THE GREATNESS OF LITTLE STATES

Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1929, Page 7

THE GREATNESS OF LITTLE STATES

(By Frederick Stubbs, F.R.G.S ~ in Auckland Star.) gome of us, proudly conscious that we are citizens of “the gioatest Empire tit.! sail ever shone upfcn," are tempted to despise these little States and to forget that though occupying little territory some of them have been truly great, and powerful factors in the advance of civilisation. Take, for example, such countries as Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway—all of these exhibit the highest elements of civilisation; industry, order, intelligence, skill in the arts and sciences, a lofty standard of personal and national morality. What docs the world owe to plicky little Switzerland for lighting the torch of freedom six hundred years ago and keeping it alight all through the centuries when despotic monarchies held the rest of Europe In thrall, and .still later, during the Great Whir, preventing mighty Germany crossing her Frontiers? What (lo Wo| owe to liberty-loving Holland that fought so hill’d and so long the cause of religions liberty And drove back the hosts of Spain; that led the way in manufacture and commerce, and produced painters second only to those of Italy; that when her integrity was threatened by Germany at the commencement of the recent war promptly closed her frontiers, maintaining a neutrality favouiable to the Allies throughout'?'

SCANDINAVIA. Glancing at the little Scandinavian States, they have not only fought for and maintained their own independence, but championed the cause of religious and political freedofn, successively engaging both the German and Russian Empires; and by giving : to the world famous men of science like Liwneus; poets like Bjornsen; novelists like. Ibsen; philosophers, like Swedenborg; dauntless explorers like Nansen and Lindbergh; and generous patrons of literature like Nobel advancing its civilisation. The size of country or of its population is of quite secondary importance. A statement that I saw a short time ago showed that the highest figures for imports and exports per head ueie exhibited by Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Denmark. The Belgian three per cents stoocL at 96 when the German were, 83; the Norwegian three 'and a half per cents at 102 when the Russian were 81. There may have been some alteration since, hut 1 have no doubt the comparison still holds good. ANCIENT STATES. Going further %lek,'it was a little country, smaller than Denmark, that gave Christianity to the world, The religions of mighty -Babylon and populous Egypt have vanished, but the religion that arose ;in Palestine has overspread the earth. The Greeks were a small people, broken up into petty self-governing communities, but they gave us a rich and varied literature and the most transcpndently beautiful works of art’. England herself in the age that produced Shakespeare and Bacon had a population little larger than that of Bulgaria today. Even in this twentieth century her population is small compaieci with that of Russia, India or China, and considerably smaller than the populations of U.S.A., Germany, ox Japan, and yet she remains the bulwark of the world’s freedom, the heart and centre —still . sound and strong—of a vast empire, the ruler and protector of 453,060,0C0 human beings, with the exception of the United States, the richest and most powerful country upon_ earth, exhibiting the highest culture and preeminent in the arts and sciences. It is to her eternal honour that she has always championed the cause of tlie smaller States. Witness the policy of Fox, Canning, Lord John Russell, Gladstone and more relent , statesmen ; it is to the eternal dishonour of Germany and Austria that they sought to crush these, with the result that they themselves ultimately fell. ' ■ ■ Our own highly-favoured land, small in area and insignificant in the number of its inhabitants, has furnished whnt is perhaps the most successful example of colonisation 'in the world, producing not only material wealth, but, what is even more important, a robust, energetic, law-respecting and pi’ogressive pecple. I After all, it is not the size of a country, or of its population, or of its gold or armies, that make a people great, but moral elevation and devo- ! tion to duty; intellect that increase* the sum of. human knowledge and L happiness; personal and political righteousness. In . producing these ’ splendid qualities some of the small--1 est .States have shown themselves h> be truly great. ,