The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 21. THE IMPERIAL SENTIMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 344, 21 March 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 21. THE IMPERIAL SENTIMENT.

A nation's vitality lies not so much in the vigor of' its individuals as in their united efforts towards one goal. As in football, so in the game or Empire—combination is everything. There has j never been so great a need for Imperial ■unity or fi more sincere working towards that end as now, and so, where there is any: evidence 0 f false sentiment, useless show, and mere frill, it should be eliminated at once. Naval and military development in the King's dominions is by common consent, taking i place because Germany threatens 9ea domination. The Empire is stirred at j the apparent necessity of the case. Germany intends to be paramount in a few years. Britain accepts the challenge, not in the old Nelsonic way (by getting in the first blow), but by the expenditure of countless millions in engines of war. National sentiment dominates navies and armies. The nation that is angry forces its: enemy to fight. The creation or public sentiment may be the work of one man. A vigorous orator with new ideas may sway ten thousand men. An organisation having for its object real aggression is able to inflame millions. - So although a League is not a navy it forces its fighting views on the people—and the people control the purse. Run as , a hobby, a Navy League -is not -of much consequence. Run as a serious business—as in the case of the great German Navy League—such an organisation is powerful for aggression and dangerous to the object of the aggression. The British people are a very serious people when they are induced into the belief that their corns are being trodden on. But up to this point they take threats with the greatest equanimity. The fact that the aiternoon tea British dandy becomes a veritable swashbuckler only when the necessity arises is the reason why the British have always blundered through. It is doubtful, despite newspaper allegations, whether the British taxpayer ■ or his colonial brother really believes that our supremacy is threatened; and it is doubtful, too, whether the threat is as serious as scaremongers would have us believe. The Britisher takes unctuous comfort from such $ speech as Australia's High-Commissioner (Sir George- Reid) recently made in London, and in which he said that the ships of the Australian Navy would be as near to the Empire's "Trafalgar" as possible. Of course, such sentiments read very well at the breakfast table, but they do not kill any of the King's enemies. Work, work, and nothing but ■work will ensure the permanent safety o'r' the Empire, and the mental and physical vigor of its people will decide the issue. Sir George Reid's assertion that "there was more danger to the British Empire in the laboratories of foreign Powers than in their dockyards" was happy, expressing in a few words a yery great truth. A battle may be decided before a shot is fired, and by people who know nothing of shooting. In reality the batttes of the nations are battles of brains. The days of 1 brawn versus brawn are jractically over, and the exact scientist i.-: more to be feared than the physical giant. The greatest strength a nation can possess is the unity of its people. The British people are never at one until stern necessity arises, and in the matter of future supremacy we are far less decided than our clever cousins who are alleged to be seeking our Imperial scalp. It is the duty of every citizen of the Empire—in England, Australia. South Africa, 'and New Zealand—everywhere, to stir public sentiment in the interests of peace by preparation for' war. That the great rulers 01 Britain believe war may come is evidenced by the naval programme; by the despatch of the Empire's most notable soldier to its outposts; and by the policy of filling vacant Governorships with distinguished members of the Navy or Army. Britain i desires to create an Imperial sentiment, because wars are prevented or made by public sentiment.