UNITY OF THE EMPIRE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 11578, 29 January 1913, Page 4

UNITY OF THE EMPIRE.

Anyone who listened on Monday night" to Mr Evelyn Wrench and Miss Wrench, with an unbiassed mind, must have come to the conclusion that they were sincere, and sincerity is a virtue even divorced from originality. Mr Wrench stated that the Overseas Club did not stand for "jingoism and flagwagging." They did not believe in people sitting in easy-chairs and boasting that "they belonged to the greatest nation in the'world." But one thing the Club did endeavour to teach, and that was the great responsibility entailed on those who were British subjects. At present the British nation owned about a fifth of the world's surface (this is not a boast —it is a fifth), and had to rule that huge territory in a just and righteous manner. Every unit of tho Empire was part of the mighty whole (some of them think they are the whole of a mighty part, which, as Euclid once remarked, is positively absurd), and as a unit it had its part to do. "The fact," said Mr Wrench, "that in the Argentine and Chili the words ' the word of a Briton' were considered binding in any contract (much the same is related of the Chinese, but their reputation in this respect extends beyond Chili and the Argentine), was a testimony to the position which the British nation occupied in the world at present." He said the Overseas Club did not hold with the "jingoistic" spirit, and we are pleased to hear it (its promoters have so often changed their Imperialistic coat). We already have had too much of this brand of patriotism. People have got into the habit of saying, "we are the people, and no one else counts for anything,'' but when it comes to proving that such is the case the people who have the most to say keep religiously in the background. Mr Wrench says that the Overseas Club is endeavouring to get hold of the children of foreign residents in our Dominions, and teach them to become loyal British subjects, and as this is a loyal object it has our sympathy. Anything that will knit the bonds of Empire closer is worthy of support. The Overseas Club, if it sticks loyally to the objects for which it was formed, should be a power for good in the British Empire.