EMPIRE SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 207, 21 May 1918, Page 7

EMPIRE SERVICE

IDEAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH FREE SERVICE OF EACH FOR ALL A NEW ZEALAND LEAGUE FOR REALISATION OF THE IDEAL. In an article on "Three Doctrines in Confliot," the "Bound Table" for March contrasts Fruseianum and the llussiuii BeveiuUon vitli the principle of the ConrmomfOisifa. Piuesianism depends on tirt pt'iftr of fear and the power of '"l'righU'iilneas" and "Culture," Bolshevism on tinotion uutl force. Both £;m at voriiv ascendancy and pursue that aim by terrorism. Both repress Teal freedom. Can we, aske the writer, find some more .universal and more lwrinonious ideal which we can eot up with assurance against the crude and corrupting; doctrine of force? He replies that the inspiration of all sound iind enduring political construction is the prinoiplo of the Commonwealth, a community designed to meet the common needs of man founded on tho principle of the service of each for all. The Perfect Commonwealth.

Since a man without liberty is a being bereft of half his manhood, the perfect Commonwealth (says the writer), the ideal to which all political nnd social endeavour moves forward, is » society of free men and women, each at once ruling and being ruied, each consciously giving his service for tho benefit of all. The principle of the Commonwealth is the application to the field.of ■government and social policy of the law of human brotherhood, of the duty of man to his neighbour near and far. From the day when man first felt the neeu for public right, for an impartial arbiter to stand between him and hot passion and bitter need, organisation has been the prop of social life and personal duty. Only through organisation, through citizenship and its related obli-, gations, can man worthily play his part in a largo'scale society. A Commonwealth is an organisation designed with the ruling motive of. love and brotherhood." Its doctrine "Whosoever will be great among you shall be your ■ministar; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall bo the servant of all" is the response of the sonl of mau to the twin challenge of Prussianism and Revolution. , . Criticisms of the Principle. :

■ Yet there are criticisms which muet be met. In theory men will argue, the principle of the Commonwealth holds the iield. Yet how weak is its influence, how paltry its achievements! Christianity has preached tho doctrino of mutual service through twenty centuries, yet behold the ehambles of to-day! Prueeianiem pays iip service to tho Christian State, and the Revolution, in its pororations, drops the language of conflict and makes its appeal to brotherhood. ~Yet, for present purposes both prefer' system's of violence. Admirable and flawless in theory, is the principal of mutual service, compatible in practico, here and now, with the nature of man affjKo see him and know hiin? Can we ask of the toiling masses that they should guide their lives by the light.of so high and distant a beacon? The ar-swei to such doubters is to exhibit the principle of the Commonwealth in living operation and to recall the manifold evidence of its all-pervad-ing vitality. i The Indictment of Prussianism/ Consider, as regards the British Commonwealth, the indictment of Prussian-, ism. "You claim,", it says, "to bo a Commonwealth, to unite beneath one law a quarter of the human race, to have achieved a Roman peace diffuse,d throughout five., continents. Yet, whn't- j ever future!) the goda may .-.reserve for | Prussia, Britain and her Empire at least j seem strickenwith mortality. You talk i of. the law. of mutual eervico. Iβ it I

graven, like the law of Prussia, iin the hearts and minds of your citizens! Have you laboured, as. wo have laboured, to create a race worthy of your Imperial purpose? Have you tamed , tho seetional instincts, uprooted the eelflsh desires; chastened tho unruly wills of your, scattered populations? Wβ look out over your Empire and behold everywhere the dry rot of disunion, the seeds of disloyalty, and decay; here a rebellion, there a conspiracy, here an ignorant denial of duty, there a direct withdrawal of aid, here a cry of secession, and there, at the very heart, voices preaching anarchy and sedition, rallying unchecked in their defence the ignorance you have foreborne to enlighten, the pnssioßs you have foreborne to subdue. . With too easy a rein you have ridden them,- your millions at home and overseas! Wealth you have given them and comfort, and, by onr leave, a long lease of peace. But in your anarchy and scepticism, your contempt for knowledge, your wilful blindness to stern realities, wo see'little trace of your proud doctrine of mutual service, nor is the lazy and good-humored tolerance of Brit-

iflh rule the true fulfilment of the law of Christ."

