THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1386, 12 March 1912, Page 7

THE BRITISH EMPIRE

A FRENCH VIEW. DEMOCRACY RIUCING Till-; PACI-l. To the "Ucvue des Deux Moiults" M. Pivrrc. .U-niy-lSeanlieii lias contributed an article treating of the organisation uf flic British Kinpire. It i-. of special and importance, because it iMii'iders uii? of the Ki-Uvi'st problems of our race and tiiiiii , frem a dciached and dispassionate .standpoint. M. I'ierre Lein.v-Ueaulii.-u is the brother ul the famous 1 lvudi ecuniimUt. Ho lias himself travelled widely, and seen the. cities and wavs of many peoples. Jle has the large uiitlook im affairs. He is a friendly and a sympathetic, critic, and his judgment is not warped hy that parli.-aii bias which is apt to alik-ct even the miM honest opinion in Great Britain. Jle begins by expressing satisfaction with the prominence assumed by Imperial affairs in the past year, at the pluts accorded to the. Dominions in the Coronation riles, at the Imperial Conference, ;\t the Canadian elections, ami the. splendid ceremonies of the Durbar. He declares that friends of peace will have every reason to rejoice. "If all these event.?, combined with the international crisis of lust summer, lead the British people, completely absorbed as they have been for some time in questions .of internal policy, tu turn their attention to that wider world in which their Kmpire holds so vast a place and constitutes so precious a support of the general balance, of power." "Conquest has foundfd the. Empire; liberty maintains it." But will that liberty secure its permanent existence? "Tha freedom which each of the various members of the British J'.mpiri> enjoys as against all the others seems to many people a little anarchical." There is no central institution which can legislate for the whole Empire. Its political unity is theoretical rather than actual; it only Tests on the. good will of tho various .States. The aim of Imperialism in the truest sense of the word is to draw closer and strengthen the bunds 'of sentiment between the .Mother Country and her "emancipated daughters." Value of Imperial Preference. Notwithstanding apparent set-backs, be thinks that real progress has'been achieved in. recent years. Tho .Mother Country now receives preferential treatment in all the Dominions, and 11. Leroy-Beaulieu holds that the preference iii Australia will be of even greater value .when tho Panama Canal is opened, and American energy makes a great bid for Australian trade. In Canada the preference lias achieved :i "remarkable result." in Uiivitl matters the establishment of an Australian lleet unit and the gift by New Zealand of a Dreadnought mark a distinct advance. In the military sphere, M. I.eroy-Beaulieu points out that Australia and New Zealand have reorganised their militias in accordance with the decisions of tho Defence Conference of l!! 0!) and with the plans prepared by Lord Kitihener. Canada has shown more hesitation, yet she, too, has consented to curry out a. programme prepared by General Trench which will give her six divisions. There are two great dangers on the horizon for-the Empire, according to .M. Leroy-Beaulieu. Tho first arises from "(he co-existence of two British Empires, —namely, the white Empire of the Mother Country and the self-governing Dominions with their sixty millions of white inhabitants; and the coloured Empire, comprising India and its dependencies, the Crown colonies of Asia, Africa, the East Indies, and Oceania, with their 350 millions of Hindus, of yellows and blacks."" White and .Coloured Empire Here i.s a source of grave difficulty. The Mother Country's attitude.to the subject races differs entirely from that of tho Dominions. An Australian critic, Mr. Edmund, writing in the "National lieview," has even suggested that Britain will one day-be forced to decide,Tietwcen i her white and , coloured Empire. The French author-treats , this'brusirue statement with gentle irony. "If they- were left to themselves, the Australians-would-quickly lx> taught at the mouths of the enemy's gtins—since they would not learn it in any other way—the real truth concerning the inferiority of certain coloured races. We may ask whether, in view of the "scanty immigration into Australia—an immigration which tho trade unions that reign there stupidly try to limit—it is possible for that country to resist eternally the pressure of the yellow races, which are increasing much faster. But if there is any Power which can defend Australia, it is assuredly 'England, and England alone." In South Africa the state of affairs is much the same. The strength of the Mother.Country is a protection, not only against the bhek peril which has not yet developed, but also against a "German conquest to wlik-h neither the colonists of British descent nor the Boers, eager as they are for the fullest freedom, would submit." Only in tbe ease, of Canada can Britain give no real help against any external danger. An Imprudent Democracy. The secDir.l dinger to the Empire is almost as serious. "The British aristocracy which, in real fact, if not in name, governed Great Britain up In the end of the nineteenth century, was a pastinnster in the art of temporisation and compromises. Indifferent to the absolutism of logic, it was ready to allow time and the natural process of evolution to modify tbe relations between tho various authorities in the Empire. The powers of these authorities it was careful not to define with excessive precision. Biit for this precaution there would have, been sharp friction, ami the faculty of evolution might have been lost. But the British democracy, Unionist as well as Kndical, and the democracies of the Dominions, like all democracies have a tendency to impatience, to logic, to precision. Just as nu automatic mechanism has been set up in Britain to decide cOnllicts between tho Lords and Commons by suppressing tho transactions which are t.he very essence of a Parliamentary regime, so certain people will be eager, like Sir Joseph Ward, to build n federal Constitution for the. Empire and impose minute regulations on the relations between the Mother Country and the Dominions." This, (he French critic thinks, wo\ild be a "grave imprudence." The.near future, may, however, see a Customs or military defence union. The tide of public opinion seems to be setting in that direction. .