TO SAVE THE EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 89, 15 April 1922, Page 5

TO SAVE THE EMPIRE.

THREATENED RUIN OF BRITAIN. TEE PARALLEL WITH ROME. (By J. :__>_*___ KELLY.) ' 1 "Is our Empire to last! Is our race to persist?" These are momentous and 5 pressing questions. Sir Robert Stout, the esteemed Chief Justice of New Zealand, whose weighty utterances are always deserving of close attention, " dealt with them in the course of an • T i address delivered before the Rotary 3 | Club in "Wellington, ami reported in the r i"Star" of Satl.Tday, March 25. It is i c with some diffidence that 1 venture to | " disagree with a deep reader and thinker such as Sir Robert undoubtedly us; but r it seems to mc that his parallelism be- " twee n Britain/ and Rome is incomplete, " iand his conclusions are therefore to some c • extent erroneous. With a view, per- - -Slaps, to making bis remarks more ime I pressive, be appears to have confined 8 himself to one or two aspects of Rome's % decadence, and 'by so doing he exaggor- '- ated tbe danger that threatens Britain. " I hope to show that tihere are good reaa sons for taking a more optimistic oute j look. y j According to Sir Robert, the demands -" !of the Roman colonies for "separation f j and self-determination" marked the be- "■ ginning of the downfall of Rome. The h causes of Rome's decay had much -1 deeper roots, and were at work cent-Ties * . »>efore the disintegration begun to be '" -visible. Among these causes were: (1) The _ loss of religious faith; the old gods were T | in disrepute and were openly scoti'ed at. '" '"Where there is no vision the people ' perish." (2) Large estates. (3) Waste,

luxury, idleness and vice among those who were leaders of the people. (4) The valour of ignorance and self-suffi-ciency: a false sense of superiority and seewity. W : hile these were the failings of those in place and power, the masses were at the opposite extreme of hopeless poverty, and their cry for | "bread and circuses" showed how low they had sunk. But the greatest cause 'of decadence was the admixture of inferior blood, .brought about by the wholesale importation of conquered coloured people, who were enslaved and made panderers to the vices of the wealthy. Many of these slaves gained their freedom and intermarried with the Romans. The loss of the Roman colonies was the re- ! suit, rather than the cause of these j symptoms of decadence. Now, it is undoubted that many of the causes that led to degeneracy and decay in Rome have been at work in Britain. There h_s been a decline of ; religious faith among all classes. Large 'estates have been a curse, though that !curse is now in process of being lifted. I The ruling classes have been too com- ! placent and secure in their sense of national security, and largely ignorant !of the affairs of Empire outside the ] narrow bounds of their island home. There has been too free admixture of inferior blood; but happily this has not gone far enough to 'be beyond repair. There has been too much luxury, waste, j and display on the one hand, and too ' much poverty, destitution, and pauper- I ! ism on the other. Government unem- j | ployment doles, and the craze of tlie people for "movie shows" have brought ; us to the. bread-and-circuseg stage. And now "we have movements for separation and self-determination at -work in Ireland and in the great dependency of India and the protectorate of Egypt. It seems to be a most complete parallel, and there are some grounds for pessimism regarding the fate of the British Empire. There are, however, points of dissimi--1 parity between Rome and Britain which 'Igive strong hope for the permanence of " ; our Empire. British colonies are widely

•different from those of ancient Rome. India, Egypt, and some of the Crown colonies may. however, be taken as forming a kind of parallel to the of Rome, but with this difference —they are sources of expense and anxiety to the f British Government. They are, how- i ever, mines of wealth to British traders and manufacturers, and therefore, like the Roman colonies, they add | to the wealth and luxury of the ruling | class, and tend to produce decadence, i i The real British colonies, now called | | dominions, are in a totally different j • category. They are elements of I strength in the Empire. Their people i are more intensely loyal than the British at Home. It would indeed be lan omen of disaster if they were demanding separation; but of that there | is no danger. They have all the liberty . and self-government they desire. While . they remain as at present the Empire , is safe. s To talk of "losing' Egypt and India is a misuse of terms. They are j burdens to Britain, and will drag the Empire down unless their people are I completely cut off from Britah citizenship, and thus prevented from "sub- ' merging" the British. ! , Sir Robert Stout is on absolutely solid ' ground when he comes to details of bow 'to save Britain from decadence: his ' only faults are he does not go far ' enough and he fails to note the dangers I that threaten from inferior blood. Every

thinking person must agree that "industry, thrift, intellect, and efficiency" will prove the salvation of Britain and of the British people; but, in order to ensure a continuance of these qualities, there must be a firm determination to preserve the purity of the Anglo-Saxon race. If our racial standard is deterioI rated, nothing will save Britain from I the fate of llonw. Hut, if the AngloI Saxon-Celtic type that the centuries have evolved is preserved and improved, the permanence of the British Empire will be placed beyond all doubt. To put it tersely and in the form of a reply to the two questions quoted in the opening sentences of this article: "If our race persists, the Empire will endure!"