EUROPE'S TROUBLE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3133, 4 September 1922, Page 7

EUROPE'S TROUBLE.

MAZZINI AS A PROPHET. There was a "Mazzini" celebration lately by the London branch of the Lega Italiana, an association which has as its object the . co-ordination of Italian efforts both in Italy and abroad. In many respects it was a noteworthy reunion of the leaders of the Italian eoloncy in London, and of many British friends of Italy. Mr Lloyd George made one of his remarkably appropriate speeches. He said that in his early days he-, like all other young men of that time, especially those of the Gaelic nationality in tins country, was a great reader of Mazzini, and the ideas which Mazzini imbued him with in his earlier yearswere those leading ideas which Signor Schanzer and he did their best to carry out at the Genoa Conference. "When you are hustled by remorseless events there is very little time to do justice to a great theme like that of Mazzini." "Mazzini was one of the greatest men of Italy, and when one remembers that Italy has produced some of the greatest figures in the history of the world, to say that a man was one of the greatest in the world. I agree with what has been said as to his power, his dominance in the generation in which he lived; but the greatest influence which he has had, or, at any rate, the results of his teaching, are more manifest to-day than they were even in his own day. As a matter of fact I doubt whether any man of his generation has exercised so profound an influence upon the destines of Europe. He lias rewritten, he has reconstructed the map of Europe. The map of Europe as we see it to-day map of Joseph Mazzini. He was tIW prophet of free nationality, but a free nationality based on right, based on duty; above all the rights and duties of individuals, the rights and duties of races, the rights, the duties, and ideals of humanity. The liberation movements of the last eighty years throughout Europe were inspired by his fervent teaching. You will find in every land where there was a great national struggle for freedom that the young men, more particularly those who took an active part in the promotion of those movements, used the writing of Mazzini as their text book and their New Testament. They carried those books with them, they read them, they re-read them, they quoted them; and you will 'find, that the thrill that came from the words of Mazzini was what gave nerve and power to the men who had been struggling for centuries for the emancipation of suppressed nationalities of Europe. "Mazzini said! in on© of his books that we were on the threshold of a great age, the age of the people. His doctrines, his ideals, hie appeals, his example fired the hearts and led the peoples across that threshold into the new age. Italy has crossed it. The oppressed races of Austria and of Russia—aaid, let me frankly admit, Ireland also —have gained by the doctrines of Joseph Mazzini. The inspiration of the men of Young Ireland came largely from the teachings of Joseph Mazzini. Thomas T>avis and the rest were readers of his works. Naiwleon — Mazzini lived to see the last of his conquests disappear; the glittering imperiall fabric reared by Bismarck is humblbd in the dust; but the dreams of thie young man who came over as an exile to England, and who lived in poverty here for years/ dependent upon the charity of his friends—the dreams of this young mam have now become startling realities throughout the whole Continent. As a man of action he was not comparable to Garibaldi or to Cavour, but it was his teaching that made action possible for Garibaldi and Cavour. He said once, 'we will preach the word that will create armies.' He taught faith,- principle, duty—these were his great word's, and there are no more potent words m any language; and, here, after he has been lying fifty years in the soil of the land lie loved so well, the land he did so much to redeem, fifty years after his death we have found in the reconstruction of Europe the great principles of Mazzini—the emancipation of races upon the basis of freedom converted into' a treaty and into action. "Whether the age is a great one or not, as he predicted, will depend entirely upon the measure in which the precepts of Mazzini are followed. He taught not merely the rights of nations but the rights of other nations —not only the right of your own nation to he free, but the right of the next nation to be free. You arc to win honor, power, and independence for your own land; but you are to respect the rights, freedom, honor, and independence of the oilier land as well. Whether this age is the Golden Age which Mazzini predicted depends entirely on to what extent we have learned that other half of the lesson. He was a religious teacher. His principles were the principles of Christianity, and if humanity is to enjoy freedom it can only do so by loving its neighbor as itself. He could tolerate no mean hatreds. He did not believe in building nations 11)1011 the ruins of another nation. He believed in the individual liberty and the justice of the ideals of other nations. It was an age of fierce hatreds. Are we to say that this is not an age of fierce hatreds!-' But there was no doubt that his was an age of pitiless, remorseless hatreds. There was the hatred of Austria —with, good reason —the hatred of Russia, the hatred of Prussia, in many quarters the hatred of France as she then was, the hatred of aristocracy, the hatred of monarchy, the hatred of the rich, and personal hatreds. The world was full of hatreds, and Mazzini said, 'You can build nothing that lasts upon hate.' Hate, he said, will destroy ultimately the very thing that you love. You hate that because you love this, and yoji destroy this because you hate that. Mazzini said: 'I want free nations, 1 want a Europe of free nations; but [ do not want a Europe of free nations hating each other. I want, a Europe of free nations that would be a brotherhood of people.' .Mazzini is the father of the idea of the League of Nations. His writings are full of it. Free nations we have got. Poland is free, the Balkan nations are free, Yugo-Slavia is free, Ireland is free if she wishes it and if she proves that she is fitted tor it. They are all free. But that, is not the end of the teaching of Mazzini. and now more than ever it is worth 'reminding the world of the whole of his teaching. There is a real peri! that nations, having won freedom for themselves. should indulge in suspicions, dislikes, detestations, and greed and hatred towards each other. Believe me, standing on the watch-tower as I have done for five or six years, I say now solemnly that if that goes on the freedom will be torn from them in some tumult which will be brought upon Europe by themselves. Oh! how right he is! Read him, read him again! f read him while I was young. "1 had no idea how topical he was, how up-to-date he was. Joseph Mazzini. dead fifty years, and lying in Italian soil, has written for this hour, and has written for this phase. He has said, 'The morrow of the victory has more perils than its eve.' The day after the victory is more dangerous than the day before it. How true ! The day after victory is full of perils. It is the spirit of remorseless pride. It is a danger,

is no greater menace to the life and * liberty of nations than racial hatred against and between nations. That great idea of the brotherhood of nations is what I hope will save the world from a repetition of the results of the great Napoleonic wars." There are men who blame Mazzini for the present condition of things, Mr Lloyd George went on. He is not responsible for the frenzied nationalism which is the peril of'the day. He never taught that. His career was the embodiment and the symbol of the good feeling and good understanding that e>ist between the British and Italians at the moment. He called this his seoond country. "England," he wrote, "became to me almost as a second country, in which I found lasting affection in life embittered by delusions and devoid of all joy." Here he found refuge, protection, support, encouragement, and friendship; and I am glad to find that some of the kinsmen of those with whom he was associated are here on the platform. There is *no greater heirloom for them than to pass on from generation to generation the memory that they sheltered one of the greatest men that Europe has ever produced.