CITIZENS OF EMPIRE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12814, 13 July 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

CITIZENS OF EMPIRE.

MR BALFOUR ON A LARGER PATRIOTISM. Mr Balfour, speaking at the annual meeting of the Victoria League at the Guildhall, London, paid a tribute to the work of the league m bringing home to the people at home and abroad a knowledge of the Empire of which they are citizens. "I am one of those whose faith is that perhaps at no very distant date we shall be able to find more formal and constitutional bonds, uniting us and the great self-governing Dominions into one whole. That day has not yet, however, come into being, and our Empire presents the unique spectacle m the history of the world of an Empire joined together not by force, not even by constitutional ties, but by mutual affection — (cheers) — by the sense of a common origin, by the sense of a common civilisation, by the sense of a common inheritance of law, culture, and freedom pf. institution. "That it is which gives the true basis of unity to all these various self-govern-ing fractions -of the great whole, but if these are to have their full effect as unifying elements m our society, does it not. absolutely require their right m every part of the Empire to ' full comprehension of and sympathy with the work carried on m every other part? (Applause.) . "Think how widely separated are the conditions under which our race is carrying on its great work. At home we constitute the most crowded of the great nations of the world. Go to the other side of the world and you will find our sons and our brothers not crowded into ancient communities as we are, but fighting m the great empty spaces of the world, reclaiming, under conditions sometimes of great hardships, sometimes at, no inconsiderable peril, reclaiming great tracts of the earth for civilisation and for the Empire. They are carrying on from day to day work of life under conditions which it requires some imagination to realise m those who are living under conditions so absolutely opposite and so violently contrasted. That is an inherent difficulty - N m an Empire so great, varied and scattered as our own It is got over by that sense of common citizenship which is the very basis on which the whole fabric rests. "I believe that the whole trend of events is bringing c i oser together the widely scattered elements out of which the Empire is composed. I believe that as they have one after another left the position of tutelage under which they necessarily were m their early infancy, as they are one after another developing into great States, so. they are more and more feeling that thbse great States are parts of one yet greater whole. I am a profound believer m the truth that local patriotism properly understood is no obstacle to a large patriotism." (Applause.) v v