The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1933. BY-PRODUGTS OF ACTION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 955, 27 December 1933, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1933. BY-PRODUGTS OF ACTION.

-n>rUCH MORE IMPORTANT than Captain Dorling’s observations on naval affairs, helpful though they are, is his interest in a training scheme for mercantile cadets. In studying it from the colonial viewpoint he will find that the mercantile marine makes a much stronger appeal than the Navy to young colonials of an adventurous mind. An expert of “ Taffrail's ” standing, indeed, might be able to answer some very interesting questions about the attitude of mind of the colonial towards the Navy in relationship to discipline and pay and leisure—an attitude of mind which is a definite legacy from the freer outlook and ambitions of our pioneers. It was a detached observer, Mr Walter H. Page, American Ambassador to Great Britain during the war, who declared that there was no danger of militarism in any harmful sense among any English race or in any democracy, and the greater swing away from militarism or iron discipline in the overseas Dominions is probably compensated for by a keener appreciation of the things that have made Britain great. Mr Page put his finger on the secret of Britain’s success when he wrote prophetically of the end of the war: Think of the vast increase of territory and power Great Britain will have—her colonies drawn closer than ever, the German colonies or most of them taken over by her, Baghdad hers. What a way Germany chose to lessen the British Empire ! And these gains of territor}' will be made, as most of her gains have been, not by any prearranged set plan, but as by-products of action for some other purpose. . . . From first to last the additions to the British Empire have been made because she has been a first-class maritime Power. Mr Page was not without his ambitions for America, and what he then advised—“ Build ships, ships, ships, ships and run them to the ends of the seas and we can dominate the world in trade and in political thought ” —is exactly what America is trying to do to-day with her enormous shipping subsidies. It is in the survival of the British mercantile marine primarily that the salvation of the Empire lies, and colonials appreciate the vital importance of that fact to a degree that makes the overseas Dominions eager for action that will meet the challenge from other quarters. THE KING’S MESSAGE. NOTHING could emphasise more strongly the wonder of the age in which we live than the fact lha Lithe voice of the King is able to ring round the world direct to the peoples of the world’s greatest Empire. To the British people there is an importance and a significance attaching to wireless that are shared by no other nation. In so many directions—in policy', in ideals, in aspirations—is the homogeneity of the Empire continually' demonstrated. It was only' this barrier of distance, with its penalty of indirect and deferred communication, that tended to place the ban of isolation and insularity' on the widely' severed parts of the earth where men of the British race live. That barrier has been removed by wireless. No matter where he may be—in a city' in Canada, in the wastes of Australia, in the mountains of New Zealand—a citizen of the world Empire is able, sitting in his own home, to hear the voice of his King greeting him across those miles of ocean that science has annihilated. Thus there is restored to the Briton overseas that which his forefathers lost when they left their native soil—the personal contact witli the occupant of the throne. The once sundered Empire is sundered no longer. The King is as close and as personal to us here in New Zealand as he is to those of our kin in the metropolis of the Empire. Distances have become mere geographical terms, carrying no real significance. Science has given the King an omnipresence unparalleled in history', and has provided for the Empire a bond undreamed of when the pioneers fared overseas to plant the flag.