The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1919. THE CANT OF IMPERIALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 254, 25 October 1919, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1919. THE CANT OF IMPERIALISM.

For the cause that lacks matiatonee. For the wrong that need* resistance, For the- future in the distance. And the good that we .wn do.

The other flay a chance word from General yon der Goltz, the German who has been trying to nudo the work of j the Peace Conference in Poland and Lithuania, threw an interesting sidelight j upon the nature of British Imperial policy as conceived by its enemies. I .According to yon der Goltz the people of Russia ought to see in Britain their most dangerous foe, and should be prepared to welcome the Germans as ! protectors lest Britain should seize the | chance afforded by Russia's helplessness to establish herself o« the Baltic coast and annex the disputed territories. It! may well be doubted if yon der Goltz j rcully takes his own argument seriously, j ; But tho habit of assuming that Britain j is an aggressive Powc_>, and that her j Empire has been extended all over the I world by a shrewd combination of "treachery and violence," is, unfortu-! nately, not confined to our political' enemies. Many men and women of j British descent make a practice of' speaking 'contemptuously and disparagingly of what they choose to term' "Imperialism," and persistently suggest or assert that Britain has enlarged her borders and extended her authority by just the same inequitable and tyrannical methods .as her worst enemies have employed. This is what we mean when we speak of the "cant of Imperialism." For in our opinion no rational view of the British Empire, the policy that has produced it, or the circumstances and character of its evolution, could possibly , justify such a conclusion; in fact, it: seem, to us nothing can possibly explain what we may term the pacifist j attitude toward British Imperialism but' complete and- child-like ignorance of the important facts conoerning the growth and establishment of the Empire as it exists to-day. No doubt some of the most absurd delusions that exist in certain quarters in regard to those matters have sprung from' the persistent use of the term Empire' For the word itself almost of necessity suggeets armed conquest, and the estab-j .-■sh-ient of authority enforced upon, unwilling subjects. In that case the', most obvious comment upon the phrase "British Empire" is that it :e an entire' misnomer, and that we ought to substitute, .or it some such title a,s "the .British Commonwealth." For the Commonwealth portion of our Empire is merely "an alliance of free nations"—that and nothing more. -To get at the truth we must, not be content with "qu'eat'onbegging epithets," but go to the source and origin of the system we are discussing. And we find . on appealing to history that- the distinctive charac-teri_-i- of all the great colonies and Dominipns which made up the British Empire is that from their earliest- in ; fancy they have always been allowed the right of local or. national self-govern-ment. This fact accounts for the remarkable phenomenon which has so bewildered and misled the Germans—tho willingness of the colonies to remain attached to the Empire and their devoted loyalty to the Motherland. If space permitted we might easily . build up an impregnab'y strong case for British Imperialism by recounting the history of South Africa, and the development of the Union out of the chaos into which the country was plunged by the' ! conflict between Britain and Boer. But it may be argued that while the rights' and liberties of the self-governing Dominions are now secured, Britain's record in regard to dependencies on a' lower plnne of civilisation needs 6ome apology or defence. But wo are quito prepared to meet the critics of British Imperialism on ground of their, own] choosing. Let us consider India, from; time immemorial a land of strife and tyranny and anarchj-. To India, saysi a recent historian, "the 'British rule hae 1 brought three inestimable boons: A firmly organised political unity; the impartial administration of a just and 1 equal system of law based on a codiflca-l tion of modern usages; and the mainten-] ance of a long unbroken peace." And in return for all this, "India contributes! not a penny to the upkeep of the British fleet that guards her shores. She is ai self-dependent State, all of whose re-' sources are expended on the development of her own property, and expended with the most scrupulous honesty and economy." The vulgar fable that Britain "bleeds" her colonies to promote her. own selfish ends is as .palpably untrue in India as it is in Egypt, or as it was in the Transvaal. And if we turn from ,the6e half-developed States to the vast areas inhabited by still more primitive peoples, : where the only source of power, the only fount of justice, the only 'bulwark of, freedom is British rule, we see that Britain alone of all the Powers has endeavoured to set up for the subject races a standard of right comparable with her own, and she alone has thrown open to all the rest of the jvorld the commercial and material advantages which her dominating position in these undeveloped regions has conferred upon her. Taking all these facts into account we maintain that those who denounce British Imperialism a_ if it meant nothng but tho suppression of freedom and the forcible, assertion of irresponsible authority, simply m'alke a public exhibition of their own ignorance and folly. It is no exagger*-

tion to say with Professor Ramsay Muir that, to 'Britain, the Empire is "a trust to be administered in the interests of the subjects primarily and secondarily in tho interests of the whole civilised 'world." -Jo man ot woman of British blood need ever feel, that British Imperialism requires defence or apology; for, in spite of errors and defect- in details, it marks the highest point yet attained by the human race in its progress towards the still distant g-oal of ideal justice and liberty and peace*