TELEGRAMS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 June 1911, Page 7

TELEGRAMS.

YOUNG NATIONS. «**- THEIR POWER AND PERIL, THE HON DR. FINDLAY’S IMPRESSIONS, A VIVID LETTER,. [by telegraph— special to the star.] WELLINGTON, This Day, The Hon Dr Findlay, AttorlleyGeneral and Minister of Justice, who is accompanying the Prime Minister dii liis English visit, was able to renew his acquaintance with Canada and the States during the journey to England, and he has given the benefit of his im. pressions to his colleague (the Hon. George Fowlds). From this exceedingly interesting letter we have been able to make extracts which deal vividly with subjects of world-wide importance. ‘•THE TOWER OF BABEL,” “You will observe that we are crossing the Atlantic in the R.M.S. Lusitania, thirty-two thousand tons register, and something over ' sixtyeight thousand horse-power,” writes Dr Findlay. ‘‘What strikes me most is the strange congeries of nationalities on board. There seem to be about a dozen foreign tongues Spoken almost as much as one’s own. These people, however, but merely represent modern America. Forty-nine different tongues a-- ryov; "'ken in New York. America st 1 a'c " ts whatever likes to come so long as it has a few dollars in its pocket and cannot be regarded as physically or mentally defective. The influx still goes on and .the best estimates made by experts looking into the future make it clear within forty years more than seventy-five per cent of the whole population of the United : States will be either foreign born or of foreign extraction. Of course it is ’impossible to predict what effect this is going to have in producing a new type, but that it must profoundly modify the Anglo-Saxon type is perfectly clear. It has. as I have observed, already done so.” THE TIES OF KINSHIP. “Its chief significance for us is that it impairs that racial sympathy with tire Anglo-Saxon nation which we are disposed to attribute in too great a degree to America to-day. One of the questions which every Britis subject feels to be a vital one is what is the national attitude (as regards friendliness of America of our Empire. No question is harder to answer and on some of my visits to the United States, when I have met members and descendants of old families like the late H. D. Lloyd, I have been disposed to think that there was a living and spontaneous friendliness on the part of the American people for those of our nation.

SENTIMENT TOWARDS BRITAIN. “It is the view of the better class that is most frequently expressed in the leading journals, but the true measure of a nation’s feelings on such a matter as this, is not what the best class think but what is the regard of the bulk of the people, the general attitude of the man t in the street. Now it cannot for a moment be denied that the feelings of America have grown more friendly towards us. When I recall the bitterness I saw there eighteen years ago, there was abundant room for some such change, but I am satisfied that we in New’ Zealand overestimate the friendliness of the great bulk of the American people towards the Empire. We think too much of the fact that the two naions speak the same tongue. We talk loosely of their inheriting the same traditions, overlooking the fact that a considerable majdriy of the whole population throughout the country and a very large majority in all the centres, have not our traditions, either from their language nr their history, but on the contrary have to a large extent inherited national dislikes and racial antipathies to the British nation. “HAS TWELVE O’CLOCK STRUCK ?” Of course it is impossible to deny, even in this year of the Christian era, that national hatred throughout world is commoner than national affection, and national jealousy commoner than either. America’s regard for us has improved largely because her jealousy has declined. She lias already twice the population of the United Kingdom and she has outsripped ns in many directions in which we deemed ourselves matchless. Everywhere one hears in the United States a self-complacent tone of pitying superiority towards ourMotherland. I was told by several shrew'd men, who are more than usually frierdlv to our Empire, that the British had struck their ‘twelve o’clock,” and that America must soon leave her far in the rear as a progressive and manufacturing nation. THE RECIPROCITY TREATY.” “You will remember that reciprocity between the States ami Canada is just now the question of the hour. Upon it the people of Canada are greatly divided, although there seems to be little doubt that both countries will adopt the proposed treaty. This aims at •ultimately establishing free trade for the principal raw' products and some of the manufactures of each country. Behind the proposed reciprocity tariff a.nd annexation or at least of the merging of Canada into her greater neighbour which both Canada and the States fear—is not trouble on the Eas. tern but on th eWestern Coast. There is genuine and growing appreciation, of trouble with Japan and China. There' are already one hundred and forty thousand .Japanese and eighty thousand Chinamen in the. States and a very large number ot both nationalities in Canada. THE CLOUD IN THE WEST. You are aware that the States have, partly by legislation and partly by treaty arrangement, shut out both Chinese and Japanese immigration, but with the growth‘of Japan’s sea power and with the possible combination of China, and Japan, there is in the minds of many (, f the leading men, both in Canada and America, a general impression of trouble from the East. It is felt by many of the loading Americans that in view of the peril it is in the highest degree desirable that a. British Dominion like that of Canada, should be united with the States in strong protective action against this possible- invasion. A closer . alliance between Canada and the States in the proposed reciprocal treaty would, he maintained, help to bring together Canada, the greatest daughter of the Empire, should she become the closer friend of America and so help to bring, perhaps only in the far future, the great Western English speaking peoples into one union with ourselves to secure the peace of the world. CANADA’S OUTLOOK. “The Canadian future is difficult to foretell. She has trodden in the footsteps of her great neighbour. A continuous and immense volume of foreign immigration is now pouring into Canada. No doubt a large factor of her present immigration is British but the foreign element is larger still. Canada opens her gates ever more widely than the States to this element. Alroalv in her large cities a great foreign element is found. In Winnipeg there is in one quarter of this centre forty thousand foreigners, and as you are aware the foreign element in Montreal is larger still. It seems to me that. Canada too will one day and that not a very distant one, have less Anglo-

Saxon than foreign stock within her borders. The influence of this stock upon Imperial solidarity and loyalty may already be seen in the French -ele. meat of Canada. To-day I have travelled Canada from East to West and have stayed in various centres on two occasions since the Boer War, and one cannot help questioning whether the loyalty of Canada to the Motherland has the same strong genuine spontaneousuess which marks the loyalty of New Zealand. The Canadians are proud of our Empire and of their association with it, but they are certainly not British people in the full degree to which New Zealanders are. So sagacious a man as the Hon Mr Bryce, the British Ambassador declares that within the limit of existing lives America may have three hundred million of people, Canada may have one hundred million, and if the two nations, totalling four hundred million souls, stand together with all the power their wealth intelligence and vigor and apply their ability to promote and secure some means of universal arbitration in place of war will bo incalculable. One thing is clear, that the Americans are and will be wholly on the side of peace. They have the aggressive military spirit of the Germans and believe that our Empire stands for peace, but this is a long way from feeling inclined to join us in peace.”