NAVAL DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE. THE ATTITUDE OF THE COLONIES.

Evening Post, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 8 March 1905, Page 3

NAVAL DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE. THE ATTITUDE OF THE COLONIES.

WHAT SHOULD THKY CONTRIBUTE? [BY TELRORArir — OWN COHRESPONDICNT.] LONDON, 161 h December. Thoso who are can j ing on a desperate propaganda in the direolion of extracting larger co'onial contributions towards Imperial navnl defence nro not slackening in their efforts. Last Saturday afternoon a largo nnd intlucntial deputation, organised by the Imperial Federation (Defence) Committco, waited on Mr. Balfour at tho Foreign Oflico to urge upon tho Government t>ho desirableness of inviting the self-governing colonies to tnko a larger share of the growing burden of Imperial defence. Sir Michael Uicks-Bcach introduced the deputation, nnd ho and Admiral Sir John (.'olomb were among tho principal speakeis. They followed tho usual lines of complaint at tho small contributions made by the colonies towards tho coat of Imperial defence, tho customary assertions that Hie taxpayers of the Mother Country had to support a vast navy whoso raison d'etre was in a large degree tho defence of the British colonies and their trtido. Tha Prime Minister, in tho course of his reply, said : ''Wo ought not merely to do a sum totalling up tho commerce, of this country nnd of her colonies, comparing their population with our population, comparing thoir trndo with our tvmle, their wealth with our wealth, and then, by a simple sum in arithmetic, showing how far short in the goneinl burden for naval purposes is tho portion borno by them jn comparison with that population, with that commerce and that wealth. You have to consider things not merely as thoy nro in December, 1904 ; you have to consider the growth and the tendency of things. And I would venture to say on bchnlf of the colonies, who have not been attacked by either of tho speakers to-day, that wo havo to boar in mind thnt they aro our children. We hnvo treated them as our children, we havo to consider them ns our children. IVom us they lind their birth, nnd over thoir earliest, most helpless years wo have watched wi'h maternal cue, and have taken — nnd rightly, I think, taken— upon us tbo -whole duty of defending their growth (luring their earlier stages. But that growtii hns gone on and is going on npiioo. Thoso who were our children are gradually becoming our equals ; and no doubt that process carries with it in Imperial life, as it carries with it in domestic life, an a necessary and inevitable incident, that, the children ns they grow up fehnll aid their parents, itnd ahull boar a lnrger and larger share of the common duties of the family nnd the common support of tho household. But it must bo a gradual process, it must be a slow process. Tt is not a process which we can unduly press upon them. It is, ns in the case of children and their parents, n condition of things of which they themselves will moro and moro become sensible, and they themselves will moro and moro fool that they »ro required, by tho very nature of Iho tie which binds w> together and by their growing importanco in tho toheino of the Empire, to' bear more and more of its burdens." Touching also on the quest ion of a Colonial Conference, which Mr. Bnlfour snid " I greatly desire should be called in order freely to discuss affair's common lo every part of our common Empire," the Prime Minister Went on to remark : " Though the question of closer commercial union with tho cqlonies, and though tho discussion of 'tho possibility of devising nn arrangement for closer commtrciul union with tho colonies, may bo tho occasion for tho summoning of the conference, it is impossiblo, and it would be improper, that nny such conference should bo. confined to that, or bo prevented from discussing nnything connected with the closer union of tliu Mmpiie. Such restriction would violate the fundamental condition for the RiicueMi of such a conference, which, is that the conference should bo perfectly unhampered and unfettered. But if the conference is to meet thus unhampered nnd unfettered to discuss nny of the questions which havo been touched upon to-day, or tho other questions to which 1 have distantly referred, I earnestly trust that tho temper in which it will meet will not bo how much can each fragment of tho fimpire got out of the other fragments of the Empire, but rather how much can each fragment of the Empire givo to tho common whole." In the courso of a talk on this subject which I had to-day with the Agentlicneia.l for Now Zealand, Mr. Reeves expressed tho opinion that the agitators in this direction were proceeding on totally mistaken linen, and with a singular lack of judgment nnd discretion. " They could not possibly have chosen a more unsnittable time tjian tho present for bringing forward such a proposal," ho snid, " That alone would prove fatal to it. But apart from that, Admiral Colomb nnd those who nre moving in the matter do not seem nt all to liavis grasped or mastered tho salient facts upon which the whole case must bo based. Some of thorn seriously talk ns if they expected the colonies to contribute at tho same rates as the Mother Country, proportionately to population. No ideiv could well be moro absurd. In the first place, such an ni'rangrmcnt would involve a demand being made on New Zealand for something like a million nnd a half. This in so preposterous that I need hardly sny it would never be seriously entertnined for a moment by tho colony. On the samo basis, .Australia would havo to furnish some live millions, Canada seven millions or moro. Tho notion is pro- ' nosterous, and it is founded On a second fallacy, t,ho misconception that anything liko a proportionate part of tho Mother Conutry'ft naval expetulituro is required or employed for the protection of tho colonies tlieinselves. No, the chiof function of tJio British navy is to protect British maritime trade- to nnd from the colonies, a very different mntter. Then, again, up to the present timo do specific proptfsnl hns emanated from this side. These propagandists will never say distinctly what they think each colony should contribute — for I cannot, of course, regard tho ridiculous population suggestion as one mado seriously or expected io bo taken aorioHsly, Mr. Baifour's brother was speaking to me about tho matter a day or two ngo, and a«kcd my opinion, which I gave him plainly. f said: 'If Admiral Colomb wero given tho opportunity of putting his views into force, and if ho really attempted to do so, no British Empire at nil would remain nt tho end of five years;' of that," concluded Mr.' Reeves, " I am fifmly convinced."