True Bond of Empire

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7211, 18 July 1933, Page 6

True Bond of Empire

“The true bond of Empire is the spiritual bond,” said Mr. John Buchan, M.P., the Lord High Commissioner, at a Church of Scotland meeting. “Its cohesion is in its ideals and not in its form of government. It means that over a large part of the earth’s surface racial and national limitations have been transcended. It is an instalment of the old dream of the brotherhood of man. It means that one great part of the globe at least is marked out where there can be no war. It is not a proud, racial aristocracy to dominate the world; it is an alliance based partly on a oemmon ancestry and common memories, but far more deeply upon a common creed, a common civilisation and a common faith. Its name of Empire has been often taken in vain. Many false and vainglorious words have been spoken about it, and too often it has been conceived in the terms of a shallow materialism. But that is not the true Empire. The true Empire is a spiritual thing based essentially upon Christian ideals. There is no parallel in history to our vast assemblage of scattered peoples, linked together by a faith and a purpose asking no tribute to each other, but ready, as the war showed, _ to enter on behalf of its sane and honest ideals into a common sacrifice. It is a union in far more than the functions of government.”-