mured the most widespread attention, uj also the commondation of publicists here —more especially of Sir -lames Bryce, The. as the author of the 'Holy Roman _I'pire" and "The American Contmonvcaltli." know, more about those sub;*rts than any man living—is that proposed by Mr. Herbert Samuel, writt -n tiEcc his retirement from Cabinet otlice. Mr. Samuel's proposition is a Ministry Of about twelve persons and a council of tome seventy delegates from tho Dominions and the Mother Country. Their power? should be those not of compulsive legislation. but oi discussion >_d recommendation, recommendations addressed to the several kgislatures of the Empire, which w~e should be aoked to consider wi if approved, to enact by law.

Io return to the conference now sitting. Lord Cur-on has set. clearly forth fiat they have not come "to construct a tand. new Constitution for tho British Empire. . . but the capacity in which fie.v come does constitute a remarkable Hep forward in the constitutional evolution of the Empire. They are not com,n . as members of an Imperial Confer--0« of the old style. They am coming l * members for the time being of the foverning body of the British Empire, tt e greatest step, he said, ever taken in Uprising the relations of the Dominions and ourselves on the basis of equality." '

It cannot be gainsaid that the vice s t merely of the Motiier Country, but ■ tile Dominions also, has been to be too self-centred. The " What do ther **W of England who only England WOW" personality has its counterpart « the overseas man who thinks, and WnJ-i _I 1 t_ e time, of his own place as rt o 6 own co__trv. And who can blame 6 «er? Our p__t is to help towards the *wer vision, the war helping us. -md as most important, while war Mill with us, comes a realisation that Wages of frontiers, however remote, £»<* tc the confines of the world. Pub- * opinion must inform itself the world " Ve r so that action by leaders of democracies may be implemented by the f»Ple behind' them. in this cense the week which has seen ■» assembling of the Imperial Conferee coinciding with that of the bloodft. I^ 0 ' 111 ' 011 "» Russia, seems to bear c highest hopes for democratic rule. c Bußsian alliance has now lost its P« drawback. As a democratic te ~° n of nations "- as Mr. Massey haa B-_!l ° ar Em P ir, *—we have always re--J «*d that Kussi a _-i ri jt s autocracy - rijt., OUr . Ally- But now. is hp u , a ? out nations, allied and i«U » 'i 1D " R " l,ich where monarchy- ex'ion«l 1S ° f that liT,Li ted and eonstituHivin '"w ' n whicl ' the idea nf the The i " ? . of kin K a is dea d as the dodo. [ ore S* r,al Conference meete, there•liat i a * >ettPr assurance than ever * ach^ 8 sela iU hands to d ° *«« tr. Ji, oTer seas with the Home county tat th ' nk about f 01 " 0 '? 71 affairs. *ai__ v ° Uiy ont> P° mt in handling bC, ** w Zealand has already lost and money. Suppose Germany

had been able to uphold Turkish power, we shtould have had what Britain has never yet had with a European power, a land frontier. And there lies the most striking point of difference between the problem Britain has hitherto faced and what the Empire must new be—no longer a power in which naval defence alone requires consideration. This will have its effect on the Suez Canal question. It is much too vital an artery of commerce to serve as a frontier.

A writer on the subject suggests that one means for reducing the military burden which must now be faced is "to call into existence new nations who will have a patriotic devotion to their soil, and will defend it, not as subject-, but with, the valour of free people, and in time become a source of strength to the country to which they owe their new existence."

And what about neutrals? There one faces a whole phalanx of bristling questions. When will the submarine trouble be countered effectively? But this much may be said, that it would be reasonable to ask that neutral States should commit themselves in advance to precautions against the violation of their neutrality by an unscrupulous belligerent in war-time, for it is not fair that the whole burden of maintainin" neutral rights as well as his own should be thrown on the belligerent who is defending aeceptcl national law. It is most important that opinion in the Dominions on such questions as these should begin to form itself, for *-hey have an even more direct interest in the maintenance of sea communications than Great Britain herself.

And momentarily we may see the last and greatest of the neutrals »word in hand into the fighting Tine 1 \\ith America ranging herself wholeheartedly with us the question of the Pacific may yet see itself solved in a maimer befitting that ocean's name For it the Great Lakes of America can be by agreement exempt from war-like operations cannot the powers who have made-and kepO-tbe agreement do the like with its widespreading waters'When one thinks of the immense strengthening of the cause of democracy which the events of the past week have shown, one is tempted almost to believe -that Great Britain and her Allies will themselves be able to propound-and enforce—measures which will ma ke a Fax Britannicum world wide.