IMPERIAL PAPERS.

Otago Witness, 5 December 1900, Page 67

IMPERIAL PAPERS.

By R. N. Adams.

NO. XVI.— HATED BRITAIN. Thy danger chiefly lies in acting well; 2To crime's so great as daring to excel. —Churchill. If a ballot of the world were taken for the purpose of ascertaining which is the .most unpopular nation of the human race, most assuredly the British would stand in unrivalled notoriety at the head of the poll. For, as Bishop Wilson wrote: "Envy makes us see what will serve to accuse others, and not- to perceive what will justify them." Amongst the -nations of Europe Britain is Avithout a friendly ally. She dwells as one who is shunned. But even in this strange circumstance we may discern a latent spring of comfort and consolation, for envy is emphatically a tribute that disappointment pays to success. No person or people ever yet became an object of envy before having first been a -subject of admiration. "A fraud!" cries Envy, when an honest hand Secures a prize he would, but can't, command. It is the very perfection of a fellow creature that creates the severest- pain in the mind of the envious : and this pain of envy produces or develops into hatred ; lience in proportion, as J/kft nations envy •Britain's prosperity they hate her increasing power. Her friends, however, may "with Hill exclaim : Slandered in vain, enjoy the spleen of fools, Let these from envy hate, from interest those. This strange state of affairs may be very _ surprising to us who ajqe of opinion that Britain's career is in no sense antagonistic to the welfare of other nations, but believe xather she has saved the world from the impending result of its own folly. Still

there are millions of our fellow men who

look on Britain's thriving condition as the result of a policy of selfishness, grasping, perfidy, and bounce. We are regarded

as a people of insatiable greed, ,~Who gag&,and grasp and gripe; add store to store ; And glutted with too much, still strive for more. It is natural that people whom, in-\lhe interests ci humanity, we have been compelled to chastise should regard us with dislike, even to aversion ; that nations from ■whom we have wrested territories they "were unable to govern with humane laws should esteem us intermeddling, officious, and even unscrupulous. It is indeed almost unnatural for any people to look on another that has time and again come between their conduct and their hopes successfully as other than enemies. . This is exactly what Britain has done to most of her neighbour nations in war and -,in commerce. On the battlefield, on the , sea, in the diplomatic council, in the fac- " tory, and in trade, that insignificant insular people has confronted the world of and has in triumph marched past . them all, ' and now we look on a scene in the great drama of the_nations in which Base Envy withers at another's joy And hates that excellence it cannot reach.

To France we are even more thoroughly than to Germany a vexation and a grief. So deeply do the people of France feel us to be a thorn in the flesh to them, that they have frequently in recent days injured their own interests rather than lc't an opportunity escape of demonstrating their per- . manent ill-will towards our race. They have frequently of late insulted our Royal Family, and many of their newspapers ceaselessly lampoon and contemptuously calumniate Queen Victoria, whose sovereign person has never once given cause for ofience to them, so severely does France grudge us our superior national position ; so deeply does she resent Trafalgar, Waterloo, and Quebec. Her conduct which brought about the Fashoda incident shows to what extremes she would go to check the enlargement of Britain's Empire. It is of little consequence whether her actions ■are remunerative or ruinously expensive, if only she can throw a barrier across the

iray of Britain's expansion. British progress and general civilisation must at all cost be fettered. To accomplish this purpose, France would plunge into almost any iash undertaking short of daring the warspirit of Britain into actual operation. Today she is hrh r ig many- strategical positions at enoi\. ~ j outlay, and crippling her citizens with a grinding taxation, for little else than a check to the grasping, but at the same time generous, guiding, and blessing hand of Britain.

Were France to withdraw from those ," colonies," she knows Britain would step In and' assume possession, hoist over them that banner of peace and union which has fceen the emblem of freedom to so many countries that for ages suffered the tyranny of a gross misrule ; by which act both Bri-. tain and the colonies would mutually derive a generous profit ; but France would rather hold on -with a fatal grasp than suffer herself to be relieved of an incubus or those desolated places and demoralised peoples to fall into the hands of a redeemer. So powerful is that Envy "Which merit and success pursues with hate, .And damns the worth it cannot imitate. Nor have we in the Germans a people .■who look kindly on us. To the German we stand more in the aspect of a great rival in the race for territory and commerce. The hatred of our Teutonic competitors is less severe than that of the Franks ; they have not, however, the same historical reasons. To them we have been at least military friends, to whom generous natures would acknowledge their debt of gratitude. Who can tell what would today have been the political state of Germany had not British valour checked the apparently otherwise resistless march of the conquering French Dictator, when 85 years agp Europe was paralysed by his prowess? But that one act of Britain's magnanimity and power has been a source of undying jealousy, which has continued to irritate an ungrateful people whom it saved from the humiliating heel of the proud,, auda-

cious scourge, who was treading down in merciless fury all who opposed his course, and even those who submitted to his demands.

