"EMPIRE DAY."

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 123, 25 May 1908, Page 6

" EMPIRE DAY."

The memory of the great Queen whose birthday was celebrated for more than sixty years on the twenty-fourth of May is already becoming shadowy in the minds of the younger folk, though the holiday now bids fair to be of permanent observance. The popularity of her late Majesty was of so intimate and personal a nature that it is in some respects to be regretted that the original , intention of associating the imperial holiday with her name was overruled. "'Empire Day" is susceptible of as many interpretations and modes of observance as there are variations in the ideals of empire ; but "we are gratified to note that while the anniversary this year has been more widely observed than ever, tho celebration seems to be becoming more spontaneous, and, generally speaking, in closer accord with, the national spirit and traditions. The less the official and artificial element enters into a popular celebration the better. Patriotism is so deeply engrained in the nature of the Briton that he accepts the quality as a matter of course, and is a little surprised when he finds it lacking. It' is to him so natural, and at the same time so sacred, that to parade the sentiment he regards not only as superfluous but a little indelicate. He is not given to unlocking the secret cabinets of his soul to inquisitive eyes, and he is inclined to suspect that sentiments ostentatiously paraded are superficial, if not actually spurious. He is i \ orse from that kind of pageantry and effusive symbolism which is quite consistent with the decay or entire absence of the realities it is supposed to represent. • It is the more gratifying, therefore, to note year by year the sober and dignified tone of the speeches of British statesmen, whose weighty responsibilities and wide outlook induce a mental attitude far remote from that of the popular music-hall, where a "jingo" chorus is always certain of applause. The "saluting of the flag" by public scholars, a ceremonial borrowed from the United States, is liable to misapprehension and abuse, especially in its easy association with the spirit of militarism. National vanity, like personal, needs no encouragement, and it is quite possible for eel f -conceit — especially one's own~to be mistaken for patriotism. Never, perhaps, did national self-con-sciousness in Britain become more inflated than on the occasion of the naval display which marked the "diamond jubilee" celebration in 1897, when the vainglorious attitude of press and platform alike provoked the dignified protest of tho "Recessional." Subsequent humiliations in South Africa were instrumental in bringing about a more chastened spirit. It is a very practical as well as typical national proverb that sets forth the superiority of "Holdfast" to "Brag." What we have here to guard against, especially in public school celebrations, is the exaltation of external ceremony— the substitution of the form for the reality. It would be too much to expect that "Empire Day" should pass unmarked by occasional vainglorious boasting and other displays of bad taste ; but it is well to know that responsible men and leaders of thought i realise the real significance of the occasion and its true lessons, as bo well set forth by the Earl of Meath—-"Re-sponsibility, duty, sympathy, and selfsacrifice."