EMPIRE BROTHERHOOD

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 306, 22 September 1934, Page 8

EMPIRE BROTHERHOOD

Sentiment a Vitalising Impetus

WORK OF OVERSEAS LEAGUE

“This league is based on sentiment, the ideal of Empire brotherhood. Don’t let us decry sentiment. All great causes, all noble ideals and aspirations have sentiment as their mainspring, their vitalising impetus,” said his Excellency the Governor-General. Lord Bledisloe, at a social gathering Of the Wellington branch of the Oveaseas League, which was held at the Hotel St. George last evening.

“In every normal British heart sen-, tiinent holds sway, however matter of fact, phlegmatic or dour its possessor may appear,” he continued. “Its most serious handicaps are selfishness and the fear of ridicule. We, as a race, have fortunately a sense of humour and no one is well qualified to enter public life without it. But, conversely, we are inclined to be a little too sensitive to ridicule and to allow it to shrivel up our most wholesome sentiments. i •

“The sentiment of Empire with all its implications is entirely wholesome and praiseworthy. Let us rally round the Union Jack, but let us not be content with merely waving It, leaving others to keep it flying at the masthead. The. crying need of the Empire to-day is genuine and, unshakeable fraternity, founded upon mutual knowledge, trustfulness and the deep consciousness of identity of interest, material and spiritual. 1 It Is well perhaps that economic problems should at times evoke discussion within the family circle of the British Empire, for they tend to put to the test the genuineness and stability of our Empire faith,the validity of the gospel of our Imperial partnership. Empire Brotherhood. “Empire brotherhood is not inconsistent with a sense of separate nation hood or national patriotism. Indeed, it cannot be vigorously promoted and cemented, unless it be the outcome of consentient national fraternity and well-founded pride within our separate national boundaries, just as a noble structure of architectural splendour has no real stability if the columns which support it are inherently defective or uncohesive. “The responsibility which rests today upon the whole Anglo-Saxon race —and especially upon the peoples of the British Empire—is enormous and our strength, could we but realise it, is at least .equivalent to our responsibility —the strength, as it were, of a great mountain peak made of solid granite rising above the mists of uncertainty and bewilderment. Our strength is indeed incalculable and, with all the little points of difference between us, we belong, so to speak, to the same great mountain range. Just because our Empire stands so high in the councils of the nations the golden impact of the spirit of love ought to reach us first, adding a new and tender beauty without taking from us any of our strength, just as at dawn the touch of the sunlight reaches the highest mountain peaks before it touches the human habitations in the valleys below. Spirit of Love Hidden. “At present envy, fear and hate are forming heavy clouds which hide from our sight the spirit of love, but let us remember that it is there all the time and that the clouds cannot last for ever. We can ourselves help to .dissipate them by radiating disinterested human sympathy buttressed by the consciousness of our power and the lofty Ideals of our race. I have borrowed this charming simile of mountain sunshine and shadow from Mr. F. Lushington’s delightful booklet on ‘Modern Problems.’

“Hospitality is a prominent feature of the beneficent activities of this league. Its necessity will tend to increase with the .ever-increasing intercommunicability of Empire nations and the facility of transport of their peoples. But physical hospitality will need to be supplemented ever more and more by the hospitality and entertainment of each other’s ideas, ideals and reasonable ambitions if the sense of Imperial brotherhood is to ■be firmly established with a view to the permanent integrity of the Empire and the lasting betterment of mankind.”