The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1911. A GOOD BEGINNING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1138, 27 May 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1911. A GOOD BEGINNING.

_ To those who, like ourselves, have little patience with the nolicy of meddling with the foundations of the Empire—and they arc the vast majority of New Zealanders who are really keen on Imperial problems— the withdrawal of Sir Joseph Ward's principal motion at the Imperial Conference will be matter 'for unbounded satisfaction. It is impossible not to feel a little sorry for tho Prime Minister, to whom it must have been a painful surprise to find his first two motions condemned byall his colleagues, and condemned too in such unqualified terms. At the same time his - experience ought to have salutary results for him. Ho will probably begin to realise what, on looking back through our files, we find we uave told him positively scores of times, namely, that honour and usefulness in the consideration of Imperial problems cannot come to anybody who is content to concentrate all his attention on petty local affairs, who leaves history unread, and who fancies that uttering loyal platitudes about tho Empire is equivalent to Imperial thinking. Of the excellence of Sir. Joseph Ward's intentions, even .'in proposing an "Imperial Council of State," and an Imperial Parliament in which the Dominions would be represented, there can be no doubt. Nor need anybody doubt his sincerity in bringing forward his motion. On the contrary, _ the absurdity of his scheme is the best guarantee that ho was sincere about it. But, as we sometimes grow weary of'insisting, the sincere but uninstructed meddler is really far more clangorous to the Empire than the skilful thinker who is insincere. While, therefore, Sir Joseph Ward has made tho bad beginning that his behaviour since 1907 must have led most observant people to expect, the Conference has made a beginning remarkably good. It is very important that there be no' confusion as to what the Conferenec has done. The proposition before it was, not the endorsement of the .patent Parliament upon which Sir Joseph Ward waxed enthusiastic, but the endorsement of the much milder, if more vague, scheme of a Council of State advisory to the British Government on questions affecting tho self-governing colonies. The rejection of this proposal is a full endorsement of our belief that the Conference will always be reasonably conservative. Writing on September 14 of last year we ventured the opinion that thoughtful people would he pleased with the Blue-book issued by the British Government at the end of ( las f - July, in which was recorded the progress made since the ■1907 Conference. What we then said we should like to quote here, as it ia what we wish to say upon the significance of the present Conference's decision:

To the inpatient spirits who long disinterestedly lor a patpnt Enipire, and to those others whose Imperialism is not quite untainted by interest in the success of a particular policy, tho placidity of the interval siuco the Conference will be very welcome and reassuring. For there seemed in 11)07 to be every likelihood that tho Empire might be thrown into a ferment of reconstruction and change. The popular idea certainly was that everything was ready for the delivery of the Empire into tho hands of the carpenters and the masons, and that the work would bo put in hand just as soon as the architects at the Conference, had agreed upon tho plans. That nothing much has been done, and that nobody seems to have wanted to do very ionch, of ?i r '? cli , c , nl sorl '> m *l' suggest to some minds' that tho Conferences are formal farces ot no value. Surely, however, the correct conclusion is no more than that the limpiro is too largo and ponderous a system to be moved rapidly. Politicians arc apt to get into tho habit of thinking of tho iinpire as a thing to bo changed at will, tho only essential being the agreement of a score of gentlemen iittin* round a table. But since the Empire is like human nature in the vnstness and gravity of its processes, and in its independence of the resolutions of Coner«<4s imd Councils those politicians need not feel surprised that the intensely serie°s Conference of 1907, dosntte the great ability of many of the delegates to it, a S had no greater effect upon the find" mentals of tho Empire than is exereiid upon human nature by the operations" of any political theory whatsoever. It is a good thing to know that the Empire canno bo forced out of the course of its fW <l "; el °P mcil t by artificial means. Change will come when the time is ripe for change-not soonor, and not later

The Conference will of course recommend any improvements that can bo made- in the present means of securing unity in Imperial policy and that is all it need do. When ho returns to New Zealand the Prime Minister will doubtless nave had time to ponder sufficiently upon the fate of his motion to have discerned the Jesson to him and to this country. He will, we trust, have grown accustomed to his new discovery that the Empire is not a Road Board that can be reconstructed with a stroke of the pen. He n u a ? havo begun to Srasp the fact that the Empire is not an ornamental idea, but a vast mass of realities which are rooted far back in history and which arc affected every day by tho politics of the rest of the world. The reception given to his airy proposal musb have been a revelation to him; we hope that it will have the effects of revelation upon the New Zealand public. We have before now complained that Mr. Chamberlain's well-meant recommendation to "think Imperially" has been very harmful, having turned people's mindsout of the region of facts into the airy Atmosphere of disordered bombast. Tho decision of the Conference is a wholesome cold douche upon this feverish state of mind. Even if, on his return, the Prime 'Minister does not show signs that he has learned his lesEon, the way

has been opened for the public to learn that lesson for itself. And that lesson is, that instead of playing with the idea of Empire and doting upon the Tyrian purple of the Imperialist's customary rhetoric, the best service we can, as a people, do to ourselves and to our kindred nations, is to put our country into such a condition, financially, morally, and economically, as will make it a healthy limb of the Empire in time of great crisis. It may seem a drab policy: deeds instead of words, labour instead of festival, hard facts instead of pretty fancies. But the result is worth striving for: quiet security and honour instead of danger and disgrace.