PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 85

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

» "GERMANISING POLAND." It is interesting to read history, and by studying the history of the past to ' build up in the mind a history of the future. I did a little of this a week or j two a,go in the presence of a friend, who, however, does very little reading. We had been reading in a paper that it was absurd ' for Gr«c*t Britain to think of maintaining the two-Power standard for our fleet. The article we were criticising said something like this : The population of Great Britain in 1895 was 36,000,000 ; of Germany, 46,000,000; of the United States, 56,000,000, and of France, 38,000,000. In 1905 Great Britain had increased to 43,000,000, Germany to 60,000,000, The United States to 1 83,000,000, and France to 39,000,000. In percentages, Great Britain had increased 20 per cent., Germany 30 per cent., The United States 48 per cent., and France under 3 per cent. (I have given the latest statistics, and taken the nearest million in giving populations and the nearest whole number in the percentages.) From these the article aTgued that, as the populations of Germany and the United States are increasing in a much greater ratio than Great Britain, it was only a question of time when these greater populations and the wealth that they will amass will make it a sheer impossibility I for the British Government to build a navy equal to the one possessed by either of these two nations, let alone the two combined. As for France, race suicide • had .gone so far that> it was impossible j for her to recover lost ground. From that , I argued that we must, then, become a. second-rate nation in the near future. My word, you should have seen my friend ' sputter. Why, he almost brought on an . apopleptic fit ! But when he calmed down he saw the reason of it, and settled down 1 into a blue funk. I think I /evived his spirits a bit by saying that the colonies had to be reckoned with, but to what extent only the future could tell. He began to see, however, that nations have their j urth, growth, and death just as a human being, and admitted that, judging from , a population basis, Great Britain may have already passed the zenith of her power. i But this does not seen> to have anything ,to do with " Germanising Poland." Perhaps not, but when I read that heading in last week's Witness, two thoughts camo into my mind : the great changes that take place in map-drawing to represent the increase, decrease, or disappearance of a nation, and the means adopted to subjugate a partially-conquered people. Germany finds that as long as there is a Polish nobility and landed proprietary there will be a Polish national feeling. , Apparently, to crush this spirit out, the 1 Polish landlords' are to be dispossessed by I forcible purchase, and the Polish language . and what goes to make up a nationality I are to be prohibited. Will the Germans succeed? Let us take an illustration or two almost every schoolboy knows something about — or ought to. In 1066 William the Conqueror defeated Harold and became King of England. One of his first acts was to prohibit the • use of English in ihe Law Courts, in the palaces, in churches, and in schools. A Norman priesthood was imI ported, and wholesale confiscations of land took place. William seemed to think ■ that a prohibition of English would gradu- ! ally bring in Norman-French, and that, in time, by forgetting their language and by I being ignorant of the literature of their past the Anglo-Saxons would forget their nationality. As a literary language, he succeeded in Tnaking it disaj^pear for a time, for we read that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ceased to exist in 1154, the year ending the Norman Period. But though j banished from Norman circles, the law com'ts, churches, and schools, the Norman kings could not banish it from the homes. The educated classes were few, so were the Normans, and the Anglo-Saxons were I many. In time a gradual fusion took pla-ce, and as Normandy was separated from England, England remained isolated, for there was very little communication between England and the Continent ; and, again, theie was very little travelling done in England. For these and other reasons Norman-French could make very little headway. As- time went on the kings became more or lees English bj- birth, and perhaps unconsciously developed the English national spirit. By-and-bye there came wars Avith France, and anything French was not encouraged. We see the English re-asserting itself in 1258, when Henry 111 issued his proclamations in English; in 1362 (Edward Ill's reign) it was allowed in the law courts; and in 1385 (Richard ll's reign), it was re-intro- ! duced into schools. By this time, Lang- | land, Wiclif, and Chaucer had made English a literary language. Then came i printing, introduced into England by Cax- . ton, 1471 (Edward IV's reign), which fixed • the Midland dialect and its spelling as iiterary English. Shakespeare, Milton, and the Bible translation of 1611 completed the work, and we now have our English language, in which half the correspondence of the whole world is carried on. William's plan, then, ended in a complete failure. But all such plans have not been failures. The de Wets and the I Jouberts of South Africa remind us that there is a strong dash of French blood in the veins of many a South African family. When the Huguenots fled from France, i many settled in South Africa, but they ! were not allowed to retain their language, nor to have it taught in schools. What was the result? They forgot their origin, or at anyrate patriotism died out in a generation or two, and when Napoleon wanted to create a new nobility after the massacres of the blue blood of France, he found that the good families in South x Africa, of French descent were not moved by his allurements. 1?o this day the Boers

told tenaciously to their language, and it is used in the schools and law courts and parliaments of South Africa, side by side wiih English, and interpreteis are provided. We give the French of Canada and the Maori o1 New Zealand the same right as we give the Boer. Is it politic to do so? Judging by the German standard, No; judging by ours, Yes. But Germans might point to us our discontented Ireland. But this discontent is the outcome of cruelties and bad government of the past. In 1367 (Edward Ill's reign), I ihink, the Statute of Kilkenny made it troason for any English settler in Ireland to marry an Irishwoman, to speak Irish, or to adopt Irish customs. That statute, like many another, was not a success, and judging by our attempts to crush nationalities through prohibition of language or dispossession of lands, the Gernjan6 are not likely to be more successful than we have been. Perhaps next week I'll outline the history of Poland.