The Daily News FRIDAY, AUGUST 20. BRITAIN'S VITALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 178, 20 August 1909, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, AUGUST 20. BRITAIN'S VITALITY.

Reading the varying opinions expressed by the numerous overseas newspaper delegates at the Imperial Press Conference in the Old Country, one is struck by the unanimous impressions of the delegates from New Zealand, from Australia, South Africa, North and South America, India and the East Indies, of the enormous energy, the wonderful up-to-dateness, the greatness aim grana'aess of the Mother Country. Scarce a delegate from the Dominions and the Crown Colonies, who had not previously visited the United Kingdom, but has given veribal and written expression to the surprise and delight with which he has had | his preconceived notions of a decadent Old Country shattered by ocular demonstration. That there is a widespread impression throughout the dominions that Britain has been gradually falling into a state bordering on senile decay, cannot be denied, but the impression has been formed by the unpatriotic utterances of many speakers and writers in Britain, who never seemed to tire of anticipating the day when the greatness shall have departed. In Britain, people who know the real state of affairs pass over these jeremiads as unworthy of notice, but the growing population in the oversea dominions are apt to take them at their face value. That this is the case our colonial-born ..i readjly admit; and the expression ui this prevailing conception of Britain, given by many of the Press delegates, was in no way overdrawn. Writing to his paper on this aspect of mOerImperial thought, the London Times' special, who was "with the Press delegates during their recent visit, says that from the lips of the delegates he heard expressions of admiration, and even of surprise, at the seriousness of purpose, the strenuous life, the vigor, energy, and vitality which they found in all parts of the Kingdom visited by them. Some of the Australasians, misled by British self-depreciation, winch is invariably noted and exaggerated when it reaches their countries; some of the Canadians, deceived by American caricatures of the effete and decadent Englishman, had come prepared to iind a people sapped of its manhood and tottering to its fall. !'.ow different was the impression actually made tliem by the spectacle of the navy at Spithead, of the army at Aldershot, of the great foundries and shipbuilding works at Sheffield and Glasgow, and the,crowds whom they saw in the great cities and the workmen with whom they conversed £ in the factories and dockyards. Over B and over again the delegates remarked | that they were going back with the feeling that the country which could do what England is doing to-day is in 110 danger of disintegration. The delegates were not blind to the evidences of unemployment and distress; but, in spite of the deductions which must in fairness be made, they saw a strong and virile race, facing its problems calmly, and prepared to meet the future with courage. In the current" issue of the Review of Reviews most of the delegates have tersely summarised their indclibi, impressions. To cit e a few only of these statements, Mr. Cunningham, of the Melbourne Argus, was not only impressed by the sound Imperialism,of the people, but also by " the solidity, the activity, and the general air of serious purpose that we have found in ail the industrial centres." Dr. Stanley Reed, of the Times of India, has only the strongest condemnation for those who hold Britain up as " a melancholy example of decadence." Dr. Ward, of the Sydney Telegraph, was equally emphatic: "The greatest impression made upon me was that of England's unexhausted and inexhaustible vitality. The Protectionists of our country are always saying that England is a country going down, decadent and being ruined. II iind a country that, so far as its industrial activities are concerned, exceeds all that I have ever imagined." Such opinions, expressed by the ablest among the journalists of the British dominions, men who by their profession are trained to be observant, to eschew humbug and delve for the truth, cannot fail to produce a salutary change in the estimate formed by many as to the vitality and reality of the British Power. Britain is still a great country, the greatest among the nations of the world, a worthy head of the great Imperial fami- * ly which is daily being drawn more ► closely together to share fully eacli ! other's prosperity and responsibilities.