The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, JUNE 26th., 1922. EMPIRE GOVERNMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 June 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, JUNE 26th., 1922. EMPIRE GOVERNMENT.

Can denioerney govern n n Empire?—is the query of a Sydney paper. Is the conception of democracy consistent with tho maintenance of vast territories

,n i state of '-chordiiiation or semi subordination ?—is u second question and the argument then proceeds. Granted that it is, does not the freedom of criticism and action implicit in a democracy, the right that every individual, however small his qualifications, possesses to have a finger in every pie, tend to make the Government of an empire a practical impossibility? Democracies we are told, cannot wage war successfully, and as we know, when victory has been gained it has been at tho cost of the suspension of many ordinary constitutional guarantees. For precisely the same reason, is the theory of democracy incompatible with the successful administration of an Umpire i* ''The question might seen to have answered itself. The two greatest colonial .Umpires which survive and arc ill a flourishing condition are those of two democracies Britain a Crowned Republic, and France a Republic. And although Lord Sydenham and others may have their fears with regard to the future of India and tho danger of bestowing democratic institutions upon peoples who are not ready to profit by them, the French Colonial Empire seems to possess all the elements of stability. France hns her colonial problems, but they tvr« different in character from nnd fnr lew acute than those of Bri*'

i.a u. The Eicucb Eni|>ire adheres in the main to th,. traditional model. Tlie British Empire is sue generis, containing communities in every stage of politieal ami social development. Irnln the great autonomous dominion down to the Crown colony whose rights of self-go-vernment are at the best nominal. Bri. tain’s chief diffici ltv lias been one with which France has not bad to contend, namely, the nationalist movement in parts of the Empire such as India and Egypt, in which though certain classes niay possess a high degree of civilisation. the community as n whole is, in the opinion of unbiassed observers, as vet unfitted to assume the responsibilities- involved in self-government. There is little or nothing of this national selfconsciousness among momliers of the French Colonial Epinire. although in the latter as m the British Empire the progress of Pan-Islamism may become a disturbing factor. The British are a little apt to think that they among modern nations have a monopoly of the genius for colonisation. The Frenchman, the German, and all the rest, it is argued, have not gut the colonising instinct. They are not settlers, hut birds of passage who Spend a few disconsolate years in exile yearning the w hile Inr Cm day w hen they can return to their homes. If there is some truth in this contention, it is simply because Britain lias, to her own good fortune. acquired most of tho temperate regions open to colonisation where permanent white settlement is possible. France has no Australia, n-> New Zealand, no Canada, although in Q'"ebo'- the “habitants” have shewn that given a suitable climate the F’eiteh are most tenacious settlers a lessOu c-li-jl-lin’d by \lgrris France, moreover, has for long had no surplus pop’d-tti' ii t<i -end overseas With lew exee| tit ns her colonies lie in the tropics, and it is not to he wondered that the Ftencliinnti has refused to make his permanent abode in a West African jungle or a swamp in Cochin Chinn or Madagascar. The Englishman does the same in like circumstances. The French Colonial Empire has been developed in the face of very considerable difficulties. The French people have not displayed the same interest in its affairs as have the British in their Imjx-rial concerns. Every Briton quite instinctively regards himself as a member of a farthing Empire; the chances are that he has relatives in one or other of the dominions or dependencies. But the Freileli Colonial Empire remaiils S"mething rather outside the ordinary Frenchman's life. He is not reminded of if at every turn. The French colonial service has not attracted finite the same talent; it has not offered the same scope. Neverthless, the French Colonial Empire has gone ahead unostentatiously and without flourish of trumpet, hut surely. Its methods are radically different from oor own. hut they seem to have worked well ; M ’

is noteworthy that during the great war when tile French colonial garrisons were almost depleted, not a single colony took advantage of what must have seemed a golden opportunity to revolt. That is a record which the British r.mpire could not equal.