SIZE OF OUR EMPIRE?

Evening Star, Issue 19722, 24 November 1927, Page 16

SIZE OF OUR EMPIRE?

HOW DEFERENCE HOOKS DISAGREE How large is the British .Empiref Seemingly even experts cannot agree, for it is rarely that two reference books give tho same area (says a writer in the ‘New York Times’). The problem does not .seem difficult to solve. Official figures exist for each part of tho Empire, arrived at, presumably, by careful geographical surveys. To add rip tho total area of the Empire, therefore, connotes no insuperable mathematical task, even for the arithmetically distrait. Yet the results arc never the same. Take tho area of the British Isles (excluding Ireland), lor example. Tho ‘Statesman’s War Book,’ which ought to know, gives it at 89,011 square miles.but ‘ Whitaker’^ Almanack,’ which may be splitting Lairs, insists it is six miles larger, and square miles ol land is worili a lot of money, even to careless cartographers. However, in this ease the ‘World Almanac ’ (without a k) corroborates the ‘ British Almanack’ (with a k). The case of India is far more serious. Tho ‘Statesman’s Year _ Book ’ puts the area ot British India provinces at 1,805,332 sepia re miles, an exactitude that is hacked hy tho ‘World Almanac.’ But ‘Whitaker’s Almanack,’ with magnificent largesse in a very rough guess, declares the area is 1,900,000 square miles—as if the odd 94,668 square miles were a mere drop in the bucket. That is the more remarkable in that the difference is larger than the British Isles, again omitting Ireland—another apparent example of British insularity. The formula for arriving at a precise estimate of the area of the entire Empire would appear to be as follows 'Take any British reference bonk, and. without bothering to cheek lists against each other compare figures with those given in the ‘ World Almanac. ’ If any set of figures agree—and figures sometimes do—it is obvious that there has been collusion, and that therefor© any other set of figures, chosen at random, is the more to be trusted. The divergence of estimates for the area of the whole British Empire is complete. Nobody knoiys bow largo it is. The ‘ London Times ’ Atlas proves by pretty multi-colored diagrams that its area is 13,730.000 square miles. The ‘Statesman’s Year Book’ puts it more moderately, and with seeming accuracy, at 13,355,426 - square miles (yards and feet omitted). ‘Whitaker’s Almanack ’ makes tho .sweeping assertion that it is 13,900,782 square miles large, and the ‘World Almanac,’ taking an independent stand, declares its area is 13,370,826 square miles. It is pointed out that unless better track of the Empire is kept, somebody may one dav steal a few thousand square miles and never bo caught.