EMPIRE AND CHILDREN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 3 July 1907, Page 4

EMPIRE AND CHILDREN.

WHY BRITAI.V SUCCEEDS WHERE OTHER NATION'S FAIL. (By Dr Emil Reich in the Daily Fx] 11 ess). A new wave of public sentiment is surging. People are beginning to fee] that there is such a thing as the British Empire. Yet many people are very far from knowing, from grasping, as ii tvere. what Empire or Imperialism reallj signifies. Few seliolars or readers are aware ol the amazing fact that, with just an ex i wption or two, there has not appeared : single solid and well-knit treatise on th< ( nattwv and history of Imperialism. Nay t<» the majoirty even of Englishmen, fm perinlism Is, they think, quite n novo' . thing, «t any rate in England. In the schoolliooks of English history . it is never mentioned that England luis ever since Wililam the Conqueror, beer an Empire pro|>er. except under the Tu j dors for a little time. First was th< British Emjiire I HXiti - Ns.')i: then nro.«< the British Empire 111>4!» —ISIo 1. Tliesi j are the fundamental facts. The English Empire meant the Imper . rial |io9sessions of England iu France , Ireland, and at times in Scotland. Thosi , wild Norman and I'lantagenet kings wcr. not mere knights-errant. In their appa rentlv (Quixotic campaigns there was i deep and sober policy. England (or bet ter. Oeat Britain) being an Island, musi ( by sheer dire necessity be an Empire, oi not be at all. Not one of the bigger islands in Europ< escaped being absorbed by Contineneta or sea-strong powers. Not Ireland; nol Sieilv. Corsica, Sardinia, Crete, Rhode* Xegropont. All of these islands hat onee great, eventually enormous power But, faDing to develop an Empire proper by which they might have duly the naturally feeble resources of islands they suceumhed. William the Conqueror and Columbus | the latter by placing England in the cen I tre of the world, are the greatest bene factors of England. | But at present it is not intended to g< into these matters of historical politics I What is here intended is to bring homi 1 the true nature of Imperialism to th< immediate comprehension of the aver . age man, without overloading the dis cussion with historical erudition. > In letters of history and politics, 01 1 art aim literature, wc understand on1 t \ [ such things of which wo clearly see th< human factor, the human note. It i> • this human note that ! remain to toucl 1 here with regard to Imperialism. It is well-known that millions oi i modern men and women are. as the) think, "dead against all Imperialism,' ' It is to these and their friends that J should like to submit some human re ( marks on the relation of Imperialism an<; - children. For this purpose, we shal shortly regard the modern history ol France. Repeatedly the French, 01 rather their rulers, attempted to wider the territory of France in Europe, that la, to found a French F.mpire. The last attempt, clearly prepared by the Republicans of the great Revolution (1789 —17fK>>. was realised, for a time, bv Napoleon I. lie imperialised many a country round France. However, the French nation, more especially the French women, hated Napoleon's Imperial ideas. Those women, all-powerful in France, sapped and sapped the popularity of Napoleon, whom tliev called the man-eater. When, therefore. Napoleon lost a battle or two in 1813 and 1814. the French, instead of rallying round their great Imperial leader, as the Spanish had done round Palafox. Ca*tanos, or Cuesta. for over seven years, at once eooled off, and Napoleon went first to Elba and then to St. Helena. The French had missed their chance of making an Empire. Napoleon, the greatest political thinker of modern times, had clearly «een that the French, already in his time the mo»t populous nation in Europe (even Russia wae then less populous), imperatively needed more ell»ow-room for—children. Unless the French, Napoleon thought, get greater chance* for human expan sion. they will either emigrate, or—thev will, given their national ami secular passion for thrift, cease having children. This is precisely what happened. The very reason that made French women hate Napoleon, namely, that he sent so many Frenchmen out of France, makes t herniate their large colonies. Madame does not want to leave Frame: and what Madame dislikes, the gods, being French and polite, did not approve of either. Hence, alone on** thing remained. 4 *F,et us adopt." the madames said, '"the system of that amiable Englsh clergyman. Maltbus, and have as few children as possible." This they have sedulously done ever since; with this interesting reMilt. that France, in 1815, more, much more populous than Germany, is now 22.000,000 less populous than the empire of William 11., although the areas of the two countries are practically the same. The human note, thus, comes to this. Napoleon's Imperialism, fiercely attacked by French and non-French Socialists, padfiates, "humanists," positivists, anarchists. women, and professors of i.jstorv: Napoleon's Imperialism cost the French some two million men, it is said. I positively know that this figure cannot be proved. Rut I accept it. Napoleon killed two million men for Imperial purposes. The (ierman.«. too. lo*t a simibu' numlK-r. Well, may I learn, who killed the twenty-two million French now missing ? One wonders. The stern truth in the matter is this, that wlrn a nation grows up to a certain number which, considering its territory, is not adequate for it, that nation mint become either Imperialist or it must turn Malthu*ian; it must, to be brutally frank, either expand abroad, or retrench at home. France is now under-populat-ed. .inder couraged, under-vitalised, and dread' a uatioa whom she has despised for centuries. This, and nothing else. the consequence of th;it foolish, unhistorical and old-miideuish outcry Imperialism. Kill the Imperial sentiment, and vou \:iV mPlions of balm*. Kill the Imperial sentiment: b**e the Imperial ties; into manouvre out of it to make silly compromises. or to dupe it somehow or and in th* end you will have manoeuvred your nation out of children, and duped your honor out of shape.