THE GREAT LESSON OF THE DURBAR

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5474, 31 December 1904, Page 10

THE GREAT LESSON OF THE DURBAR

Great Empires have been raised in Asia, hare flourished and decayed. Modes and Parthians, Turks and Moghuls, have ruled over immense ' dominions which in turn hare been shattered and broken in pieces.- Annient Delhi itself is an epitome of/more than one such chapter in the Mstory of the past. To-day the Indian- Empire stands forth as the heir of these vanished traditions, strong and unchallenged, no more immune'from danger'than were its predecessors, but possessing, sources of vitality that were denied to them. Not the least of these, indeed, by far the greatest of all, is loyalty to a common Sovereign, alien, it may be, in race (as nearly all the great in on arch s of India have been) to the majority of the peoples over whom he is called upon to rule, but consecrated in the allegiance and affections of ■ all by the memory of 200 years of British dominion and by the personal devotion •inspired by too Royal House. l That India is not behind the rest of the Fipire in this loyalty and devotion A • the great lesson of the Imperial Burbar. It showed to the world that unity has at last been achieved among the millions of India, and that the mysterious influence that has accomplished this result is no other than the British Grown. ■, It left upon British and Indians alike the impression, amounting to a conviction, that this is no accidental or fleeting phenomenon, but that it is preordained and will endure,—M>Stephen Wheeler (“ The History of . ' Delhi Coronation 'Durbar,” publish by Mr Murray).