The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The echo. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1924. A LABOUR NATIONALIST.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 6

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

SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1924. A LABOUR NATIONALIST.

For the cause ihat lacks assistant*. For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

At a time when internationalism is so frequently lauded as the gospel of salvation for the world it is gratifying to find an eloquent plea for nationalism put forward by the British Labour Premier. Speaking this week at a Labour women's demonstration at the Albert Hall, the Prime Minister declared himself "a convinced and unbending Nationalist." He thought it would be a very bad day for the world if the diversities of humanity created by so many variations of race, creed, and clime became "sandpapered into one feature." Twice previously, since he became Prime Minister, Mr. Mac Donald has spoken publicly on the same subject with fervour and remarkable felicity of expression. Speaking at a St. Patrick's Day dinner in London a few weeks ago, Mr. Mac Donald dwelt on the difference between small peoples and large empires, arguing that while grandeur might be associated with the idea of empire, one's country alone could inspire affection, love, tradition, and kinship. In another address on the same subject he contrasted with shrewd humour and tender sentiment the awe and reverence which an Empire inspired with the more homely feelings excited by one's country. An Empire, he said, was not cuddlesome. You did not feel inclined to take it for a stroll in the gloaming. In a passage which recalls Matthew Arnold's lines on Oxford as tbe "home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties," the Premier said: "Those of us who were born and brought up in the midst of a small people; those who, from the very first dawning intelligence, were taught to look up to heroes who fought losing battles, to men who upheld the banner of the soul in the teeth of tbe whole world, to struggles that in a worldly sense did not avail; those of us so born and brought up thank God, with all the reverence that is in us, that such was our happy destiny—thank God that such was our good fortune." Such is the creed of a man who leads a party that includes fervent internationalists. Ho tries to distinguish between aggressive and non-aggressive nationalism. His ideal is a nationalism that is "not aggression, but self-respect"; therefore, he says. Labour's foreign policy is to bring about a great peace union. But where does self-respect begin and end? Mr. Mac Donald opposed Britain's entry into the war for the succour of France and Belgium, to say nothing of England's own safety. Would England have preserved lier self-respect if she had stood aside? We cannot help wondering whether Mr. Mac Donald would have taken the same line if he had been Prime Minister in August, 1914; and, if he had, how long he would have been able to hold to it. Nationalism has two faces—that which it turns inward upon itself, and that which it turns to the world. There are those who argue that it has been one of the curses of mankind, and tliey point to-day to Europe, still rent by international hatred and suspicion, still harbouring a desire to extend national boundaries and oppress foreign communities. To admit, however, that the abuse of nationalism is a vice is not to condemn all nationalism. Much of the finest patriotism. has been shown' by the small peoples of the world. And from small nations lias proceeded most of the true culture of the world. To attempt to eradicate nationalism is both perilous and futile. The denationalised man may be as harmful! as the nationalist jingo. What the world needs is better nationalism. "A good world means a world of good men and women. A good international world means a world of nations living at their best."; Our own Empire in large part supplies the answer to this momentous problem. With varied traditions, memories, and history, we yet unite in a common aim and ideal. When it comes to be generally realised that nationalism means not aggression, but self-respect, we may find tbe spirit of co-operation, which has made our Empire, extending to make a wider Empire of the nations of the world.