Tho Reply—Tho All-Pervading Vitality ot tho Principle of the Commonwealth. Truth is contained in this indictment.. Yet were it tho whole truth, the ]Jritish Commonwealth would long eince, in Hies* testing years, havo succumbed in the ordeal and gono tho way of nldor dominions. If it siirrives intact if it has grown in confidence and vitality, in tho consciousness of its purpose and ideal, it is because, side- by side with its rail nres, the spirit of mutual servico is alive and vigorous among ils nations moving from strength to strength in llio '.•ause, not of the Commonweal tli alone but of humanity. The war, indeed, if it has revealed shortcomings, has not found tho British oharacter or British institu. tions wanting. It has endorsed and confirmed them. In fact the Commonwealth has proved itself capable of achieving theso very triumphs of unity and public service) wfiich Pru&sianisin claimod as its monopoly, only to be exploited by itn own fried and tested inctheds-triumphs moreover on Prussia's own cnoson iield ;pi war Six million men nnd more, untouched by the goad of compulsion, offered their lives to the cause of human freedom., Women awoke, as never before in history, to the duty of public service and to the consciousness of their individual gifts and powers. Tho nations of tho Commonwealth near and far, tutored and untutored, poured out their contribution of human dovotioii and material treasure Among tho weaEer races thousands unfitted for the combat went willingly to labour in a strange land. Untrained in tho issues of international polioy, unaooustoined to withstand the blandishment) of foreign intrigue or to tolerate tho suspense and privations, tho curtailments of liberty, the summary and indiscriminate procedures of wnr time, vast populations worked and waited, steadily and in good heart, neither impatient nor vindictive, holding fast to the ideal. Confirmed in its .inner faith tho Commonwealth has begun to strengthen its outward unity also. For the first time the common purpose of its peoples, at Home and overseas, has been embodied iu executive inHtirutions. Men from five continents have come together to frame common decisions. East and West, under the stress of danger, found tho 'inity underlying age-long difformico and met for deliberation in equal partiership. Whilo Prussiiiuism holds down its conquests by slavery and oppression, while the E-ovolution has broken up a continent into its primi-tive-elements, across the mountains, in India, among populations twice as numerous and far more varied than the peoples of Russia, tho spirit of responsibility is awakening nnd the charter of j self-government has besn proclaimed. In j Ireland, too, whore old wrongs still re-1 main to be righted, Risiimon sitting in i orderly convention are seeking to share- i the destinies of their country in a spirit j equally removed from ascendancy unci ! revolution. j

I The Bolshevist Indictment. I But the Bolshevist, too, has his indict■mont. The fetid slum and tho murky alley; the denial of light and air and health; the sunless outlook and tho soulr less labour; tko back bowed down not by drudgery only, but by servilo fear; the mind shut out from the contemplation of knowledge and beauty; inequalities, oi wealth and power'and circumstances darkening every nspeot and relation of social existence. The indictment cannot be denied. For a century Mammon, has bestridden, and still bestrides, tho world. His standards, conflicting at every stage With tho standards of the Common, wealth, have been <embodied in law, in custom, and in the social code. / Changes on the March; A Presage of tho Future. Yet here, too, change is on the march. In these islands men.are unlearning the outworn shibboleth of "Business is business'' and seeking new and fruitful application, of the doctrino of the Conunonwoalth, ■ The first 'and most necessary step, to enlarge the range of popular responsibility and control; hasafready been takoh. Amidst the unremitting stress of war, the electorate has been doubled and women called into .fill their rightful place in, tho common life. Education, the key of the future, is at last being extended, if as yet but timidly. Labour 'has received a charter of its equality with the.other agents of production, <aud has been called, through its representative organisations, into partnership with management, to control the - conduct of their common services. Tho burden of the State is being placed moro and nioru upun ; tho shoulders of those who best can ■ bear it. ' .

Yet these changes are but the symbol and presage of what is yet to come. For in these years of common anxiety anil common danger, many inward barriers have been broken down and men have learnt to face tho meaning and consequences of their faith. If the idea of the Commonwealth is to be truly realised, if tho free service of each for all is to be a reality in the industrial field, men must, turn their minds, as they are already turning them, ,toa wido reform and reordering o£ the conditions of life for the mass of the people.'; Shorter Lours of labour, and .in annual holiday on full pay for 'rest and travel, protection for all who work against the accident of unemployment; aiore control by the workman over the conditions of,-lua occupation; buildings'for him to work in designed npt merely for machines, but for men, planned for convenience and even for beauty; a home, not a brick box, to live in; a town, not a mean monotony of streets, to stir his civic pride; better schools and a longar education for hie children, _&o that they may. grow, body and mind, to tnq full staturo of manhood; tho absorption by the community, rather- than by the capitalist, of the surplus profits of production; justice, informed and impartial, -to support and enforce tho claim of freedom wherever it is denied or endangered; above all, an open gateway for everyone, young and old, into the realms of kuowledgo and beauty, and the recognition, not in laws only, but in- social customs and institutions, of the spiritual , basis of the Commonwealth and tho equality of all its citizens in the eyes of 6ociety as in the eyes of God—such are the conditions through which, for all who. work, the spirit of public service will replace tne spirit of private gain as the dominating motive of their toil.

If is to encourage this spirit of mutual public service, to help translate this principle into practical effect, that the Einpiro Service League was founded at Hastings last year. The league has been worting . quietly and unostentatiously, and hue. established branches at several centres. With a view to formulating a common practical programme, arranging for the organisation, extension, and distribution of the labour of the league's members, and providing the funds that nro necessary if tho league is to do eit'ective work, a conference of delegates from the several groups is to bo opened by the Mayor at the Town Hall on Thursday next at 10 a.m. The Acting-Primo Minister (the Hon. Sir James Allen) has signified his intention of being present, and tho operations of tho league from its foundation and the outlook for the future will be reviewed by Mr. Peroival Withorby, its founder and geiienu secretary