SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1897. COLONIALS IN LONDON.

Hastings Standard, Issue 340, 5 June 1897, Page 2

SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1897. COLONIALS IN LONDON.

The Colonials who are just now visiting London in an official capacity in connection with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations will have nothing to complain about in the matter of their treatment. British statesmen and from Royalty downwards appear to be vieing with each other to recognise the colonials. The Premiers as representatives of their respective colonies are now being received in a right royal manner, and the hospitality and recognition is suspiciously flavored with flunkyism. Surely it is superlative nonsense to confer the L.L.13. degree on the colonial Premiers as is proposed by Cambridge University ? However, the Premiers are the guests of the British nation in their capital city, and it is natural that there should be an overflow of hospitality. But those who look beyond the surface of incidents see in the extraordinary enthusiasm of Englishmen for their colonies the inspiring sentiment which will presently take concrete form in cementing in a broad imperialism the Mother Country with her self-governing colonies. The imperial spark has been carefully fanned until to-day it is a consuming flame. In England and the colonies the leading men, by their many platform speeches, highly tinctured with imperialist sentiments, have brought the question of Empire well to the front. In England particularly the politicians have worked long and patiently to teach the people Imperialism and the Empire. The honor and homage that is now being lavished upon the colonial Premiers manifests a great change in British opinion of colonial possessions. Until comparatively recent date the shadow of the disastrous American War of Independence was upon British politicians of all shades of opinion, by whom the colonies w r ere belittled and contemned. In their infancy they were said to be a burden, and when they arrived at maturity they cut themselves free from the parent State. It is to this sentiment that the polonies ol Australasia* chiefly

owe their acquired right of self-govern-ment. The notion was current that Imperial responsibility would diminish, and it was anticipated that self-govern-ment would be merely the transition state between subserviency and complete independence. Mr Gladstone has been a firm believer in the inutility of holding possessions beyond the sea ; and Lord Beaconsfield described the colonies as a millstone round the neck of England. Selfgovernment, instead of leading to independence, has proved to be the best for colonial growth, and with their growth the hazy notions entertained regarding the colonies have disappeared. To-day the British people are proud of the great communities which have grown up under the shadow of the Union Jack in Africa, America, and Australia, and the colonial Premiers are being made the butt of British pride. The undisguised envy with which the British Colonial Empire has been regarded by foreign nations, and the frantic efforts made by France and Germany to found colonies of their own, has no doubt intensified the kindly feeling of the British for their colonial possessions. Little Englanders, like Mr Labouchere, who were at one time listened to by the masses, are now ridiculed. It may be said that the Diamond Jubilee has fitted in very conveniently with the growth of the new colonial sentiment. In 1887 this sentiment existed in a mild form, but the Jubilee celebrations of that year gave an impetus to the imperial sentiments, and the Imperial Institute is substantial evidence. It is no doubt safe to predict that this year, and this month, will see some strong developments of that sentiment, which cannot be but for the good of the British nation.