PROPHET OF WOE.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 September 1926, Page 3

PROPHET OF WOE.

DEAX INCH'S GLOOMY VIEW'S

[Australia & N.Z. Cable Association.!

LONDON. Sept. 10. Dean Inge doubly justifies his title of "The Gloomy Dean” in a hook of lii.s which is being published to-morrow entitled "England.” An extract from the hook reads: "British naval supremacy is ended, and with it, the instrument whereby we have built up and maintained the British Empire. We are no longer rich enough to build ships against possible

rivals. The Americans, by insisting on

tbe repayment of the debt which we incurred on behalf of France, to which debt we rashly put our names, secured

tliat we shall remain permanently tributary to them, and incapable of challenging them on the water. Out position as a world power is permanent!,\ altered for the worse, ft may well be that the historian of iho future will record the end of the nintoontli century or the death of Queen Victoria as the culminating point of England as a world power. Since then the Colossus has tottered. We are governed by the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish, and the Jews. Our whole position has changed radically for the worse. Ihe day of the amateur with haphazard methods is over. This is not good for England.” Dean Inge thinks that the loyalty of the Dominions, though it showed splendidly in the war time, is now less whole-hearted than could he wished. The ,future of Canada, he says, is problematical. Tlio clanger of the Americanisation of Canada i.s an ever present one. The future of India, i thinks, is lying on the knees of the gods. He says that a Socialist Government in Britain would he the signal for dangerous disturbances in India. The uncertainty about the future is doing incalculable harm to the British flag.

The Dean says: "The whole machinery of the British Empire is chaos. It holds together, because there is an abundance or goodwill, and not because the gossamer threads now joining the parts could hear the slightest strain. There is no disguising the fact that the Empire is in a state of chronic civil war. The forces of law and order are on the defensive. It is too early to predict that the virtual independence of the Dominions will be permanently compatible with their membership in the Empire. The strongest tie. in the absence of coercion, must be self interest. This motive is strongest in Australia, and New Zealand, where the ■protection of the British Fleet is necessary in the face of probable Oriental ambitions. It is tlio. almost universal belief of Australians that the unrestricted settlement of Chinese and Japanese would bring insupportable conditions to a. race with higher standards. The policy of "White Australia” can only I>c maintained while it is possible to exclude the Asiatics by force. It, is unlikely that Australia will wish to cut the painter when the probable result would be mi unsuccessful war with tlie Japs and China. Should the British Elect be unable to protect Australia, and New Zealand, probably they will endeavour to come into closer relations with the United States. The real danger is the "dog-in-tho manger” policy of Dominion Labour towards migration, the unfitness of the degenerate population at Homo, and the reluctance to emigrate.” Dean Inge adds: “There is no disguising the fact that England is in a state of chronic civil war.”