THE TERMS OF PEACE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1331, 1 December 1914, Page 4

THE TERMS OF PEACE.

In a pamphlet on “The War and the British Dominions,” Prolessor H. E. Egerton, Beit Professor of Colonial History, writes ; -r-“ Most people in this country would, probably, prefer that, upon the triumph of the Allies, Great Britain should, by her behaviour, make good the claim that she had been fighting for sacked principles and not for her own aggrandisement. At the same time we must remember that the time is past when Great Britain could impose her will upon the Empire at large ; and it m--.y turn cut the interests of certain portions of the Empire may stand in the way of the restoration of some ot the colonies wrested from the Germans. Thus Australia aud New Zealand, which have always reseuted the presence of foreign flags in the Pacific, may demand that Samoa and the B ; ?marck Archipelago shall remain British possessions. Should this -follow, we shall, no doubt, be accused of hypocrisy. We shall be told that the cause ot Belgium was merely a blind, and that our real motive in entering upon war was aggrandisement. Men easily believe what they wish to believe ; and so,,

no doubt, tbe charge will find a ready hearing in many quarters. None the less will it be wholly false. At the first starting of German South-west Africa the British and Cape Colony Governments no doubt took up a dog-in-the-manger attitude. But after the first Great Britain has seen the growth of Geiman expansion without jealousy, and Herr Dernburg—the same Herr Dernburg who is now carrying on a campaign in the United States to throw on England the blame of the continuance of the war —bore witness to tbe assistance received by the German colonial officials from the British authorities. Whoever knows anything of the British Empire of to-day knows that what occupies tbe minds and energies of statesmen and admini strators is not the question of its increase, but of its development,'’