THE BRITISH WAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19412, 21 August 1926, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE BRITISH WAY.

OPINIONS OF SANDY. BY KOTABE. I found Sandy still eager to talk about nationalism. He has noted with growing uneasiness the tendency to stress the evils of nationalism and to ignore its value in the past and the contributions it can still make to human happiness and prosperity. ''l can't see where this modern craze is going to land us," he said, walking vigorously back and forward across the room. "I read this big man, a recognised authority on modern history. All he can suggest is that the Great War was the outcome of conflicting nationalisms. Patriotism was at the root of the whole business, and the hope for the world, the only hope, is the destruction of the patriotism that has hitherto been regarded as the chief of the virtues.

"That seems to me unmitigated bosh. Nationalism we know. It is as universal as the social instinct, the urge in man that has set the solitary in families and built every city's walls. It has made possible most of human progress so far. It has grouped the population of the world into defined areas; and each area has had the chance of intensive circulation within the national boundaries. What one group has won in the quest of truth and beauty has immediately become available for all the rest that were able to understand and make use of it. Because the barriers were there on the frontiers the conditions were created in which the genius of each nation could express itself. Yes, nationalism we know; its good works we know, if we have the courage to admit them; its evil consequences are being harped upon ad nauseam. Sentiment. " But internationalism, the sentimental abrogation of the individual national claims in the interests of an illusory international whole, is a mere phantasy, no more real than Thomas More's Utopia or Samuel Butler's Erewhon. An interesting theme for speculation, perhaps; but it must bo kept to the debating society. For there, and not in the world of practical politics, is where, it belongs. As I see it, nationalism, like all other . things human, is a -compound of gopd and evil, with the good preponderating, the evil not an essential part of it, but capable of gradual elimination as we get further on the road. The fundamental impulses working at the basis of human character have produced nationalism as inevitably as the • meadow throws tho violet up and paints it blue. The instinctive grouping of men everywhere into nations shows that the impulse is universal, natural, irresistible. According to the laws of growth this impulse has worked potently in men's hearts all through the centuries, becoming the guarantee of security and progress, working out constantly into new forms, sometimes becoming crude and unlovely, but for the most part becoming the lavish giver of' gifts to the nation and to the world. " And there are millions in the world to-day ~that in their impatience to reach their ideals of internationalism would throw down all the past has won, and fit the vigorous, growing life of man into a complete structure of their own cause life is growth. The wax is poured into a mould and takes its shape by impression from without. The tree assumes its form through the operation of externa] forces which liberate the potentialities within. The tree takes its own shape, does not accommodate a plastic material to an external mould. . * Emphasise Nationalism.

" The best way to help on the internationalism that may one day come to bless the earth is to emphasise the nationalisms of to-day. That's how I see it, anyway. Internationalism is possibly the goal. I don't know. The first step to it is the development of our own nationalism to its fullest extent, and the recognition of the rights of other people to the same privileges as we claim for ourselves. And why all the hurry? It is the forces proved by the past to be already resident in human nature that will determine the future. At the most wr can only guide them, even if we accept the idea that the evolutionary process has at last developed the mind which can give it a definite objective to take the place of the blind groping of the method of trial and error. Why the hurry ? I say. Man has been on the earth for some two hundred thousand years. It is probable he has two hundred million more years of his tenancy to run. Yet we complain because we cannot find the final solution of all mankind's problems at a round-the-table conference.

" So I am glad to notice signs that nationalism is alive and strong. China is awake, the giant that has slept so long. It may be to our cost; for we have not played the game by China. Anyway, it is far better for ns to take what is coming to us in the old British way than to seek to escape the just consequences of our past misdeeds by becoming the champions of a sloppy sentimental internationalism. It is easy to advocate universal brotherhood now vte have all the territory we want. We can hardly expect other nations to accept as final the present status quo. It- is too advantageous to us, and w*» cannot stop the old game of empire-building simply by stating that we are tired of playing it. It's a hard thing to say; but that exuberant nationalism that has made the British Empire is working toward similar ends in almost every country of the world to-day; and the lands we won in the old days we shall either have to defend or meekly surrender. This is not the time for men of our blood to whin® of the beauties of universal brotherhood. We have an Empire in our hands, and we shall keep it not by smoke-screens of international brotherhood, but by the assertion of our own nationalism on pretty well the old lines. True to Type. " I'm glad, I say, to find national characteristics running true to type. Britain pays twenty shillings in the pound; that jias been her slogan in international affairs, said a prominent British official the other day. That needed saying. What we owe, we pay; that is our line. There are men that actually believed Britain would plead with America for mercy—on sentimental grounds, of course. Times are hard, and we have had a lot of trouble lately, and so on: all the poor-mouth stuff. There were many Britons who spoke like that; but officially the true heart of England spoke. England pays to the uttermost farthing, though she must struggle along for many year 3 beneath an almost impossible burden. What pleases me more than anything else is that, so far as I know, no' one reminded America that many of her states, in the years after the Civil War, repudiated in the most shameless fashion their debts to Great Britain. For it was British money that opened up the Southern States after the war; and repudiation became the recognised American method of finance. By the American Constitution, no outside creditor could compel a state to meet its obligations. «Those obligations have never yet been met; the sum outstanding to-day after 60 years would probably liquidate the British debt to America. But we have our own way of doing things: a muddling, honest way. I take more hope for the future from that one action of the British Government than from all the frothy spouting on brotherhood and internationalism. The flood of sentiment has not undermined us yet. The British character stands where it did: British nationalism is still ihe strongest force in the Empire."