The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. {WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1911.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2985, 31 May 1911, Page 51

The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. {WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1911.) THE WEEK.

** Nunquam aliiKi aliud JUTBIfAIi. " Good nature and good sense must ever K>in. •» POPB.

The Imperial Conference now deliberating in London represents in

The Evolution of Empire.

concrete form the evolution, of Empire; and also the

fact that that evolution diuv ing the past decade has been so surprisingly. swift that it has outpaced the organisations which pass for Governments. Proof of which is found in the great Defence problem which occupies the thoughts of the statesmen of the Old Land and the Dominions almost to the exclusion of every other question. In order to perfectly comprehend the importance -of the questions which the Imperial Conference is called upon to discuss, it may be well to quote from Mr Frederic Harrison, whoy as a follower of Auguste Comte, and ai professor of "The Religion.of Humanity," is one of the severest living critics of modr ern Imperialism. In the introduction to his books on " National and Social Problems," Mr Harrison says: —"We are now an Asiatic-African-American-Australasian-, hybrid. . . . Nothing can ever make

a nation out of a congeries of provinces with every skin„ creed, and type of man to be found on earth. And nothing can ever make the red patches tossed over the map of the planet a coherent state or even a colossal Empire. It is not a colossal Empire, but a patchwork bundle of conquests—not even strung together with a common civil and military system, but detached, and as far apart as the North Pole from the So'.ith Pole, as .Central "Africa from the Pacific. Common sense tells us that units so heterogeneous and' isolated can be held only by a nation, which is 'mistress' of the seas'—i.e. by a people whose navy can overpower two or three navies combined. , . The entire balance of power—the whole European State system—has been entirely revolutionised. ". It is a material, intellectual, and moral change that has come over our kingdom. The home interests of - Scotland, Ireland have become secondary, cosmopolitan adventurers, interest, ideals have become primary. Napoleon 111, Bis* maick, Disraeli founded empires—of whic-li (•me is extinct and the others are less than 40 years old. Of all empires on earth, oe even recorded in history, the British Em* pare, the youngest of all, is the mosti disjointed, incoherent, and disparate eve? devised by man. All races, every skin, religion, manners, language, climate, ideal, people it. Negroes, Hottentots, F<M&4, Arabs, Malays, Chinese, Hindoos, Oteeeks, Italians, Spaniards, Dutch, French tofcjfc 1 their own languages, history, sum law*

The Court of Appeal administers 52 differ - legal systems or codes. All leligions exist In it, from Ultramontane Catholicism to the worst negroe Fetiohism—-if not Devil worship and cannibalism, or human sacrifices. All languages are spoken, from the tongue of Shakespeare to the gibbering of bushmen. Is citizen i e hip possible to such a horde? Is patriotism conceivable? Are these three hundred • and fifty millions our fellow citizens? Can ; a, restless and divided democracy look to hold them down together for ever as mere • alien tributaries ? This kingdom has a history of one thousand years —the conquered dependencies hardly more than a century On how many years can we venture to count? —now that dominion has been substituted for citizenship—now that in place of a loyal union of free citizens we have a string of huge provinces held to tribute by armies shipped out and back in relays. Tire picture so forcibly , painted by Mr Frederic Harrison is no mere fancy : it represents an actual and undeniable fact. And yet the Imperial ideal is not so impossible of realisation Mr Harrison would appear to believe. “The Careers of Disraeli and Napoleon 111, wrote bv Mr Masterman, years before ne dreamt of founding and editing The Nation, a i-e the two great romances of the nineteenth oentury. Each seemed for all the earlie v time, impossible. Each.at the beginning absurdly failed. the laughing stock of England, Napoleon the laughing stock of Europe. The grotesque invasions of Strasburg and Boulogne seemed to certify an enduring collapse to the one. Sydney Smith has described the first appearance of the other at Taunton, and how he was called the Old Clothes Man by the children, and pelted with slippers, and finally driven out in ' contempt. But each, confident in his genius and his star, pressed right onward, and each attained such dazzling success as must have excelled even bis wildest dreams.” As if to demonstrate the possibility of the impossible the triumph of the Imperial idea has hitherto put to ' flight the pessimism of critics of the school of Frederic Harrison. But the time has now arrived when the splendid sentiment out of which has evolved the Empire, as we know it today, must be supported by practical statesmanship—a statesmanship which is willing to acknowledge that the governing machinery suited to a monarchy must be extended and enlarged to fit an empire. This recognition was to some extent revealed in the. Conference of 1897, which, as The Times pertinently pointed out, established the equal national status of the five component parts of the Empire. And followmg hard after the question of national status comes the question of national responsibility. The possibility of the live Governments pursuing five foreign poli- . cies needs only to be stated to be disproved ; the policy of the people of a United Empire must, in regard to Imperial affairs, be one and indivisible, and at cnee arises the question as to how -in actual practice the single Imperial policy is to be maintained. This is an essential point which the present Conference is called upon to solve. And the diffculty is accentuated in' the fact that on the one side the rights of self-governing Dominions have to be sedulously maintained, Tyhile on the other the susceptibilities .of the Motherland must be carefully safeguarded. There again a sound sentiment will assuredly carry us through every difficult/ and enable our statesmen' to surmount all obstacles. And that sentiment was well expressed by the late John Davidson _in his “Song for the Twentyfourth of May”:

