BRITISH COLONIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23107, 5 February 1937, Page 5

BRITISH COLONIES

EXPANSION OF EMPIRE The monthly meeting of the British Israel World Federation was held in the Y.M.C.A. last evening. The speaker was Mr Barnes, the chairman, whose subject was “ The Growth of the Empire.” “ To-night,” said the speaker, “ I shall endeavour to bring to you a realisation of what our Empire really is and is doing. We have been called the ‘ Robber Empire,’ but Sir Sydney Low, professor of history at the London University, says: 1 Indeed, Britain certainly robbed with singular moderation.’ Sir John Seeley in his book, ‘ Expansion of England,’ states: ‘ There is something very characteristic in the indifference which we show towards the mighty phenomenon of the diffusion of our race and the expansion of our state. We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a lit of absence of mind.’ Moreover, Britain has in the course of her imperial history actually owned and handed over to other nations without recompense many valuable territories, islands, and strongholds, and, in addition to granting self-government to the English-speaking dominions, she is also endeavouring to do the same for native States when and as the people prove themselves capable of governing.” The speaker quoted Iraq and Egypt as outstanding instances of British policy in that respect, and also referred to colonising activity in South Africa, Sarawak, the Soudan, and Nyasaland. In the unveiling of Empire was seen, he said, the gradual fulfilment of the promises made to the fathers of the race and contained in the Book of Genesis: “A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee,” “Ancient Israel was promised the gates of their enemies, and do you realise,” asked the speaker, “ that Israel-Britain holds over 100 key and gate positions of the world which, naval and military experts declare, are equal for defence purposes to the possession of a standing army of 6,000,000 men. Thus, our naval stations and military outposts made our race the watchdogs of the nations of the world, the Servant race. The Israel of old was promised the desolate heritages. We have received them, and what do we do? We irrigate the waste spaces by such schemes as the Lloyd Barrage on the River Indus, in the Sind province of India, and spend some £15,000,000 to water an area of 6,000,000 acres, or an area nearly as large as New Zealand, or we build an Assouan dam to irrigate 600,000 acres. In conclusion, this review of the Empire demands a commonsense attitude and an investigation into the tenets of our beliefs, for it forms the only logical explanation of the rise into power of the British Commonwealth of Nations.”