The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1911. THE KING'S INITIATIVE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1037, 28 January 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1911. THE KING'S INITIATIVE.

— 0— —~ It is natural to look upon the accession of a Sovereign as the beginning of a new era, and already King George V, by his own acts, has begun to justify such expectations. The announcements of the projected visits' of the King and Queen to Dublin and Edinburgh next July and to India at tho end of tho year seam to point to a time for the healing of discords and the closer drawing together of the different races and politics within the Empire in a common fealty. The functions at Edinburgh will perhaps be regarded as nothing more than the completion of a series of Coronation festivals in each of the three capitals of the United Kingdom, but the presence of their Majesties in Dublin will be hailed as full of significance. "George V, tho Hope of Ireland," was tho title of a remarkablearticlo which appeared under the signaturo of Mn. L. G. RedmondHoward, in tho New Age a couple of months ago. The writer, who 1 is the nephew and biographer of Mr. John Redmond, declares that "men aro tired of the racial strife, the hundred years' war of English politics," and there is "asplcnchd opening for an entente cordiale led by a diplomatist Sovereign." He notes the conciliatory attitude of Mr. William O'Brien and detects "signs of a coming peaco" in the utterances of Mr. John Redmond :

Tho great key to the Irish problem is the spirit ill which it 15 approached, and never more so than nt the present crisis was thoro need tor a "New Spirit." What is required, as Jfr. William O'Brien onco said, is a great press movement to inaugurate an entente and show by the mutual eo-operation of Nationalist and Unionist, that Homo Kulo will bring in a reign of real peace, and not a political fight. But in addition to that journalistic attempt, which a few influential newspapers could turn into n- reality, there is needed its personification in somo royal initiative. Move is wrought by politics than by force of arms, but uracil more- by diplomacy. Hence tho hopes placed in George V . . . Ono who has seen tho Empire, and knows tho loyalty of the great Homo Kulo Parliaments of tho great Commonwealth and the great Dominion, is the very man for the situation. The Irish nro instinctively loyal; but loyalty, liko love, takes two. If, however, it could be said of George V merely that lie had by bis lovo of Ireland brought back its loyalty, it might bo less grandiose than the titlo of "Peacemaker" conferred on his father, but it may be-confidently-slated that it would have conferred a greater boon to the En> pirn.,

Me. Redmond-Howard, of course, writes as a Home Ruler. It is to be devoutly hoped that his view of Nationalist sentiment and Irish sentiment in general is correct. Certainly, we can imagine nothing more effectual than a tactful royal .initiative for reducing party and racial animosities to those milder forms of political rivalry which arc the. life of representative government. And even though tho initiative may be strictly King George's own, it is pleasing to reflect that it will be thoroughly in accord with some of the warmest sympathies of his late father. Mn. • Redmond-Howard says that "Poor old Ireland!" was a phrase frequently on Kino Edward's lips.. Ho also repeats, but is unablo to verify a very interesting story that the lato King, when Prince of Wales, once declared "that if ever he should come to tho Throne, it, would be one of the. greatest ambitions of his reign not to leave behind him with tho Grown of England that inheritance, of Irish discontent which he hfw inherited from the misrule.of,'his ancestors, and which had been handed down as a kind of swc.rd of Damocles over the Empire, and that he thought such an amicable entente could bo secured by liome ljulv)." Mr. Redmond-How-Aiib'a informant, "a well-known To>y barrister of tho ;Middlo Temple," described this story as "common knowledge," but could not give particulars of place, time, and circumstance. It may safely be" accepted as confirmatory evidence of the late King's sympathies, if not as an indication of nis political views. "A plucky thing to do," was the comment of Prince Leopold of Battenberg- on the intended visit of the KiyG and Queen to India. The twient is well founded, for racial fueling in Ireland is as nothing to that bitter antagonism towards everything British which has manifested itself of late among large sections of the Hindu peoples. Such a friend of India as Professor E. A. Wodehouse, whose experience with the students at; the Dcccan College, Poonaj gave him exceptional opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of Indian feeling; -'declared --a•'-'■few-months ago that' undor -existing circumstances, optimism was truly difficult. Such deeds as the murder of Mr.. Jackson, of the Bombay Civil Service, an officer who was truly sympathetic towards the Indian pcop'le,' and who was liked by _ all who had dealings with him, indicated to observers liko Professor Wodehouse that all other considerations _ were being overwhelmed by antagonism of race. If tho growing class of official and unofficial Englishmen, of which Mr. Jackson was a representative— a class whoso ideals' for India are ordered progress and emancipation, increasing co-operation, mutual respect and goodwill—is to be rejected by the consciousness of India,-then—

Tho two races must drift farther and' further into antagonism, and the future of India is one to which -no man, who is temperamentally opposed to everything like racial feeling, and to a rcign.of force aud violence, call look forward without tho deepest apprehension.

