NAME FOR THE EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20425, 29 November 1929, Page 10

NAME FOR THE EMPIRE.

SINGLE SYMBOLIC TITLE,

MR. I. S. AMERY'S PROPOSAL

SPIRITUAL UNITY OF* RACE.

[from: our own correspondent.]

Oct. It

Mr. L. S. Amcry, M.P., 'ex-Dominion^. Secretary, speaking as the guest of hom- , our at the Authors' Club dinner, sa d, he hoped a single symbolic name mighty be found for the British of Nations. He said Britannia might suil;<:

" It'seems.,to me," said 'Mr. Amerjy-, "that the true unity of tjie British Empire in the future will not be securs_ until'some single symbolic name is jour.d^ 1 for. the British Commonwealth. Soma I single name, and not merelj a description of the British Empire, will be required, if its spiritual unity is to ha; manifest to the ordinary man in the.;! street and the children in the schools." Greater Britain. Mr. Araery. continue'!, . was a very wonderful tiling. It was a thing of infinite diversity; it embraced; peoples at every'stage of civilisation, of every race, of every religion, living under every possible economic, social, and politi---cal condition. There was the most advanced democracy and the simplest ai d: most elementary forms of autocratic rule, and yet underneath this jumble and diversity there was a certain underlying unity.

Immediately an Englishman landed ;n a new part of the Empire, he identify d himself with that place and its loeil patriotism. He would not have been s x months in Canada before he was a Canadian out and out. If he had to deil with other races his own concern was to make good Indians, good Malayans, op good Nigerians. He might wish them 10 do things in a different way for their own good, and unconsciously imbue the n with the British spirit, but the last thing he wanted to do was to convert then into Englishmen or imitation Englishmen* More than that, he threw himself whol* heartedly into their interests and their outlook.

Mr. Amery confessed that his visit to Canada was prompted 1 mainly by the djsire to get a holiday and get away into the open air. But he said he alio went out for a more personal reason—to climb a particular mountain. Two years ago Canada did. him the honour of calling a mountain after his nam'?, and he thought if well worth while on this occasion to climb the peak. (Hear, hear,) The desire to get into the open was possessed by our . race more tha.n by any other. That was really why Great or Britain came into being.