THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1934.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22256, 8 May 1934, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1934.

CONFIDENCE IN THE EMPIRE It was said of Cecil Rhodes that he thought in continents. It may with truth be said of the ordinary man to-day that he thinks in nations. In fact, he is compelled to do so. Every day brings him fresh -.ews of the doings of foreign nations which will intimately concern his own life, and may even take away his living. Thus, Signor Mussolini has recently issued an edict that foreign nations trading with Italy must redress any unequal balance, and so buy from Italy as much as they sell her. This particular decree may not affect New Zealand much, but it certainly will affect Australia. It may be inferred that Japan is also aiming at a “ quid pro quo.” When to this are added State subsidies for shipping, rabid nationalism, increase of armaments, increasing tariffs, quotas, exchange, and a few other j maladies like Bolshevism, collapsing democracy, and dictatorships, it is not strange if ordinary people begin to wonder what the end of it all will be. Perhaps in their puzzlement they may bethink themselves that they live in a British community and that their own country is already a member of a world league, the British Empire. They may even give heed to the report of the first unofficial conference on British Commonwealth relations, hold last September in Toronto. The deliberations of that conference do notsolve all world problems, but they do hold up to serious, men some light on the obscure developments of the future. The two main conclusions reached were the need of support of the League of Nations, for peace and the need of the closest co-operation with the United States of America. At first sight these two modes of action seem contradictory, for the United States is not a member of the League. But it must be remembered that the United States wants peace and has never pursued an aggressive foreign policy. Indeed, the American support of peace is a great deal stronger than that of some of the States that send voluble representatives to Geneva. The British desire of peace is beyond question. Sir Kingsley Wood, a member of the Ministry, stated a few weeks ago that, if it were necessary to do so, the National Government would stand firmly by the League as the corner-stone of its policy; Neither Britain nor the United States seeks more territory. And, further, despite many differences to-day, both have the same political origins. In England political development has been constantly accompanied by the growth of individual freedom, and, as a necessary corollary, by the growth of individual responsibility. The United States, of course, shares in this old tradition, which runs back to Magna Charta in the thirteenth century—and indeed even further than that. Thus, as it were, there is an instinctive bond between Britain and America, despite the War of Independence, the war of 1812-14, and the dangerous tension of the Civil War in 18G4. British citizens everywhere are tired of the jealousy, the intrigue, and the ruthlessness of Continental antipathies. Above all this, the British Empire is a world league, and, wit! the single exception of the Irish Free State, it works. It stood the storm and stress of the Great War, and it is standing the rasping irritations of peace —the unavoidable irritations which economic and financial difficulties invariably generate. It is possible to find comfort in that. Added hope may be found in the knowledge that the relations between Britain and America are, despite differences over war debts, as friendly as they have ever been. British communities do not want dictators or Soviets. States that are inefficient, illiterate, unorganised, or shattered, may hand over their destinies to a tyranny whether of one or of a few, but British States want none of that. If present symptoms in America are trustworthy, the citizens of the great republic will have no Soviets cither, nor will they have dictators, however much they may temporarily enlarge the President’s control of financial measures. Free men with six hundred years of struggle interwoven with their natural toughness of mind ai'e not going to succumb to depression, or trade losses, or threats of Communism. The Empire tradition as a whole is the democratic tradition of free men well able to govern themselves. The British Empire is an altar of refuge and strength for the cause of democracy.