Tho quotation is from an article in tho Nineteenth Century for last April. In words that are remarkably appropriate, not to say prophetic, when, considered in the light of the announcement of the forthcoming royal visit, - Professor Wodehouse .proceeds to ..examine the na : turo of tho facial-hatred and to suggest the means of removing it. He insists that the feeling is not natural to the Indian character, which is, really remarkable for its attitude. of racial tolerance. Englishmen; are, received in all-parts of: the country with friendly hospitality, and ready allowances are made for the fundamental differences of habit, temperament, and outlook on life. The opposite feoling ): so unhappily.-promin T ent of lato,.fie attributes largely,to, the inherent tendency of the Indian mind towards abstract, ideas. The (Englishman and; the power of Britain aro seen through the medium of the subtle and idealistic Hindu habits' of thought as abstractions, and so the idea of British rule and the idea of Indian autonomy have tha aspect of contrary aid' incompatible propositions.'

Bring the extremist writer and the official Englishman into personal contact, enable theni: to meet, substitute a human relationship for an abstract relationship, and if things nre at all normal, they will get on admirably together and possibly become the best friends., . : ■ unfortunately tho whole disposition of things on the other side—as they are in India to-day—is directly opposed to any such purely human dealings. So rapidly and lnesistibly has our system of government developed that" it'has absorbed and drawn up into itself all that warm and. vital humanity .which .belonged to an earlier condition of things. Wo have "corno to speak in abstractions—"the. Government thinks," "the Qovernor-in-Council is of opinion that," "the Decentralisation Commission holds that," and so forth. Even individual officers tend to become in some degree automatic, reflecting the views or the poliby of the impersonal mechanism to which they belong.

Clearly the remedy to which these considerations point'is personal contact. "A wave of purely human friendliness and confidence," passing through the country might "wash away most of those acrimonies and fears and suspicions which have gone so far to produce a strained and unhealthy atmosphere." Professor Wodehouse even questions whother the thousand practical benefits which British rule has conferred upon India have not been almost neutralised by the negation of the purely human element, the starving of the Indian soul.

The very impersonality of our regime in India has given to the latter a coldness, si hardness, and an impassivity which, in themselves, and quite apart from any special causes or grievances, would be enough to render it unpalatable to a people who, from timo immemorial, have always looked upon tho bond between ruler and ruled as an intensely personal bond.

The significance of these words is all the greater for tho circumstance that at the time when they were written, King Edward was still living, and there appeared to be no prospect of so great and unprccedentccl an event as the visit of a reigning British Emperor of India, to that country. Yet it may be safely said that none knew better than the late King how much good might result I'rom such a step as his son has decided to take. King Edavard's own tour of India,, as Prince of Wales, in 1875, followed upon a period of unrest and disaffection in that country, and produced just such results in affection and loyalty as it is hoped will be the accompaniment of the Coronation visit of King George and Queen Mary. The Prince's progress in Upper India, as recalled by that well-known Indian journalist, Mn. S. M. Mitra in the December issuo of the Nineteenth Century, had "a wonderful effect in the provinces which, not many years before, had been the arena of_ mutiny and. massacre." . Concerning a single graceful and sympathetic .action of the Prince in another part of the country, the same writer says that all Hindu India echoed with his

than the special train which carried him, and reached villages and out-of-the-way places where no newspapers circulated." A Prince could do much, but a King, with his Queen beside him, should bo able to do much more, for the Hindus regard Kings and their power with a veneration which AVesfcern minds can hardly realise. With King George and Queen Mary on Indian soil and amid such splendour as only India 'knows, placing the Imperial Crowns on their own heads, their subjects in that land will feel that the seemingly cold and impassive system of government has a living soul. If King George is about to open, for different portions of his Empire, a new and better era, he will still be carrying forward the work and fulfilling the aspirations of his honoured predecessor.