OUR EMPIRE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 119, 22 May 1941, Page 16

OUR EMPIRE

NO "LONDON RULE" LOYALTY TO THE THRONE (0.C.) SAN FRANCISCO, May 10. Coming at a time when prominent personages of the United States have been industriously discussing "Union Now" with the British Empire, an article captioned, "The British Empire?" on the editorial page of the "Los Angeles Times." the leading i newspaper of the Pacific Coast, and : from the pen of Harry Bowling, has ! attracted nationwide attention. Mr. Bowling writes: "There is nc such thing as the British Empire in the sense in which that term was used during the last century. The Empire on which the 'sun never sets ceased to exist by Parliamentary decree in the year 1931. "Adolf Hitler, to excuse his aggres sions, declared it a 'gross injustice for a small nation of 45,000,00 C people to own a quarter of the earth. So it would be had it been Irue. But : it isn't. This small British nation today owns outright no plot of land [ but the soil of England, Scotland and : Wales and a corner in the north-east lof Ireland. In 1931. the Statute of J Westminster declared the independence of the Dominions. It said, 'No j law hereafter made by the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall extend to any of the Dominions as part of the law of that Dominion...' Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the South African Union comprise the larger part of this quarter of the earth which Hitler inferred John I Bull carried around in his ' vest | pocket. Independent Of London j "These four Dominions are as independent of London rule as the United States. They make their own laws a? to tariffs and immigration, decidc their own domestic and foreign policies, issue their own coinage, maintain their own military and naval forces and their peoples accept no Government except by their own i selected representatives. That they are allied with Britain in the present war is entirely by their own volition. , India's status is not so good, but even Slndia is not the victim of Imperialism it once was. Be it remembered that India is still a group of separate and antagonistic races for whom the total withdrawal of British Sovereignty would spell civil war and possible absorption by some lessdiscriminating power. And the islands and outposts of Empire, sc far as their native populations are concerned, are free to manage then local affairs. "Said Senator Clark recently: 'Be | tween German Nazi-ism and British : Imperialism there is little to choose. Senator Nye lately characterisec England as 'The despotic ruler ol almost half a billion people.' These must include Canadians, Australians and South Africans. Yet one hears nc complaint from them of any such des j potic rule. And they are fighting be cause they do see a vast difference between 'German Nazi-ism' anc 'British Imperialism.' "Americans, of course, are a liberty to form their own opinion; as to the rights and wrongs of th< present European conflict. But thej should not be misled by a distorted application of the word Imperialism Another Senator averred that he die not concur in 'allowing the British te enslave the people in their overseas possessions.' He should at leas allow these people to speak for them selves, and should declare specifically to what 'possessions' he referred. "One tie, it is true, still unites these free countries that were origin ally part of the British Empire, a ti< they could and would have broker before this had there been no differ ence between German Nazi-ism anc British Imperialism. That tie i; loyalty to the King in the person o that kindly, hard-working, faithfu servant of the nation, George VI There is indeed hope for the future of humanity in the fact that wha was once an 'Empire' founded or might and aggression is now a 'Com monwealth of Nations.' bound to gether only by friendship, under standing, common ideals and mutua helpfulness."