BRITAIN AND THE DOMINIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 12, 30 August 1911, Page 2

BRITAIN AND THE DOMINIONS.

Lord Haldane is not the lirst political thinker of weight and authority wno has argued tout the Lotted -gates would not\ nave roimi» i?d unaor a a Knglish centralised government • cvcii it George ill. had not been foolish’' (.renni t ks the Sydney “Daily telegraph’). And whnr the Seuet.uy ’el ,State for War goes 0:1 to Oige tn:,*c a similar dilhcv.Jiy may e.iise in Canada, Australia, Wow Zealand, and .•v>uih .erica ms sial.va.'iil. o.’Vdl as iin aeademie proposition, is irrefutable. But so far as regards Australia, at any rate, the contingency which Lord iialdane anticipates is not a matter of present concern. Aor is it likely to materialise for very many ycais to conic. When the United States broke away from Great Britain in consequence of the “foolishness” of George ill. and his Ministers, the world was a very different place from what it is to-day. When Washington severed the imperial tie with toe sword the Government that lie established and the extensive I- rutory over which that Government held sv. av were not threatened by any <xternal foe. If the greatest sea Mower or the time couid not bend the Am ! (mis to its w ill, the po qde cf tin fn ted States v arc entitled to legat’d themselves as beyond the reach oi harm at flic hands of any other nation on earth. Hence three and a half millions of Americans could cut themselves adrift from 12,(M),UUU people. 111 tht United Kingdom without inclining the slightest risk to their national security. Their natural affection Tor the land of their fathers had bean alienated by harsh and unjustifiable treatment. .They could set up for themselves without danger of attack from any foreign foe. And so they cut the painter. ■ How long that painter w ould have'remained intact u George ill. had not be- n devoid of all political sense is a question that cannot now be decided ly Lord Haldane or anybody else. But to quote tiie American precedent as an event likely to recur m the Dominions of to-day is quite misleading, as far as Australia is concern ri, in any future that is near enough to be foreseen. Australia enjoys the blessings oi virtual independence combined with tiro protection of a Moth ir -country nearly four times as populous and mcomparably more powerful than tiie kingdom which George 111. ruled so unsatisfactorily. Moreover, unlike the North American colonies in Washington’s day, Australia is le nonstrably not strong enough at tin present time in population or “resources to maintain herself against the,certainty of foreign aggression if onr-o tire naval shield of Britain •is removed. There is no use in trying to ignore that fact, which has been recognised publiciv by every skilled soldier and sailir who has come here, by Admiral Mahan, of the United States navy, who is regarded as the highest living authority on naval history and strategy, and by almost all the public men of th_ Commonwealth. For many years to come Australia cannot hope to held her own without assistance. 1 Hence Austialia, for the sake of her own safety—to put it on the lowest ground -cannot even consider the possibility of imitating the American example, quoted by Lord Haldane, within any period that the longest-sighted watcher on political housetops’, can discern.