THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, 14th DECEMBER, 1900. THE NEW IMPERIALISM.

Southland Times, Issue 14813, 14 December 1900, Page 2

THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, 14th DECEMBER, 1900. THE NEW IMPERIALISM.

♦ At a banquet given by the Worshipful | Company of Fishmongers to Mr Chamberlain on October 24th, the Right Honourable gentleman delivered an important speech, which, at the present juncture, is of especial interest to the colonies. The exordium was naturally much of a personal character, referring to his having received the honorary freedom of the company, and he said that it was a great encouragement to a public man in these times when, after having endeavoured to serve his country, he found his way bestrewn with many difficulties, to have the assurance of the confidence of such a Corporation as that which represented in the highest .sense the greatest city in the world. The British nation i had now, he said, reached a turning point in their history. They were at the parting of the ways. The last chapter had been closed ; they were about to commence a new oae, and it was not too much to say that the fortunes of the Empire and the destinies of the race depended upon the opening words. " What were those words to be 1 What was to be the heading of this new chapter whicJi would commence with the twentieth century 1 If he dared to speak for his countrymen, he thought they hail already answered the question. He thought the new chapter would be rightly en titled ' The Unity of the Empire.' " He asked his audience to go back in the history of the country for 150 years, and what did they find ? They found then an older Imperialism, which implied the establishment by conquest, of tributary countries, which were exploited for the sole and exclusive benefit of what could hardly be called the Motherland. When that policy broke down — as it deserved to break down — when the great American Revolution taught a lesson, then there was a fall }nto the opposite extreme and there came a period of reaction, apathy, and indifference, in which the colonies were looked upon as an encumbrance. This period lasted until nearly the present day, and it was only within the last few years that the British people had redeemed their character as a great Imperial nation — that they had got free from thatpusillaniuious repudiation of national and Imperial obligations. A ereat change had come over the people. All were Imperialists now, and had abandoned the "craven fear of being great," which was the disgrace of the previous age. The democracy understood the nature, extent, and possibilities of this great Empire — an Empire such as the world had never seen. " Think of the immensity of its population, of nearly every race under the sun, of the diversity of its products There was nothing that was necessary or useful to man which was not produced under the Union Jack. We had to bring all these dependent races and all our kinsmen abroad freedom, justice, civilisation, and peace, and we recognised now that these varieties of peoples had become one family, that their good was ours, and our strength theirs. What should we be without our Empire ? Two small islands with an over-crowded population in the Northern Sea. What would they be without us ? Fractions at present — nations indeed, but without the fulness of national life, without the cohesion which enabled them tv look all the world in the face. We were bound together also by something which in international and national affairs was, perhaps, even stronger than Imperial interest— by sentiment, by common ideals, by common aspirations. Therefore it was that they were our kinsfolk, and that we craved their affection, invited their sympathy, delighted in their support." r i he greatest feature, Mr Chamberlain proceeded to say, in this eventful modern history was the action of the self-governing colonies, who, in a period of trouble and trial, came to the help of the Motherland. What sympathy they had shown ! How practically they had .shown it ! How universal had been the sentiment ! The colonies had hastened spontaneously to help ; they had given their best and bravest, and they had fought and died to maintain the honour of the flag and the interests of the common Empire. They had done something more, they had given their moral support— the moral support of a great, free, independent nation, proud of their own liberty, in a cause in which they took an impartial and judicial view. Ho did not think, he said, that anything could have been more grateful to the people of the Home country, more useful in regard to their position with other nations, than the sight of the colonies of Great Britain— the sons of Great Britain— hastening freely to give their support to the Motherland in a cause which they themselves had considered and believed to be just. It was not too much to say that, in the last twelve

months, the Empire had been born anew. The Empire now was undoubtedly not the Empire of England but the Kuipire almost of the world. — of all British possessions and dependencies. "In future we should recognise in our colonies an absolute equality of right and possession in all we claimed." He believed this new feeling was compensation for the war. Would anyone ever again dare to say that the colonies were any encumbrance to the Empire which they had done so much to maintain and -support? " That was the new situation ; that was the new Imperialism which had beea so grossly misrepresented, but which was, nevertheless, ho well understood and which had received the overwhelming support of the majority of the country without reference to ordinary party lines of division. It was full of promise for our descendants if not for us. He was sanguine enough to look forward to a future even greater tlian the present. He thought he was not wrong in seeiug in the federation of Canada and in the indissoluble union of the Commonwealth of Australia a sign and an exj ample to our possessions in South Africa and the shadow of that greater federation, the federation, of kindred nations wliich would n-alise the dream of every patriotic man, and would so strengthen the foundation of our i Empire that, in the providence of God, it would continue, long into the future to fulfil its mission, its destined mission of justice, civilisation, and peace."