AUSTRALIA AID EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 September 1920, Page 7

AUSTRALIA AID EMPIRE.

DISTRUST OF IMPERIALISM. AN IMPERFECT PARTNERSHIP. TIMES WRITER'S IMPRESSIONS. London, Sept. 7. Continuing his series of articles on "The New Australia" in the Times. Mr. Basil Long, Dominion editor, writes that Australia's national individuality is tt i very real and even formidable thing, and not easy for an outsider to define. The intense concentration of the people of eaeli State on its own affairs is very baffling, tempting a visitor at first to think, that there is no real nationality at all, or that it is very superficial. The Australian type is vivid and distinct, i " The effect of the position of AustraI l:a witliin the Empire is highly imporI tant, and events, and the speeches and actions of politicians in relation to the | British Government, are always ruled i by an intense consciousness of it all. The ■ Australian is jealous of his riglit to gov. I ern himself, and resentful of dictation : from outside. He goes further than tlia , citizens of the other Dominions in his immense self-confidence and disdain for , tradition and precedent in political ac-, : tion, in his pride in the leadership he' j has won in political and industrial exi periments, in his belief in the greatness of his own future, and in his readiness

to take ev.ery chance in the faitfU tional game, secure in Hie power tt W own right hand to carry him throngh, W fact, he is more intensely insular thtjlf tho Briton, but, living in a conttawtf his iL'Milarity is continental in bre&Uftr) and louthed with eharacterietia licence. ; Imncralism, in the conventional SflßWt; imost unpopular wherever you go.Jyow. have oi.iv to breathe the word to instant resentment. To the AustrUlMß it eii; goats dictation from 'DottatM Street. At a dinner to tho Princje w Wates, Mr. Barwell, Premier of StfUtH Australia, said that some form of., üßii tary authority for the Empire was d«5) sirable. The remark was received wlttii chilling silence. Australia's impresSlOlJ of Imperialism does less than justice '4 the disinterested and patriotic work Oq many earnest men. < "The mischief has gone ao far," sarf Mr. Long, "that I believe' that anyj scheme of reorganisation of the Imperial system labelled with the hated title perial' would be rejected without tW condescension of giving it Berkwsj thought." It seems almost certain, Iwj continues, that the logic of events ijrill compel Australia to consider before! long the question of its connection. WithJ the British Government. The prcaeatf position is wholly anomalous. Toe ttrcj countries signed the Peace Treaty «* i equal partners, but for all its' effiDfc OH( irteinational questions Australia as veil not have signed. Australia i 4 ! not likely to acquiesce in a sham' {oil ' long. Then is Australia, if tho League j of Nations succeeds, to commnnmta; | direct, ov through Britain? Had J3ritaif<! [ gone to war over Poland, AnstraHw, would have raced to a decision whiew would have strained the coherence off the Commonwealth to the utmost. It is. useless to ignore such a risk. "The system by which Britain afltf [ internationally on behalf 'of the Ddmin<' I ions," the article concludes, "ia obso* ■ lete and dangerous. It is unfair to it hazards repudiation hyit i tiie Dominions, because it throws thejrfj/ back to the place held before tho war. ( Yet any attempt to devise a new plan is likely to .toubb a fatal resentment in ■ the Dominions, and certainly in Aiutrai; lia. "There is one • possible course. The, day is coming when people will ask) themselves whether they wish to keep* their place in the national partnership.' ' I n my judgment there is no doubt about j I the answer. from sentiment,' I Australia will decide that its future lies, within, and not apart from, the British) national system, and she will then have. to set to work to think out a plan, 161 will be in keeping with the tfadltifflj oh the fearlessness of Australian politimiif : the impulse comes from there, and Hot > from here." , ■ J ■ \ , —.: • •