CONSOLIDATION OF EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 2456, 8 May 1915, Page 5

CONSOLIDATION OF EMPIRE

LESSONS OF THE WAR

PART IN IMPERIAL CONTROL

STATEMENT BY, MINISTER OF DEFENCE

Consolidation of Empiro was tho oasis of an interesting address delivered bv tho Minister of JJefonco (tho Hon. Jas. Allen) at the annual meeting of tho Victoria League last night. After thanking tlio league for their assistance since the war broke out, Mr. Allen said that the task before tho Empire was an enormous one, and it wanted tho efforts of every single individual to help on the end. Everybody should be doing something unselfishly to help the Empire. ''Tliero are problems," continued Mr. Allen, "which come to us for consideration, and if possible for solution. You hear rumours that the Empire is to be consulted about tho terms of peace. Well, it is easy to talk about consulting all the Dominions about terms of peace, but when we come to think about it, it becomes a more difficult problem. Are we to be called to London before peace is declared, to talk over the terms of peaco or Jiot? Of couisc, it is patent unless you call got together to talk about tho terms of peaco there is very little opportunity for consultation.

"1 want to talk about the principle of your league. As 1 understand it, it stands not for Now Zealand, but for Empire; the linking up of Home and the outlying parts of Great Britain. If this is tho idea of the league, may I ask the members to be patient for a few minutes while I try and put before you some things I think ought to be occupying your minds in the near future? There are other huge problems which tho Empire has to face, and these problems circle around the idea of control, of one single control of tho Empire. In all questions of peaco and war, as you know, tho Imperial Parliament decide for us, and the Imperial statesmen settle all these things. You cannot let your minds wander into tho Tuturo without recognising that tliis lifavte of things cannot exist for ever. The growth of those great Dominions is eyidciico that some change must tako place before this Empiro can be consolidated into one great whole. Eveu now Canada is clamouring at the door of the Imperial Home for representation, and for a say in all things which concern diplomacy, peace, and war. And wo out here are gradually becoming alive to the fact that wo no longer aro the Mother Country's babes, and tied to the apron .strings of the Mother Country. We are of age, and beginning to think for ourselves, and we have before us a realisation of the great Empiro in which we occupy a part. A Change Necessary. "No one of us knows what all this development is to result in, but may I' ask you to try and think about the problem, and I, am going to. suggest one or two ideas ill luy own mind. If we have aiiy brains we have to exorcise them into considering how the Empire is to be consolidated into one whole, and that the statesmen of tlio Mother Country cannot always retain the guidance of our political actions, and the means by which we settle questions between ourselves and other nationalities. Well, ladies and gentlemen, my own firm belief is that there can be'no sudden change at a moment to do away with existing conditions and start a new Empire altogether; but I do think in the process of time evolu-' tion will take place, and is taking place. If there is one lesson to learn from this war it is the lesson that a nation cannot be built up by extravagance, or idleness, or wealth alone, but it must be built up out of simplicity and earnest endeavour, and I believe, with religion behind it. Well, I say there can be no sudden catastrophe which will suddenly change us from what ,we are today into a consolidated whole, but a gradual evolutionary step, which, if wo behave oursolves, probably will lead us into right lines. This ovolution has been going on, and changes aro greater than many of us think. Value of Imperial Conferences. "You know, of course, that in tho process of time Imperial Conferences have been called. 'These Imperial Conferences have done very much greater work than many people think. I commend you to read the reports, and you will realise how wo aro gradually being brought together by the consultation of these minds. Theso Imperial Conferences are not the only things. There is a development which is not known much about, the development of a Committee of Imperial Defence. Now, this committee is one of the most curiously constituted committees in the world. It has no permanent constitution at all. Tho only permanent part of it is the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and nobody else, and he has power to call whosoever he likes to his counoil, to constitute this Committee of Imperial Defence, and from time to time he does issue invitations for various people to como together and talk over these matters, and when I was in England as Minister of Defence I had the opportunity of twice being invited to discuss these matters, when we discussed the defenco of New Zealand. You can see, if you think what enormous effect this committee may and must have upon the Empire generally, _ for nearly, always when there is a Minister belonging to the Dominions in England an invitation is sent to him to be present. One does feel as one comes away from a meeting of this committee that there docs exist there at any rate a basis upon which some kind of consilidation may. exist in tlie future, more consolidation than exists, at any rate, to-day. "What may happen after this war should como to an end? I predict that the meetings of tho Imperial Defence Committee will bo mare frequent, and also Imperial Conferences, instead of being held once in four years, will probably be held once in two. *'\Ve all look forward to tho Empire that will spring out of this war greater than the one before, because we shall havo gone through a time of trial, and leapt a lesson we no doubt wanted to learn. It was said by our enemies that our Empire has degenerated, that Englishmen have lost their virility, that we aro decadent, and so on, and tho great German army thought that once it drew the sword it would not meet the kind of individual met in tho olden days. I don't think we have degenerated. I think possibly wo were on the road to degeneration, and I aui liotat all suro that this war is not a blessing in disguise.

| "If it is going to save the Empire t from going down, well, it will be a blessing to us, and. I think, a blessing to humanity generally. If we read the story of the war right, and I havo no doubt wo do, we must realise that those opposed to us, saturated as they aro with militarism, and placing all _ their, thoughts into military life aad military exigencies, havo developed characteristics which cannot belong to a great nation. They have Jost their idea of filie value of lii'o, and their ideals of humanity. Tho war has proved unquestionably, 1 think, that we British people still retain our virility, we still maintain and take hold of many of those vii'inos which made our Empire in [lie past, made Great Britain what it had become, and it still possesses the same virtues which are still tho basis of great nationalities. AVo are, I think, iust as a nation. I think wo are righteous as a nation, and I believe we are humane. WVil, wo have Lo hold on to those virtues, and think out tho problem of consolidating all these, littlo .parts into a whola," (Agjjlau6o.)