The Daily News FRIDAY, MAY 22. DISRUPTION OF THE EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 129, 22 May 1908, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, MAY 22. DISRUPTION OF THE EMPIRE.

The Very Reverend Archbishop Loguc has pointed to recent events in India and the colonies as evidence that the great Empire the Anglo-Saxon has builfc is about to fall to pieces, and, according to the cable report of his utterances, he glories in the anticipated troubles of the coming time. 'When the Motherland is in the midst of disaster, when India and Egypt have torn themselves from the aegis of her protection, when all tlie self-governing colonies have turned their backs repudiating all association, then will be the time tor the

Irishmen to rise and jump upon the accursed Sassanach. A truly brave am heroic policy! When your enemy >■ down, jump upon him witih a wild linroii! It is ipiite certain, however that the leaders of the Home Kill' movement had no conception that the;

.voulil have to wait -such a very extend -d length of time -for tile realisation o heir hopes as that to which the Vcr; Reverend Father points.

In 1857, suddenly, without warning, the flames of rebellion burst forth in India, and for a time, the pre-eminence of British i-ule seemed to dangle in the balance. The energy and the unfaltering courage of our race put out those tires ami nothing can be more assured than that under similar circumstances the same noble qualities will assert themselves. The "barrel of gunpowder" upon which Mr. Keir Hardie sat so complacently threatens to explode, but the Motherland now is warned; she is watchful, ready, and prepared. Bombs —tile weapons of the .skulking coward — are being thrown, but that is merely illdividual effort; it is no satisfactory proof of widespread popular organisation. For years past bombs have lieen thrown in Russia, and numbers of innocent lives have been sacriticed, but the government of the great White, Czar remains. At this moment General Willcoeks, with some native Indian troops and one regiment of British, is engaged with the tribes on tile north-west frontier who have been lately harassing the borders, and the etory is not without its lesson. In the eucouuter at the Khapah l'ass, for seven men killed and sixty-live wounded, how many of tne Mohmands never returned to campaign? Under British leadership, discipline, precision, and the modern quick-tiring rilies the experiences of rebellion are most discouraging. Clearly Archbishop Logue has little ground for hope in India.

In 1 lie coluiiicii hi* prospects for disruption ur« mtinik'ly wonse. A few years ago a vorv good tost of tlio ioy;illy r»f the people of the colonies was iippliinl. It is uniK'cesgiiry to sav hero how -J. was answered. L«*t tests bo applied again and the answer will l»e the same. Just as in Dunedin more people will he found wearing kilts than will be Seen in (Glasgow in one year, m> colonists arc more loyal tlinn the StuU'h. The other day Mr. AstjuHh, Premier of (Jreat JtriUin, interdicted the Hying of the Union Jack on the public schools on Empire Day. The reply of the Premier of Canada was worthy of hini. "On Empire Day the Union Jack will fly on every public building in Canada." The people of Canada are more loyal to the Empire than are the English. The other day ilr. Deakin, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, fittingly replied on behalf of Australasia: "From the Motherland we have received great gifts in liberty and evengift lias drawn us closer." Xo people could 1)0 more loyal than are the colonists.

To go a step further. To-dav the aspiration of every public man in Australasia is to be hound still closer to the Motherland—tile lie-art of the Empire. A union based upon sentiment alone—strong as it may lie—does not satisly. The ambilion is to lie Jinked in Knipire, socially, reciprocally, eomiiieiviall v. politically ■ to b" embodied wholly in 1 he c\ ,-ry colonial heart. Kiighind will niak,' leoiiHnereial agreements - reciprorily with every land, with aliens, but relu-es to yield an inch to the claims r\f low children. Hut that circumstance fails in the least degree to all'cct. colonial loyalty. English literature. English art. England's commercial greatness, England's proud prc-cmincncc in the councils of nations—all is ours, and we are sharers in the glory of her Empire. Archbishop Logue has shown himself utterly ignorant of colonial feeling, lustead of repudiating the .Motherland every true colonial heart will join in utterly repudiating tile sentiments expressed by the Very Reverend Archbishop Login', it may lie that he has been mis-report-ed, as the patriotic and liberal-minded Cardinal Moran stales. We hope so.