The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1917. COMMONWEALTH OR EMPIRE?

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15340, 1 October 1917, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1917. COMMONWEALTH OR EMPIRE?

Discussing the above subject, the New York Times suggests that perhaps the most valuable contribution that the war has as yet given to all nations-is the growing sense of nationality united to the spirit of international brotherhood. Even England has been surprised, and happily, to find that the bonds of the British Empire have not only endured the strain* of the mightiest of wars but have grown stronger, stronger than she could ever have hoped they might grow under the conception of empire she held a hundred or even fifty years ago. For that great lesson in empire-building she has in great part to thank her own mistake of more than a century ago in regard to America. That lesson she took to heart and improved upon it. Ae a British writer says: "Half a century and more ago we cast our bread of liberty upon the waters, and after many days it has returned to us at Anzac, at Ypres, at Vimy, and in the presence at our councils of those who have fed upon it." Ae a matter of fact, says the American journal from which we quote, the term British Empire is now a misnomer, at least if the old imperial signification is still to be attached to the word empire. A new name is needed, commonwealth or some other, more aptly descriptive of that congeries of--State* which are now held together "without constraint or force," in which respect it differs radically from the German Empire and the conceptions of the State, which, as Treitschke declares, must have the right to merge into one the nationalities contained within itself. As to the German process of merging and the manner of it, the Times thinks the world has a good example to-day in Belgium, which Germany is seeking to merge into itself, and without possession of which, as the late General von Bieeing declared, Germany must lose the war. Concluding, the Times says: Of the manner in which the British Empire has been moulded and blended into the effective whole which is a unit to-day few Britishers themselves, perhaps, .have a definote conception. As South Africa's great man, General Smuts, recently remarked, the man who finds a proper name for this process api its results will do a real service to the Empire. General Smuts himself gave the idea, even if he cannot properly name it, when he acclaimed Great Britain as the senior partner in a common concern. That is the role she is filling to-day, and the world after the war will probably see it ©till further .carried out and realised in an Imperial Parliament.