Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 16th, 1920. ABREAST OF the TIMES.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 March 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY, MARCH 16th, 1920. ABREAST OF the TIMES.

Our preesut King electrified millions when returning from overseas travel he delivered his famous “Wake up ’ speech. His son, the Prince of Wales, who is to sail to-day on his New Zea_ land-Australia tour, has also produced a sensation in describing what he hgs learned during the war and in his tour through Canada and the United States. Grave and reverend seignors charged .with great [responsibilities of State Plfiter listening to the heir-apparent, were surprised. The Prince, helped i>y close contact with men from important outposts sees the vast importance of a right understanding and a proper adjustment of relations between those various States or nations which together form wlmt is called the British •Empire. Sir J. Rj, .Seeley years ago, in “The Expansion of England,” raised this personal and very important subject. He declared that the Greek idea of identifying city andi State was obso. lete that an Englishman when be travels believes that he takes his State with him. The Roman idea, of empire was a military garrison planted in a conquered territory. There have been many attempts fo buij.d up empires by various peoples in the last threp th-jii-sand years or more, but they have all been comparatively fethort-liVed. The British Empire survives, and that is because it i,s rlifjierent from all other ex-

periments. Others havp l.\een attempts mechanically to forge unions of alien HatlmmJifc.ips, apd they have betrayed a violent military character. Once only did our fathers through pp. upipteiiigent minority essay such an up r lsrjj:ivi task, a»d that was not even upon a;i alien nation. It provoked an eruptha (but happily the nation survived it. The reason why our history is so different from that of pi-ecpding empires is that in the proper sense of flip >yoid we are not an empire at »H, hut a vital union of individual personalities

cemented by blood, religion, language, and sacrifice. Wie are not an artificial fabric, but a family of nations. This constitutes the reason why Sir John Seeley, wrote as lie did, and why the Prince of Wales, General Smuts, and many others dislike the word ‘Em pire”. General Smuts declares that the man who will find a proper name for this system of free nations will do real service to the Empire. He l rmself prefers to speak of '-'the commonwealth of nations,” and the Princp of clip British 'commonwealth of free nations.” A prominent member at .the Peace table has said that our problem is not only the future of Europe, but that of the commonwealth of British nations scattered over the earth, dependent for its very existence on worldwide communications. It is the problem of the constitutional adjustment and relationship of British nations. Tim youngest of them all, Australasia is vividly and acutely conscious of her

birth—her re-birth—as a nation, npd wants a place with the voice, of the commonwealth of nations. The Prince of Wales realises this, and thus he assures the people of tile old land that our patriotism is not merely to Great Britain, but to a great national real--’ ity. It is loyalty to the British ideal of unity with diversity. ■ loyally to n partnership of free nations of whi n h Great Britain, like the overseas nations is only one part, though they will never forget that she is the noble, heiYii" self-sacrificing mother of ns all, with the larger partnership.