Forgetful of that most opportune relief, Germany would, on a very slight provocation, develop into a foe of Britain, whose blood drenched the field of Waterloo to give her freedom from the fetters of a foe she was incompetent to encounter successfully. Her sympathy with our foes in South Africa proves her antagonism to us. It is, however, the engendered fruit of envy. Germany has felt herself a growing power since Napoleon's force was broken. She has matured into a young giant. She has looked on the gigantic figure of her AngloSaxon neighbour, and has resolved to become also a mighty nation. She may perhaps not have actually coveted Britain's Imperial possessions, but she has coveted her power. She has beheld the mainlands and the islands where John Bull's children are growing into a multitude of nations on the face of the globe, and she has desired to be just such another great empire. She has witnessed the njagnificent trade ceaselessly flowing to and from the ship-crowded ports of Britain ; she has studied the nature and marvellous proportions of the British wealth ; she has measured svr.ids with her great French foe and triuu^ ted ; she has consolidated her forces, organised her energies, and feels the strength of a young giant invigorating her body to such a degree that, like an ambitious youth, she believes herself capable of leading the world in every manner as first of her day. But as she Jooks out on the great world she would, like to conquer and rule, big, burly Britain rise 3as a mighty barrier across her vision, holding the keys to the coveted position, and the spirit of Envy murmurs, "Were that barxiei cut down I should certainly advance." The British marine covers the sea ; the British merchant occupies the chief places of trade ; the Biitish colonist has settled in the fairest and most productive countries ; and the' Biitish flag waves proudly in every corner of the globe worth possesping, outside the bounds of powerful nations. Britain has in all these ways forestalled her; and has planted the rule of the Anglo-Saxon in impregnable positions along the world's highways. In face of this, where can the enterprising sons of the Teuton find a fair scope? It is not in New Guinea, nor in West Africa, nor in Samoa, nor even in a share of China that Germany can hoj)e to lay the foundations of the vast foreign empire that is to rise and compete with the everspieading, ever-strengthening British people. That she is to found such an empire, Germany has become convinced, but it can never be while Britain maintains her present power on sea and land. It can never be accomplished while the British blood-bond .remains unbroken. Hence Germany hates the vast demonstrations of the past few months, and is wrathful that the world sees such an evidence of loyalty, valour, and enthusiasm as the Boer war has created. The very fact that our people,, though ruled hy many Governments, and managed by a freedom of political life that Teuton, Frank, and Sclav alike, cannot for their very lives understand, are as vigorous and clannish as a people just bursting from the obscurity of a recent barbarism, strikes our neighbotirs as unusual for an empire of &uch age and far-reaching boundaries.

Were they only able to find proof that some signs of senile decay were evident, they might console themselves with the hope of finding, at some not remote period, the desired weak spot- in our national constitution, and of operating on it to our reduction and their own increase. But, instead, they find that in every vital part we are redolent of life and unflagging energy in a degree superior to anything they can boast. Is it strange we are envied ? Is it strange that such envy produces dislike, and that dislike and disappointment bring forth hate?

From reasons very , similar, Russia regards us with quite as little friendliness as France and Germany. Only where Britain has opposed her progress in the field has Russia been stopped in her march. Her ambition is to possess the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, to which she is yearly directing her efforts and pushing her schemes. If only Britain were as 'sick and languid as the Turk, the power of the North would possess, in a few months, the goal to which the ambition of centuries has devoted itself ; but here, again, Britain is in the way. Russia would put an end to Turkish rule, swallow up Persia, and lay her ban upon India, but for the dread of consequences from an irritated Britain. Russia wants to stretch her sway across Syria and grasp Palestine, but again the same Island people of the North-west refuse to permit it ; and Russia is angry, and seeks means to annoy, entangle, and weaken her tiresome foe hi other ways: and would be pleased could she so work matters as to get her embroiled in a serious quarrel with a powerful antagonist, that she might herself advance a step in her coveted plan of annexation. ~

We might canvass all the nation's of Europe, and find the same unvarying result. 'Britain is unpopular, even to hatred, with the nations, great and small, potent and impotent. The name of Britain strikes a discordant note tin the music of all her neighbours.

From what trait in our character can this universal dislike arise? It cannot be from our system ot government. France and Switzerland are not unpopular on account of their Republican proclivities. It cannot be on account of our freetrade principles., for by that they greatly profit, as we buy largely from all of them and permit them to compete freely with our own people. It is not because we refrain from social contact and general intercourse ; we are among them trading, touring, holiday-mak-ing, and even aiding to organise and equip their armies and build their navies. We permit our best engineers to build their railways, bridge their rivers, construct their canals, and the like. We are .prepared to do any one of them a good turn at any time, provided that, in doing it, we are injuring no one elgfe

There are two chief reasons — there may be others — for our unpopularity. We- are the great merchant and marine people, who will not bend to this one for fear, nor cringe to that one for favour ; and we are the representative race of an unpopular religious belief and system. Of all the peoples the Anglo-Saxon alone preserve and enforce a national respect for the Bible as a Divine revelation, and inculcate a right of private judgment in all matters of conscience.

The social problems that hang over the Continental nations as a hideous nightmare in the forms of Anarchy and Nihilism can barely find material to exist upon m our realm, so free are our institutions and so liberal are our laws. Our religion, which inculcates the dignity of manhood and the moral equality of every citizen, is looked upon as the breeding ground of those monsters of disloyalty in other States. We tolerate the Socialist, we harbour the Anarchist, and permit the Nihilist t£t find a home amongst us : and take no trouble to forbid or even fetter their press, with the result that, while the Governments of Europe reproach us with folly and disregard for the welfare and dignity of law, we are less troubled with the dreaded evil, enjoy a nobler evidence of loyalty, and are a more thoroughly consolidated people than any other sovereign rules over. Europe has failed to recognise the secret of our immunity, and dreads the example we are setting. In addition to this, we are the friend of the Jews. That race which is driven from place to place, spoiled, persecuted, and subjected -to all manner of ill-usage by every nation of the Old World, is free to settle with us as a people of a common stock, to enter into all social, commercial, and political privileges, and become identified with all our institutions. With us alone the Jew, though hated, maligned, abused, down-trodden, and scorned by other nations, finds a home in a true sense of the term. We espouse his cause, plead on his behalf, contribute to his relief, and welcome him as friend and fellow-citizen.

For all this -\ve incur the displeasure of those who act differently from us, and as they hate those we receive, so. they bate us for our merciful conduct to those who fly from their cruelty and injustice.