IMPERIALISM AND LIBERTY.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1904, Page 4

IMPERIALISM AND LIBERTY.

The Primroses League, which was founded in honour ot Lord Bcaconsfield, and has been presided over in turn by his two Conservative, successors in tho Premiership, is by far tho most popular of all the Conservative organisations in the United Kingdom ; and as during tho greater part of its existence it has had a Premier for its Grand Master, its annual demonstration has commonly been mado tho occasion for an authoritative declaration of policy. But, though Mr. Balfoiir was present at the League's do- | monstration in tho Albert Hall on the' 6th uIL, and spoke with more than his usual vigour, ho had very httlo of a novel or positive character \to submit. I Jle indulged in a somewhat laboured defence of the Government's inaction with regard to Macedonia, and while not repeating the gross indiscretion which last year was almost a» helpful to the Sultan a« the Kaisers friendship, ho still olaimed credit for the refusal of tho Government "to allow themselves to be made the carspaw of revolutionary intrigue." In emphasising tho valuo of the AngloFrench agreement, tho British Prime Minister wns on much snfer ground. It is quite possible, as Lord Rosebery has contended, that Franco has gained directly more than wo havo by the arrangement, but it does not follow that the gain of Great Britain is not enormous, too, A compromise of this kind, whereby long-Htanding feuds nro set at rest, and tho possibility of future misunderstandings precluded or minimised, cannot bo gauged by the nico calculations of le.«« or more which are applicable to the ordinary international game of grab. France may have gainod more in Morocco than wo havo gained in Egypt, but we should nevertheless be tho poorer if tho agreement wero cancelled, and a Government which has been blundering disastrously in so many other respects is entitled to full credit for this ono conspicuous success. The general verdict on Lord Lausdowne's diplomacy will bo in accordance with tho generous admission of a distinguished political opponent. "If ho failed as a Minister of War," writes Sir Wemyss Reid, "he has been happily successful Ss a Minister of Peace." For tho remainder of his speech Mr. Balfour was for tho most part on tho defensive. Paraphrasing somewhat flatly tho celebrated phrase of the statesman from whose favourite flower the Primrobo League takes its name, he declared that tho League existed to maintain " the principles of Imperialism and liberty." Beacon&field's " Imperium ct Liber Us " certainly had a crisper ilavour, and though ho, too, was a statesman with a /past, there was nothing in his immediate pai-t lo givo the oljvious lie to his piofesibion and impart an ironical ring to his rhetoric, as thore is in the ease, of Mr. Balfour. What a sorry farce it is that a Government which hns gone into bondage to tho foreign syndicates of the Transvaal, has erected the Chinese compouud as its emblem of liborty, and has made the onco honoured name of Imperialism a hissing and a reproach, should still make a parade of Imperialism and liborty as its guiding principles. Mr. Balfour had tho effrontery to attack the Opposition as the real anti-Imperialists in tho matter, and to suggest thai their condemnation of Lord Milnor's Chinese policy implied a hostility to tho colonies which ho governs, and a denial that " British traditions, British love of liborty, British hatred of outrage and cruelly , British love of freedom " meant as much to colonists as to dwellers in the Old Country. The audacity of this lino of argument is sublime. It is just because Briiish colonists may be expected to tako a more oxacting view of British tiaditions, British liberty, and British honour than the cosmopolitan capitalists of the Rnnd that those some coloni&ts alo not allowed to vote j and tho party which insists on their right to vote is accused, not by a buffoon or a lunatic, but by the British Prime Minister, of "pionouncing a verdict hostile to our

fellow countrymen in South Africa." It is difficult indeed to take such ttuff seriously, and quilo impossible to treat it with respect. Tho Spectator, which upon this question, an upon the fiscal question, has risen superior lo paity ties, deals admirably with Mr. Bnlfour's arguments in an article from which we tako tho following : — 'To prate about Imperialism and then to defy tho public opinion of the Empire almost on the first occasion when it becomes articulate is a strange wiiy of uniting the Empire. Thero aro many things in the attitude of the Liberal Party towards tho Empire which wo cordially dislike and mean to oppose to tho uttermost, but common honesty forces Ub to protest against the present Government taunting thoir opponents vith disregarding tho feelings of the colonies. Australia and New Zealand through their Ministers, and Canada through its organs of public opinion, implored tho Government to wajt till the grant of selfgovornment beforo the question of the introduction of the indentured Chinamnn int) South Africa was fii'tlly decided. The&e expressions of Imperial opinion were, however, dismissed with complete indifferenoo, if not, indeed, with contempt. Yet now Mr. Balfour has the hardihood to call all who will nob agrea with him in disregarding tho wishes of tho Empire bad Imperialists!" The popular judgment which writes Mr. Balfour as a weak and halting philosopher certainly needs revision after this delightful display. It is clear that when Mr. Chamberlain left the Cabinet ho did not tako its whole stock of courage and assurance with him. When tho Spectator adds that "the free nations of tho Empire arc beginning to tiro of Mr. Balfour's claim to a monopoly of Imperial patriotism for himself and his colleagues," it understates the truth. "The free nations of the Empire" are already thoroughly Bick and tired, of the khaki Imperialism which is turning tho Transvaal yellow, and thay are quit© satisfied that no other possible Cabinet can possibly do worse. They see with regret that tho ohances of an immediate change do not seem so bright af» they did throe or four months ago. Mr. Balfour's recovery from his illness nnd Chamberlain's slackening in his fiscal campaign havo done much to strengthen tho Government since then ; and the Budget and (he Licensing Bill, from which danger was expected, havo also helped them, at any rate in the Houso of Commons. It seems quite possible now that they may last tho year out, but even Mr. Chamberlain, does not expect, them to survive the general election which he evidently anticipates to tako place early next year. And if his expectations aro realised tho verdict of "the freo nations of the Empire" on Mr. Balfour's Ministry will be that tho Empire is veil rid of it.