THE WORD “BRITISH”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 7 December 1927, Page 9

THE WORD “BRITISH”

BETTER DESCRIPTION WANTED. “An Australian invites me to invent a better won! than British and l Briton for our common citizenship i of the Empire. He says that he does i not like to call himself a Briton, or > to declare that he is a Britishman. ■ He abominates the dreadful word 1 Britisher. He wants a word that 1 will stir his pride and his patriotism,” writes Mr James Douglas in the “Daily Express.” , “He dislikes the sound of Briton, ’ British and Britisher. They are , gritty and discordant sounds. They I are too local and parochial. They are insular. They mean nothing to Englishmen, Scotsmen, Welshmen. ' Irishmen, Canadians, Australians, ’ and South Africans. “I do not believe that a eode word j for the citizenship or comradeship of the Empire can be invented or enforced. The sentiment exists, but ; therb is no name for it, because it is | too complex to be named. It is a , compound of love for the birthplace and love for the union of all the , birthplaces. It is a mixture of all the homes and all the races and all the loyalties to them as a whole, in which the place-names and placesentiments are mingles. “British is the only epithet which 1 covers the whole field of loyalties. H we cannot all persuade ourselves that we are Britons we can at least glory

in being British and in being British ers, with British fidelities and obligations. “These words are inadequate, but they are the best we have got. We can charge them with a richer significance and symbolism. Our poets can fuse them with their poetiy. They can be vitalised with reverence and romance. There is no reason why all our ideals should not be poured into them. Briton, British and Britisher may become trumpet words. We have nothing better.”