BRITISH EXAMPLE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21744, 28 March 1936, Page 17

BRITISH EXAMPLE

Empire as World Model

Magna Britannia. By J. Coalman. Jonathan Cape. 348 pp, :(10s 6d net);

[Reviewed by ANTOINETTE POCOCK]

From the welter of schemes produced in these days to deal with the apparently insoluble problems of political and economic world affairs, no greater service can be done mankind than to raise the question to that of a great ideal, without removing it from the sphere of the practical. Many of the writings of the last two decades have failed in this respect. They have failed, furthermore, by being purely rational, their writers having ignored the human side of the matter. Great issues can only be solved by great solutions; these must include not merely economic or political but all aspects of human life. “Magna Britannia” is the work of a noble mind. Throughout the many-sided and practical difficulties, discussed with sincerity and expert knowledge, runs an assured hope that a happy solution can be attained. The foundation of the new gospel is to be had in the will to co-operate which exists in the British Commonwealth of Nations to-day. “The destiny of the British Empire is that it shall become a living working model of the world Commonwealth of the future ” The world consists of a collection of states and empires which are in riecessary relation with each other and which, in spite of all attempts to the contrary, cannot be exclusive. Hence the creation of a general will to co-operate is the only way to world order. This fundamental atti-. tude is opposed by inherited traditions, jealousies, and “rion-national-istic, atavistic elements of races other than our own.” Thus many generations must come and go be-% fore this ideal will be attained, if it ever Is, but it is the only road $o ultimate salvation because it is the only natural one, a fact that cannot be too forcibly stressed. The British Commonwealth of Nations has already started on this journey. Its essential character to-day is “the maintenance and strengthening of a common outlook on life, a common set of spiritual values, and the growth of a common ideal of what constitutes the ‘good life' among the peoples of the British Empire.” This is no cleverly disguised form of jingoistic Imperialists It is not an imposition of the views and policy of the United Kingdom. In its last analysis it is a moral conception and “ensures conditions in which all the peoples of the Empire can contribute according to their quality and capacity to the intellectual and spiritual life of tlae whole society.” The genuine purpose of the corporate, totalitarian, and communistic forms qf government is not denied; Mr Coatman contends that they fall short of the British theory of government because it allows for greater room for individual liberty and is the only form which has democracy as a vital doctrine, a force which he says “will be kept there alive to revitalise other bodies when the occasion to do so arises—as it assuredly will.”

maintains that a quite wrong estimate of the value of the Ottawa Conference has been held. In view of recent statements it is of additional interest to note that Mr Coatman not only urges the increased powers of High Commissioners but also urges the setting up of an Imperial Secretariat, appointed by the Imperial Conference, to deal with day-to-day matters. He discusses such problems as defence, appeal, and treaties. With regard to foreign policy, his words, in consideration of immediate events, are significant, “the dominant factor of CommonwC&lth foreign policy is the maintenance and promotion of peace.” A great portion of the book is of necessity given up to discussion of economic affairs. He assorts that tariff systems must be so devised as to do nothing to reduce the trade of the .world, not only of the Empire; that within the Commonwealth there must be reciprocally preferential trade? He strongly supports the Public Utility Corporations, of which, it seems, there are none at present in New Zealand. In them he sees the combination of public arid private interests and the cessation of ruinous reduplication of means of production.

Migration, moreover, can no longer be left to haphazard methods, private enterprise, or individual choice. As we financed the emigration of millions of our best subjects,tolAmerica; in the nineteenth century, so we can finance the economic and social development # of emigrants to the British Dominions in the twentieth century, if we will. The most important aspect of the whole question, perhaps, in the author’s view, is the intellectual cooperation within the Empire. The does not exist for interimperial economic reasons, but for a far greater purpose. What we need is a philosophy of the British Commonwealth which will be "valid and satisfactory,” first for itself, and eventually for the world. To secure this aim a School of Imperial Relations should exist in London which students from all Dominions could join, and they in their turn should be the means of filling chairs in the universities of each of the major Dominions; each Dominion should be responsible for one particular branch ,of study; complete libraries, in rio way short of any in England, should be. procurable and even photographs of rare documents; exchange of teachers is earnestly recommended. Thus would it be possible to secure “homogeneity of culture and sentiment.”

This ideal concerns not only the Dominions but the whole depend*' ent Empire. India, with which- Mr Coatman is particularly cognisant, is not only well on the way to Dominion status but the desire for it, he says, is much greater than 20 years ago. Other dependent members are “all. standing at different stages of the same journey.” They are all being trained with the ultimate aim of Dominion status in view and yet it is being made possible for them to arrive there along their own lines. British people have foresworn their old ideas, and regard the development of these dependencies as a great trusteeship.

The putting into practice of this ideal is worked out in detail in every sphere of life. He never forgets the real meanihg of the terms he uses. For him the British Empire “stands for 500,000,000 people with their hopes and fears and conditions of all sorts.” While not denying the great urgency of constant adjustment and solution of the pressing economic troubles of * the day, they are nevertheless secondary to the political aspect, and, in fact, entirely dependent on it. Great emphasis is laid on the importance of the Imperial Conferences. He

The fulfilment of this ideal* is a great call to the younger generation. There is no over-bearing, land-grabbing selfishness in this conception of the moral purpose of the Commonwealth, but rather an appeal to all that is ’noble arid unique in the British race. “It is a great co-operative adventure and its success will be in peril if any stand outside it.”