Evening Post.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 117, 18 May 1907, Page 4

Evening Post.

SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1907. "TWENTY DAYS TO ENGLAND." <8« Sii Joseph Ward has no occasion to complain of the reception which ban beon givon to his proposal for a twenty days' servico by means of an '^AllBed " routo from Groat Britain to Now Zealand. In affirming " that it fs advisablo that Britain bo connected v/ilh Australia and Now Zealand ,by tho best sorvico available within reasonable cost," tlic conferonco has, 01 courso, committed itself to nothing, and tho Morning Post complains that, notwithstanding tho sympathetic language of tho British Government, " the words of tho resolution, within ror.sonable cost,' offer a loopholo for Ministerial oscapo from practical action." Tho Morning Post is doing tx valuable service for tho Empire by its constant advocacy of colonial claims, but it is Buroly led astray by its detdro to have a slap at a Radical and Freetrado Government -when it makes ihis ' complaint. It would have been propojtorous folly on tho part of either Uim British Government or tho conference to commit themsclvos at a few hours' notice to a scheme of such enormous magnitudo without providing a loopholo of the amplest dimensions. It was stated bj Sir Wilfrid Laurier that " tho mattor was not for experts, but a question of i policy," but it is really both. Experts ] must determine the cost before the question of policy can bo discussed in all its bearings, and even some of the issues of policy involved are of a kind to require tho assistance of experts for their elucidation. " The All-British route via Canada and Australia is," says Tho limes, '_'a subject demanding expert examination, but the plan ought uo-o 10 be adopted or rejected on mcro considerations of profit and loss. In certain c. Jngenoies tho routo might be of strategic importance." This aspect ol the case is emphatically one for the exports of the General Staff, and conceivably, in view of British interests in the Pacific and the Far East, the vordict might bo so favourablo as to make considerations of pecuniary profit and loss as irrelevant as it would be to ask of an ironclad whether it could bo made to j pay. But it does not appear -likely that i the military verdict will bo decisive onough to play a very large part in determining tho question. 'Ihore are, however, very ttroug 10acons of a purely peaceful character against allowing the matter to bo settled on tho direct commercial basis of profit and loss. Everything that can bo done to facilitate communical ion between tho various parts of tho Empne tends to promote the chances of maintaining its unity on a stable baeis. Matthew Arnold opoaks of "the unplumb'd, suit, estranging sea," in his List epithet echoing tho Roman poet to whom tho ocean, which in those days was merely the Mediterranean, was a ban for interposed by the decree of Providence for the aeparation of mankind, and only crossed by tho im« piety which induced them to build ehlps. | In those days, when the task of even tho boldest mariner was almost entirely confined to footing his way from headland to headland within a land-locked sea, Britain -was about as far from Rome as nlio now it from New Zealand, and this side of tho world was as far from tho dominion and thoughts of the then rulers of mankind ao the remotest of tho planets. Centuries hsd to pass before the Antipodes could be conceived ; centuries moro before they could be discovered ; and now that they hay» be«n ducorered and 0010. niifid, it ia the task of modem •uteaijske

day by day to bring them cloeer and closer to the Old World. Every Step in the process diminishes the estranging quality of the sea, and bringa the dream of an "Imperial unity firmly based on the ab&oluts freedom and mutual understanding of all the parts, nearer and nearer to lealisation. Many of those who came lo the colony fifty years ago, or even less., would have been 1 glad of a- guarantee that the journey would not tako moro than twenty tVeekS, and did not take the trouble of arranging r cablo code ■« ith their friends before tluy started. Mow wo have our Premier in London urging that tlia journey should be reduced to twenty days, and not satisfied that what London thinks to-day New Zealand can know to-morrow, and vice versa, at the cofct cf 3s a word, he is insisting that tho privilego fill o aid bo mado easier and cheaper still. In London the leading organ of British opinion, The Times, has gone even further than Sir Jbseph Ward in suggesting that for pi'ess messages the cablo rates might ba reduced to a nominal figure, if not to zero, and it gives a sympathetic backing to his advocacy of an noceleratod raail and passenger service. " Our oxp3i'iehce," saya Tho limes, "and nlso that of _ Italy and Uermany, 6hows that few things contribute moro powerfully and directly to consolidating a national sentiment than easy and constant communication ; and it is this broad consideration that must influence us against a too narrowly commercial view. A quick and regular servico is a thing worth having and paying handsomely for ; and if it is to fly tho British flag all the way, ifc is worth still more. But having secured those essentials, ib saems to us far from certain that a difference of four or five days is quite as vital a matter as Sir Joseph Ward is representing it to be. "It is not worth while," he says, "to ya/ a high subsidy for a twenty-four or iiWen-ty-six day service." It may not ba worth £100,000, but we cannot sao that i f would not be worth a large sum. There is not the same inducement *or great speed on tha Pacific, because there will not bo a host of competitors as on tho other ocean, and there s Mnai prospect of making it a great tiadA route. It is tho extra knots tint run away with tho money, and the orosiJeut of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce hocms to us to talk very sensibly wh-vi he urges that something" far short 'of Sn Joseph Ward's ideal of twenty five knots? would be well worth having, tho colony will be in a, better position tc judgo when tha estimates are forthcoming, and in the meantime it is und'jr a great obligation to tho Premier for ilio stimulus givon to tho question by I. is sanguine advocacy.