PULSE OF THE EMPIRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15970, 13 January 1914, Page 6

PULSE OF THE EMPIRE.

LIBERALISM AND EMPIRE. (From Odb Own Cobbes?ondent.) LONDON, November 2b. Mr Herbert Samuel, the I'osUnuatcrgenoral, opoke interestingly tlie otaer mgljt ot tho attitude of Liboruia towards tho empire, 'iiiero waa a time, he euid, when it was considered by many thougr.ttul men that Liberalism, had no business to have- any policy in relation to the Km-pjro at all except a negative policy; that any Empire must t>y ite very nature be aggressive, .militarist, oppressive, aud that tlio duty of .Liberals was an attitude of cold disapproval. There was no man now wielding any degree ot autnority in tlio ranks ot .Liberalism who would in a.ese days propound such doctrinee. The question lor liberals to-day was weUior the British Empire was in its nature consistent with Liberalism. Without tlio healthy development ot local national feeling our Empire would not have reached its greatness. live existence of a large Imperial Union, if it were wisely governed, was an excellent preservative oi those local national sentiments which might otherwise disappear, in the long run it was the mass of population which told; in the clash of uatione the small nationalities went under.

Tho consummation to be aimed at was a combination of a largo imperial State on the one hand with local autonomoue Statea living and flourishing on their own lines. That was upon the direct lino of progress. i''or the peace of the world it was well that there should be many nationalities, but few frontiers. Even if Liberals wished to ignore the Empire, they ought not to do so, because its existence and internal development migflt be made a most powerful agency in the ica.!:eation of Liberal ideas, both with respect Ito international pci-co and domestic pro-

-.i.f Uv.-at service wiai we Motner Country could render to tlie dominions was to manage the foreign relations of the Empire soberly and successfully; to maintain peace and abstain from aggressive tendencies, to keep our armaments at the point where they are adequate for defence without their being exaggerated beyond that, to keep up by every means in our power cur own civilisation here at the heart. of the Empire at the highest level it could. Ho did not believe the present Constitution, or absence of Constitution, could be the final form. At present the control of the foreign affairs of the whole Empire and its common ilefeij«! were vested in an Executive re(sponsible to the people of only one portion. It was contrary to the genius of tho British race to expect they would permanently acquiesce in it. Tho dominions_ feared anything which might invade their autonomy. He found an incidental remark he made in Canada that no thoughtful man in tlie Mother Country now would dream of exercising any control over tho internal affairs of such a State more cordially applauded than anything else he said. No fo»ly could be greater than that any statesman should endeavour to press forward a solution of the question of tho Imperial Constitution before that question was fully ripe. IMPERIAL APPEALS. Mr Macmaster, K.C.,M.P., who was one of the parliamentary party which toured the Empire, discussing the proposals for an Imperial Appellate Court, says the people in the dominions overseas have the highest respect now for the decisions of the Imperial Judicial tribunal at Westminster. The very, fact that the tribunal sits here, and that it acts as the Appellate Court for the whole Empire overseas, gives it a status in tho estimation of those dominions and dependI encies which would not be, and could not be, acquired by a mere subdivision of that court sitting at Ottawa or Melbourne. "It is more than probable that a sectional court, sitting in one of tho oversea capitals, would be the subject of local criticism of a kind from which the Imperial tribunal sitting at Westminster is happily exempted by universal consent. In the tfird place, each one of these subdivisions would bo suspected of being—and, in fact, might be—of weaker calibre or judicial reputation than the main tribunal sitting at Westminster. It is obvious that circumstances might arise in which it would ho inconvenient, or even impossible, for some of the most eminent members of the Judicial Committee to make journeys overseas to the dominions to hear appeals, and the idea might get abroad in the dominions that not the best possible judges were sent abroad on these divisional courts, but those judges who found the long journeys least inconvenient to themselves." EMPIRE MAIL ROUTES. Questions put to witnesses before the Dominion itoyai Commission suggest (says the Daily Telegraph) that the mail routes of the Empire may be to some extent in _ the melting-pot. India, as wo know, is agitating for two mails per week instead of one, and should India get what she wants it is quite possible that Australia would in the long run be benefited. As Mr Crebb, Second Secretary of tlie Post Office, points out, there is already a certain interdependence Detween the Indian and Australian mails. For this reason he seems disinclined to accept the suggestion that the additional 700 miles to the Commonwealth by way of the Cape, coulud be got over by the use of faster boats, although tho rr.ails for South Afrca might then be linked up with those for Australia. It may be remembered that in the past there was some talk of a joint Australian-African honn.'ward mail service, but nothing came of it. From the steamship compan'es' point of view, the attraction of the Suez route is that it allows sundry ports' to be tupped on the way from London to Colombo, while overiand transit of the mails via Brindisi or Taranto neutralises the time spent by the ship in the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean. No such advantage with regard to ports of call is possessed by ihe Panama route, which offers a short cut, but no 6taboard of primary importance. Still it is always a possibility that the mails to New Zealand may go through tho Panama Canal one day, instead of via the Cape or via San Francisco. The most important mail development of late has, of course, been the setting up of extended services to Canada direct, and a lessened reliance on tine route to the dominion via United States lX)r " NO PART IN DEFENCE. Mr Austen Chamberlain says he is sure that in national interests of euch magnitude, such delicacy, and such importance as the army and navy; party spirit could do nothing but harm, and a united effort was required to 'safeguard national interests. He did not mean for a moment to say that there should not be economy in the fighting services, as in the other services. But reductions wero not to be expected in that direction, and could not be safely sought at such a time as this when we had barely escaped from a great European crisis. Since the maintenance of peace had been assured, they had seen no relaxation of the tension, no sign in any part of feeling that it was possible now to relax naval and military effort, and to lesson tho expenditure on those services. Germany, on the contrary, added two army corps to her forces. The sons of France gave a third year of their life to military training for tho defence of their country, and everywhere outside this country effort, instead of being relaxed, had increased to make the defence of the respective Powers secure. We could not afford to lag behind. We could not forgo the duty of defending our own shores and tho Empire, for which we were responsible. In matters of defence it was not a question of a little more or a little less; it was enough or it was nothing.—(Cheers.) We must be ready at any moment to meet tlie strain which might be placed on us.