"COLONIES" AND " COLONIAL."

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15871, 10 April 1917, Page 6

"COLONIES" AND " COLONIAL."

THE QUESTION OF TERMS. |p ■ i^i- 1 (FROM OCT OWN COfcAKSrOX&EXT.) g^v LONDON, February 27. Tho hardy annual controversy the uso of tho term "Colonies" was rfr.'r"'. vived tho other day at tho Royal Colo-;.\ uial Institute. In the course of a de* v bato Mr A. Fisher, High Commissioner * for Austraiia, said lie did not know . how tho Institute camc by thte' name, Vi but ho presumed that like most of us, in its infant days it had small say in its y christening. "But," he added, "you will permit mo to say just this: 'lio Australian, tho Canadian, the New Zealandor. aa I havo known him, lays no claim to bo called a colonial." Shaking a day or two later at tJnivoiisity College. Mr Massey remarked, "Personally Ido not object to the uso ■ of tho terms 'Colony' or 'Colohiftl.'" This, of oourso, has »et the grand-, lnotherly "Morning Post" busy with its overseas opinions and rominiscehccs, 'Tho general view this time of poop Co. who arfc" associated with tho IJo-" 4 . minions is that there is really nothing . derogatory itt tho tefhi "Goldriiftl," ana that they Would just as 00011 bo called colonials as anything else. By tho • way, has any decision yet been arrived if-, i.'it as to what is the adjoctivo derived', from "Dominion?" MEANING OF, EMPIRE. Another "terminological incxacti-.. tudo'' which seems to have escaped' . notice for a few years past, and to havo grotvh to almost a position of rcspectabiLity, is the uso of the fcfcrm w "Jimpirc" in its abstract sens© to refer to tho British Empire. Without tho particle, "Empire" means ulmont oxactly the opposito of tho British Jimpire, but by the ingenious wording of' tho "Standard of Ifinipli'o" a few years ago it has como to be used almost re- v , gularly by platform shakers, who are inoro concerned with tile sound than with tho meaning.

Mr A. Lynch, member for Co. Clare, brought the matter before the notion of tho Government this Week whfctt ho asked if the Chancellor of tho Exchequer would set up a email committed including delegates of the dominions to the War Council, to consider tho objections to the use of the word Emgira in official documents on account of its associations in history, and its present implication, according to German usage, of military domination, and to suggest in placo of Empire a term which should apply to tho community of nations of which this country «nd the Dominions form part, and wbiefcshould bo consistent with the freedomof development of each of the parts ' according to its destiny. Mr Bonar Law said the answer was in tho negative. Mr Lynch asked ' whether he would be in order in usinjr tho term Renublic, which, though n< more in accordance -with fact than Empire, had a brighter significance. Mr Bonar Law evidently did not like to enter into discussion, and he gttve a soft answer to turn awav wrath: "I. do not know what term two lion, gentleman would be in order in using. But I am sure his profound philoiogicaJ studies must have taught him that the meaning of a word does not necessarily depend upon the root from which it lias ansen. and, therefore the word Empire does not necessarily moan military despotism." (Hear, hoar),