The Dominion. TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1915. BRITAIN'S PART

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2482, 8 June 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1915. BRITAIN'S PART

This is no time for self-congratu-lation, but it is well that we should not forget how tremendous is the part being playecl by Britain in the war. Her Navy has swept the seas clear of everything except the German submarine, and her overseas trade and that of her Allies are proceeding much as usual, while that of Germany and Austria has ceased to exist. On land, it is true, as soma critics have complained, that Bri- ■ tain holds but about one-tenth of the j four hundred miles of the Western ! front in France and Belgium. But ; the British sector on the plains of i Flanders is the sector where the ; battle has always raged fiercest, : where the country permits of the de- ■ ployment of the largest armies, and j where the issue in the Wast will in t all human' probability be fought to ■ its finish. In Gallipoi it is Britain , who, with her Navy and her homo ( and overseas forces, is bearing the | brunt of the fight. It is conceivable that success in any one of the the- ! atrcs of war may turn the scale in ( all the others, and if a rapid and ; decisive result is to be obtained any- j Where it is to Gallipoli that the world , will look for it. Apart from her ( campaigns in Europe, Britain has | a considerable force operating up the Euphrates Valley from the Persian Gulf, and she is guarding the ( Suez Canal, and thus keeping open < the most important maritime high- j way in the world. In South Africa j a British colonial army is in pursuit £ of the well-equipped German garri- t son which has withdrawn to the in- i terior of the country, and is not j likely to. be cornered without the < employment of a large force and ( protracted operations. What would ; in other years have been considered ( colonial campaigns of magnitude are j in progress in the German West j African and East African colonies, ] and in the Pacific it has been the i British who dispatched forces for c the capture and occupation of all < German territory, with the excep- j tion of the Caroline Islands, taken s by the Japanese. Finally it should i not tie forgotten that British troops j co-operated with the Japanese in i the siege of Kiaochau. Our battle- 1 line is a far-flung one circling tho t globe, and when in the end the sum i total oomes to be taken it may well i be found that none of her Allies has < put so much in one way ancj another t into this war as has Britain. This s will be as it should be, for no nation t has more at stake. Defeat, or even i a drawn war, will mean the decline i of all that the British Empire has stood for in the world._ If we would know what that is, it is to be found i very finely summed up in an Ameri- ( can journal, the St. Louis Republic, t an organ which, while by no means I a slavish admirer of Britain and the f British, has no hesitation in making 1 a choice between the principles for « which we and- our enemies stand. 1 Britain may have often been shortsighted and selfish in her foreign policies, arrogant and unsympathetic in her attitude to other nations, but she has opened doors instead of closing them, has shouldered great responsibilities, has been a great force for human betterment, and as this American journal remarks: — "All of which is preliminary to the ol> servation that there is not at the present moment any more effective institution in 1 tho whole world of political fabric tlian 1 the British Empire. Whatever its ma- \ chinery lacks appears to ho supplied by j its spirit. The defects of its body are , made up for by the unity of its soul. Tho ' fact cannot be uainsaid that England, ' which does not begin to "be as logical as i Germany or as systematic as Prance in ■ matters of government, has nevertheless j the knock of making men' step out of their own free will to die in her defence, : She 'has the gift of keeping alive, across tumbling seas, round half a world, the i undying bond that unites tile heart to ; home. She has shown Jrarself indifferent , to the possession of the taxing power . over lier colonies; but what matters it? 1 Those colonies willingly ' tax themselves to send her warships and their sons seize their rifles in time of strife to go to her , aid. Sho has the wisdom fo to train and guide the swarthy children of alien races, and even the foes of yesteryear, that they put their living bodies between England and England's enemies. ... As wo contemplate this wonder of an Empire which is an Empire of the spirit, an Empire whoso philosophy of politics is all wrong, but lor which the costliest things within the gift of man are poured out 1 without stint, wo are moved to wonder whether this is a prophecy of tho future. . . . The British Empire is unscientific. It is unreasonable. But it is mighty, with the greatness of tho soul." That is the British Empire as it appears to an outsider. It is for the supremacy of this ideal of government and honour and good faith that our kinsmen are laying down their lives in Gallipoli and in the fields of France. The end is not .vet in sight, and only by the full concentration of the national effort can victory be secured. 11l New Zealand, as we have pointed out on previous occasions, we have very earnestly to consider whether ways and means may be devised to give our aid on a scale not hitherto contemplated. If we would remain mighty , as a people it will be,through tho greatness of the soul with which we meet and overcome all obstacles in the road to complete and final victory.