IS THE BRITISH EMPIRE DYING?

Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1930, Page 7

IS THE BRITISH EMPIRE DYING?

(By Lady Drummond-Hay.)

Empires die hard. It is a long agony n they die of old age and senility. Their death may be; swift if violent, as in the ease of the German Empire. But however they die, they die hard.

Almost always death, whether from political senility or from violence, begins in the vacuity and impotence ot the head of the nation—tlie Government, or successive Governments—never in the heart of the people. The source of the spiritual inspiration of a nation—the Government—seems to dry up.

Seers of evil claim that the British Empire is dying. Some of our own prophets confirm it. In the apathy, lethargy, resignation, gloom, defeatism, that pervades Britain, more especially London, Manchester, and the industrial centres, they see the approaching national coma that precedes death. There are numerous “doctors” amongst us who promise,-to save the Empire if we take their “medicine.” Each one prescribes a different remedy. Deceived by promises, disappointed in expectations held out, the British people have become sceptical, unable to distinguish between the "quacks” and genuine political and economic physicians and remedies,

Lord Benverbrook and Lord Rothermeve, Field-Marshals of the Press, promise to save the Empire with Empire Free Trnde and their particular guidance. At least they do ndvovate something. Anything that rekindles a bit of spirit is better than drifting in soporific gloom and the defeatism of auto-suggestion. Lord Joicey, aged 84, one of Britain’s leading cantains of industry, is utterly out of Patience with British youth, its softness, cheap literature, pursuit of amusement, and wants a Mussolini for England. Rightly he savs that since the War Britain has made little., national progress.: He blames the politicians. V ' Mr Ramsay MacDonald and Lis Labour Government have turned on. their backs, content apparently to float on the deep waters of depression. They promise little for the future 1 except more doles and increased taxes/ The Conservative Government before it did nothing more constructive, and progressive, and in some things even less.

Tn Canada, Australia, India and other of our nossessions, there is a note of disgust with the apathy, gloom, defeatism and lack of national inspiration in London.

We must admit and bewail, that the vast British Empire, its long historv studded with remarkable lenders and outstanding personalities, is to-day without a single inspiring leader or magnetic personality capable of arousing tbe nation.

Must England suffer a great shock to arouse it from its lethargy, or. will a new and progressive political inspiration come to us?