An Imperial Policy.

Tie character and strength of us. Who conquer everywhere, We sing the English of it.thus, And. bid"the world beware; We bid the world beware [The perfect heart end will, That dare the utmost men may dare, And follow freedom etilL Sea-room, land-room, ours my masters ours. Hand in hand with destiny end first amongt the nowers! Our boasted ocean Empire, sirs, we boast of it again, Cur Monarch, and our rulers, and our women and Our men! The pillars of our Empire stand in unforgotten graves; We built dominion on the land, And greatness on the waves; Empire on the waves, SMaolished firm and sure, A»d founded deep in ocean’s oaves, •'lmie honour shall endure. Bea-room, land-room, honourably ours, yv-nrl in hand with destiny 'and first among the powers! . . , , Our boasted ocean Empire, sars, we boast of Our 1 ancient isles, our lands afar, and all our loyal men! Our flag on every wind unfurled Proclaims from sea to sea A future and a nobler world Whore men and thoughts are free; Our men, our thoughts, are free; Our wars are waged for liberty, We stand in arms for liberty Till bonds and bondage cease. Sea-room,, land-room, ours appointed onrs, Conscious of our calling and the first among the powers! . . Our boasted ocean sovereignty again and yet again, . , Our counsel and our conduct and our armaments and men! In a Conference which, in the opinion of the Pall Mall Gazette, in not strong in initiative, it is certainly creditable that the one constructive proposal should have emanated from the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Yet it has to he admitted that the utmost accomplished by Sir Joseph Ward’s proposal for an Imperial Parliament of Defence was to reveal the difficulties which block the way to the Creation of any body representative of all 'parts of the Empire. According to Sir Joseph Ward’s idea, upon this Imperial .parliament was to devolve the duty of

The Premier's . Scheme.

making up the Defence Budget, and of ap- j portioning the percentage of expenditure which each unit -would be called upon to j bear. Thus, self-government would largely j be restricted to matters of domestic policy, ,' the entire Department of Defence being j removed outside of the ken of represent*- j tive Government. This was much too large j an order to be accepted either, by one i statesmen of the Homeland or by the representatives of the Dominions, and Siv Joseph Ward's proposal was only brought forward to be immediately withdrawn. Indeed, the Prime Minister's outline showed the idea to be crude in conception and imperfectly worked out in detail ; besides which it was .apparent that Sir Joseph Ward had; net taken either his colleagues or his country into bis confidence in the matter. Except, therefore, as pro- \ vocative of discussion, and as bringing out i the difficulties which surround the gitua- \ tion, Sir Joseph Ward cannot be said to j have accomplished a great deal, or to have brought the practical side, of the Im- j perial idea ones whit nearer to realisation*. It is more to the point that the Conference delegates should have been invited to J attend a special meeting of the Committee ■ of Imperial Defence, and thus have been , admitted into the inner circle of the conn- i cils of the Empire. Indeed, this memor- j able meeting has been compared to the j meeting of an Imperial and the delegates are said to be delighted ueyond measure at the meaning of the new departure. There is every reason to expect, therefore, that the abandonment of Si: Joseph Ward's ambitions scheme for an Imperial Parliament of Defence will be followed by the creation of an Imperial Consultative Council on which accredited representatives of the Dominions will have a seat, and through whom the Governments of the several Dominions will be kept informed as to the progress of international relations. . Another important matter now under deliberation is the reconstruction of the Colonial Office, concerning which Sir Joseph Ward has suggested considerable changes. And it will be a matter of gratification to the Prime Minister that the Imperial Government proposes to accept his scheme to some extent. Which has set on foot sundry su'.' miises as to whether one portion of the reconstruction may mean an. Imperial an pcintment for Sir Joseph Warß himself, on which, and other points, however, patience will have to do her perfect work.