AN ENGLISHMAN'S OPINION.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1917, Page 7

AN ENGLISHMAN'S OPINION.

'The Empire of England"—the last words of the late Lord Salisbury's last public utterance. To the Editor. .. * «

Sir,—Doubtless you have heard of the animal, which, chancing to lose'his tail in a trap, called his mates together and discoursed eloquently on the disadvan- j tages of the caudal 'appendage, and fin- ! ally advised them, to cub off their tails. The discussion that followed was put an : end to by one old' fox desiring the speaker'to turn round that the audience might judge for themselves of the value of his I advice. Profiting by .experience, some wcmld appear sinea to have provided themselves with a gaudy cock's tail as a substitute for the lost brush. I was reminded of this story by reading in an issue of yours this week of a colonial soldier's impressions of London. Walking along Whitehall it was borne in upon his mind the unity of the race, and the folly and ignorance of the politicians who speak of federating the sister nations within the Empire. So far I was delighted, with a clear and single eye he was moving forward upon a true objective. Alas, this was not to be reached—he fell away into describing us within the Empire as Britons. We speak the English language, our relations with each other ar9 regulated by English Common Law, we inherit English traditions and a great English literature; English ideals inspire us, we live under an English constitution and enjoy English institutions. The vast majority of us exhibit the characteristics, physical and mental, of the British race; we bear English names alid have brought placer names from the old la..i to new Ehgjlands under the Southern Cross. Lastly, we possess a great and continuous English history extending through fifteen centuries, during which time English thought, politics, science, art, and philosophy have influenced, and are still influencing, the world. England has stamped this old earth with a footprint that shall be indelible in all time. It (is conceivable, it is possible, that from this welter of blood in western Europe shall emerge a great commonwealth of | all English-speaking peoples belting the ! earth around. England should be the name of it; Englishmen Should 'be the ■.proud citizens thereof. "Civis Anglicanus sum," their title to its proud privileges. iAt the bidding of envious craft, through ignorance or indifference, shall we neglect this glorious fpossibility, refuse this rich inheritance? If we do, then "what is left to stir the heart, to inspire the poet and the patriot? In a frame of nfind almost jocose, a man will call himself a Briton; so his conception of the British lion is of the unfortunate animal he' sees depicted in the cartoons of a comic paper. But, seriously and in grim earnest, your Irishman has a grievance against an Englishman, not against a Briton. Your Hun hates England, not Britain; and we Hame this same Hun in that he behaves himself like a German, boor instead of ».a English gentlemen. The great majority of us in this Dominion are as truly English as is t'r.e calf dropped on my farm Jersey.' When ray son last February strolled up Whitehall, inspired by his surroundings, I have not a doubt he was proud to be an Englishman, albeit he was 'born in Tarahaki. Had a. Cockney Scot presumed to tieny his right to that title, such challenger would have speedily found himself in the gutter, and sore in the region which he had thought to adorn With the feathers of such a cock's tail as Briton. England and English are our great heritage, and T trust my iellow-countrymen are not going to allow themselves to be jockeyed out of<them and into substitution of a cock tail for the native brush. ■—l am, etc., EGBERT J. BAGWELL. Waitui, 8/0/17. P.S.—ln yesterday's telegrams the "England" arid "English" are consistently used throughout a long American message. To-day you quote Pitt's words in 1803 as to the interests of ''Englishmen." Let us hope this is an augury of better and more rational views.