IDEALS OF EMPIRE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18407, 13 June 1925, Page 13

IDEALS OF EMPIRE.

NEAR-EASTERN DEVELOPMENTS. TALK ON. MESOPOTAMIA. (nox ova -o*s coasMroxaixT.}. LONDON, 3£ay 6. Sir L. S. Amery's first public appearance as a speaker, after his re turn from Mesopotamia, was at the Guildhouse oa Sunday afternoon. It will be recollected that'this building, with its rather striking and uncommon interior decora ties, is the headquarters of Miss Maude Boydcn, who always has a largo following thore. "Ideals of Empire'* was the subject of tho ColoniaL Secretary's address. Wealth, population and power of an Empire were very little in themselves, he said, unless the? were justified by tho idea<s for which they stood. What were the ideals which underlay and shaped tho development of tho British Empire? - Mr Amery said ho might sun trp the part tho British Empire had played: ha the development of on ideal by saying it represented the most successful attempt yet mado at harmonising- tho two greatprinciples of peace, order and law on tho ono hand, and. <& .political freedom on tho other.. These tw Ideala had appealed to tho needs and imagination of mankind from the very dawn of history and the problem had ever been to reconcile them. . The Earliest Bmaa of aspire. Ho had just eomo back from a visit to. a region of the world which, perhaps owing to the physical configomtfett of th<j country, was the earliest home of empiro in the sonso that empire stood for order, law, and peace within aeertain area. They had in the old eountry of Mesopotamia a vast alluvial plain created by the si2t of two mighty river*. Naturally the country was either deaert or marsh,- but by the collective effort ot man over a: large area and by a working plan on a large scale it could ba transformed into one of tho richest and moßt fertile countries of the wotML That was not a task, however,th*t ' primitive man would ' undertake by voluntary co-operatiotL It was osly a strong sovereign authority, backed, doubt, by tho influence of a compeUieff religion, whieh enab)ed : -the peopW of Babylon to combine to build gnat irrigation canals" and' allot the xwuni #f water to a .whole countryside, and then, when civilisation and wealth. had beat built up to defend the Empire ' frow fierce raids. An. empire ia ssom was the naturaloutcome of ita' ceadi- . tions. .While, the ideal which it-xepre- . sented was being extended in tha OMI "World they got in little, mountain i secluded valleys in Greeeean entirety different form, the beginnings bf telfl government. The Greek city Stetea" represented the highest poasiblo fana of human self-government. Then - two ideals came into conflict in th* warn - between Greece and Persia. ' __ . Tho Empire of Rome stood in the .first instance for a wide extension of citizenship, and represented in its day a great ideal. When that'gnat State* broke down Ijtarope confusion where there . traa atfciws* order, nor peaee, nor law. v » r <. „* He phased from this period to a reviewl of the histoky of lis of Britain and the meaonjby whSgh thfe' . eountry Jhad set out to rceond tft- - sjtwag government" could maintain jeaee and law freedom." ' , v . Afttie speaking of the'eireuimrtaßae* V which led. to the. secession.of tbe Apal-V. can colonies he said that i Ivra.couraged the of cotenlew?;\iat> Dominions. .We hadcraated a vaatJSppt-- [ pire of free ' nations enjoying«evwy - privilege and power.that'tte'-KaWkw'. I Country'itself j to . the .Mother Country-v dition, by, ' cpmnyjh - by that underlying" J faith in - unity' which 1 * ynm •- embodied in loyally to r ar dMam#**€iwwß»- . Where British soldiers or "<<j had to deal with Apoeit&m ia ; 1 Whjsre .by -/£<jrba'' « stances:, thegr had create order aad- peaee^i."U^T3 x W'. , brought inthoseelementaof 1 , l constitution and thswe ideals >] I been applicable,to fte t>t(litMW».3BH9,'' ' was -- no -iplaee*"ia Wherever-there-had-beea.'*' pwiwyy pf conceding it we^to^^i^ j --/■ conceded a measure jr^ In Iraq we had '»it *p a aatlte'liijt dom and Parliament wtth an rtww«l» tive By stem; of- ita je^^ki; •** vic ° and aide by side with the MuTS omfMmof the eountry thero AWtia - number of British advlaera oftfca' Odm> •oil- helpihg. and, snppjSTtisg^t^i^^j,-®®v, f ,, result,\ would bo thai yri»hi»,y .*«* years we should have tlwra of a primitive people' by tlptses* rulers, and goverament*of a v Sa^h&te*-- * type thaJl could have bees lmnpl '*i being 'direetly "wiihout Blilalf . or assistance. 1 ■> * v * - ->*