NATIONS OF YESTERDAY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11435, 3 February 1923, Page 13

NATIONS OF YESTERDAY

AND TO-MORROW. No. L Of the nations that were in existenco Before Christianity only four are •till in being, and of these only two can make a firm claim to a continuous independence. China is the most venerable of all the States. Though ahe ljps been conquered more than once,yet, throughout the 4000 years or so to which she lays claim, she has been substantially the same nation. Her language has been the same character, her people the same disposition, and the; have lived throughout the whole period much the same kind of lives. Whether governed by Mongol kings or Chinamen, whether united under an imperial dynasty or divided into provinces or regions with an approach to independence, the Chinese have been unmistakably the same people throughout their long history, presenting a common front to the intrusion of the outside world, and displaying a similar stamp of character everywhere. Japan may be classed with China, and she takes the second place in antiquity and continuity- She claims to have a solid history since the middle of the seventh century before Christ—about'665 1 B.C. The divinity of her Emperor is still asserted by law, even when modern reforms are inaugurated. She has been even, leas subject to outside pressure than China. Her island character baa kept her proudly select through her long past until, within living memory, she realised that she must come into line with the great civilised world of which in her earlier periods she had not even dreamed. The present organisation of the State in Japan dates only from 1867, or perhaps metre truly from 1875, when parliamentary government was adopted; but that was a natural step forward, and it left the nation essentially unchanged. There was an alteration of method and outlook, but the sense of nationhood remained the same throughout. So that Japan is 2500 years old. In trying to give an age to Egypt, we meet a problem that recurs again and again—that of the countries which have been great and renowned, or perhaps independent, and then for long periods have been overrun, conquered, seemingly obliterated, and yet have risen again. In sheer age Egypt far surpasses all existing nations. H,er time of great dignity liee far away. She was one of the wonders of antiquity. As far as we know, she evolved the earliest civilisation at least 8000 years ago. There may have been an earlier type in the Euphrates Valley, but it is not likely. But for nearly 2000 years Egypt has been a dependent land, always dominated by other races, though her own essential life, based on the floodings of the Nile, has remained unaltered, like her peasantry. Now it seems as if. after a period of British guidance and the cleansing of her system of government corruption, she is about to try to do what she has never been able to do since the days of the Pharaohs—create a stable Egyptian State. Her story is strewn with failures from her pristine glory right down to her new-born hope; but all men wish her well, and none more than the peoples of the British Commonwealth.

Persia is like Egypt in being tinged with a far-off glory. It waf, however, ' much more temporary than the glory of Egypt. She was at the height of her fame in 525 8.C., when Cambyses conquered Egypt. Bu,t for over 2000 years, though remaining a country in name, wearing a fading halo of renown, she has been harried by warring States, races, and religions till she is less free and effective as a State than modern Egypt. It is her misfortune that she has never been stiffened into discipline by the firm rule of well-eupported European organisers, as Egypt was brought from bankruptcy, corruption, and poverty to prosperity under the masterly direction of I/TTd Cromer. So Persia continues her long existence as a ramshackle survival, liable at any time to be dominated by the Afghans on the one hand, or, if they could write, by the Kurds on the other hand, and a victim to the plotters of anv mischievous State. Let us look at some of these Eastztn States with a changeful story. Before referring to the growth of European Powers it will bo well to glance at some of the present in Asia which had a distinctive position l° n K ago, then perished, or were swamped from outside and became almost forgotten, but have now revived amid the warlike excitement of the world, and are struggling towards a new existence of recognition. The Arabs, before the Turks took the Mohammedan leadership, ruled, from Bagdad, the whole region between the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Gibraltar. They were the successors of the ancient Babylonian. Assyrian. and Persian rule in the Euphrates Valley and the surrounding highlands ; and now, in Mesopotamia and Byria, they have a new opportunity to

prove their capacity for sustaining an orderly government. Armenia, inhabited by the most persecuted race on earth, was a powerful kingdom more than 2000 years ago, in the midst of its almost inaccessible hills. The sufferings of the Armenian race have been due largely to its persistence in adhering, almost from the time of the Apostles, to its own version of Christianity, though surrounded by fanatical races that have regarded massacre as a sort of religions duty.