IMPERIALISM AND DISCRETION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 603, 3 September 1909, Page 4

IMPERIALISM AND DISCRETION.

B We have repeatedly insisted in these columns that discretion is a urtuc which cannot be ( too carefully attended to by thoso who express opinions on Imperial matters. Anyone who has followed at all closely tho career of the Tariff Reform movement in Great Britain will realise the truth of this statement The two great patties at Home are bitterly and incessantly m conflict; we do not think that party warfare in Britain has over been as fierce, or has been waged so mercilessly and unscrupulously on both sides, as tho case at present. The tariff issue, intioduced as a matter of Imperial concern, is the leading party issue at Home, and is therefore one to bo handled, very carefully indeed by the newspapers and public men of tho colonies. In the keenness of their zeal many of tho leaders of the movement haio made as much use as possible of the colonics, including New Zealand, as sticks with which to beat tho British Freetraders For years the Tariff Reformers have taunted their opponents with thoir indifference to what was 1 represented as tho unappca=ablo desire of the colonies that Britain should abandon 1 her present fiscal policy. We long ago'pointed out that one result of this policy would bo the creation of an anti-colonial spirit in the Freotrade ranks, and we were able soon afterwards to produce evidence of tho correctness of our,prediction. By his plain talk in his speech at Upper Hutt, forfiunateljy.Siß Joseph Ward dealt: a crushingly heavy blow atthis\ery dangerous talk about tho "colonial offer." The use which has been niade of the colonies, and of tho utterances of loyal colonial newspapers and politicians, has been made possible by tho want of cau/j tion'in much of the speaking and'writing upon Imperial topics in the overseas Empire, and especially m Auatialasia. ;In their anxiety to talk Imperially, our' newspapeis and public men have often: forgotten so to chooso their words as to avoid saying anything chat can be used bj any political party for party purposes.

■So.'much .introduction is necessary to pur notice of Me. . T. E. Taylor's vory proper •indignation, over this. fact that tho Lyttelton Harbour Board's .birthday greeting to-Mr. Chamberlain was acknowledged by. the Tariff Reform League,. Me. Taylor did.'not.object to the Board's message of congratulation. He was quite willing, as he. said, to join in sending good .wishes to .a ibrilliant statesman, but he .'resented; the fashion in which the Board was worked- for political : purposes. The Christchurch Press, .which has chosenlo champion the British Tariff. Reformers, has supported Me. Taylor in his protest. : Itseoms. to : us,, however,' that, tho \P,ress- ought to have known to what uses the congratulatory, (able messages sent to Mr.jChamberlain's birthday gathering; from this Dominion, most of which word carbfully arranged, would bo .put by the: political friends of Mr! Chamberlain. We -preferred to pay our 'tribute to Mr. Chamberlain in our own columns.. Any doubt--.wo may.have.had. as to our attitude, any suspicion that we had been ■ morbid in . our-, anxioty not ■'. to violate ■■' the, important ! rule _ that no colonial newspaper or public man .should run the risk' of ovon appearing to : lend support, to any party movement in Great Britain, was quite dispelled when; we received -the London newspapers of the date of Mr. .Chamberlain's birthday. The Times and: ;the Standard, the two leading advocates' pi. Tariff Eeform, madb no pretenco of regarding Mr. Chamberlain's birthday as anything but a Tariff Eef farm date, or the congratulations from oversea as anything but congratulations to the great protagonist of the Tariff Reform- movement. The' Times - nearly threequarters of a , column of well-deserved eulogy_without mentioning Tariff Reform, ; in : which referenco was made several ;times to "a germinal idea." Thus far even the stoutest Freetrader could agree ;with every .word of the--Times, article Suddenly, however, it appeared that "the.idea"- was Tariff Reform; and the Times concluded with a resonant dofiance of the "faction, envy, jealousy, dullness and othor unlovely things"- that had been "hard at work- decrying, defacing, arid caricaturing the idea" of "a rational reorganisation_ of-fiscal policy." The Standard's article Bimply omitted all mention of. any of the true motives inspiring the respect of the .colonics, for Mr. Chamberlain. It regarded his birthday only as a Tariff Reform festival. Mr. Austen Ohamberlain, : on • the evening of his fathor's birthday, attended a celebration of it at the.Hotcl Cecil, ind even lie appeared .to think that- it was "their cause," Tariff Rofbrra, which had inspired their countrymen: at Home "and across the seaa." As to whether' Tariff Reform along tho linos advocated by Mr. Chamberlain will bo good or bad for Britain, wo do not-feel called on to express an opinion—it would be quite out of place to say anything on the subject excepting that-we in New Zealand disapprove of any fiscal pressure being put upon Britain. Wo .should resent interference in ottr ionifijtic asri&i and we have no

right to -intcrfero in hers. The Harbour Board incident should do good. It may, induce our press and our public men to pay a little more attention to details, and to spend a little! more time in thought, before they commit themselves to speech or action even in what seem to bo tho safest of Imperial circumstances..'