SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VISIT OF THE IMPERIAL TROOPS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 70

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VISIT OF THE IMPERIAL TROOPS.

By Speho

The "lmp Q ri?V have come and gone. The welcome they received, the crowds, the keen interest aroused, go without trying. What is the significance of the viMt?

It lias a hiitoiical significance. Butons ere as a rule averse to .show, but >n the last 15 years the two Jubilee pageants have symbolised the extent of our Empire, and now again it is> symbolized :n this remote corner of the eaUn by a small body of troops numerically, repz-esentative of ters of thousands, and showing the federation of the Empire in deed if not in name. It is a message of thanks from the old country. The colonies "heard their mother calling," and rose to defend her against the opinion of mo 4of the civilised world. fciho lids repeatedly expressed her gratitude ; now she has shown it to us in a concrete fcrm ; we have the evidence of our senses , if \\a require that.

For the first time, the co.omal child sees the Life Guardsman and the Lancer, hitherto admired only m picture*. Exiles from London see aga.n those n'gmes so familiar under the archways ai the Horse Guards, ar.d a, thrill of pride touches them, and perhaps a feeling of home-sickness, too. Even though rooted heie, they would l.ke to see once more those grimy streets, thofo throngs, m the city, these flowers of Nature and of society in the Park, the towers of Westminster, the barges on the river at sunset, the dome of St. Paul-, the fountains in '^■afalgar Squaie. All these are conjuied up by the sight of the Guardsman.

Then there are the Indians, representing loyal subjects of alien lvces eveiyw here. Tins loyalty I s * peculiarly touching. One 11 ondei-3 ]f the foreign subjects of the Roman Empire used to feel it ; there is such, a va^t diileience between willing scivice and that which is forced. Goodwill acts and reacts, levelling all its sin round ings. Many of our best men heve served Irdii faithfully : has not India, served us cheerfully? There ccrnes ;>lso the thought of the late Qvieen whose reign this procession in a distant colony sums up, — that Queen, of vaster dominions than ever woman ruled before, w ho in every part of them made her pei\son?lity felt by the power of her sympathy. Almost at the beginning of her reign the Tieaty of Waitan^i was signed ; now we are sluuing the ~urdens of Empire. The act of the volunteers heading the Auckland procession, in giving up their horses to tLe Imperial troops, is symbolic of the union of our different nations, "c plimbus uca." '"Saxon and Norman and Dane are we," and nowadajs we are Engh=h and Canadians, Scotch and iri'h, Australians and New Zealandcrs ; but we are Britons all when it comes to upholding the Empire. This surely is the upshot, the moral of the visit of the troops. We are pirt of a whole, ard we have our role to fill. The more we extend our^eives in remote corners of the eaith, the stronger is the hometie. We do not want jingoism, but a, sound working patriotism in peace and w.ir. An English poet, himself the product; of nnnv races, saw one evening fioin the sea Trafalgar, Gibraltar, and Cape St. Vincent. With him we, too, may say:

Here and here did England help me How can I help England ?

The idea may well be called up by the sight of our regiments -with their glorious past.