THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1907. COMMERCE AND EMPIRE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8331, 12 January 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1907. COMMERCE AND EMPIRE.

The message to Canada which was recently reported by cable as having been sent by Mr Chamberlain to the leading newspaper of Montreal should excite a widely-spread feeling of interest for more reasons than one. The recent reports that have reached the colonies have left the impression that the career of the statesman who has shown the most sympathetic regard for the colonies, and the broadest and worthiest conception of their destinies as parts of the Empire, was practically at an end. Few, probably, of his political opponents would receive such hews without regret in England, while in the colonies the feeling would, we feel sure, be one of almost universal regret. England, it may be said, at no time in her great career as a nation has had more need of great men than now, and she can ill-afford to lose one of the very small band who can at present be reckoned worthy of the name. The message reported to have been sent to Canada by Mr Chamberlain at least suggests that the previous reports of his condition were exaggerated. It is, of course, possible that the answer sent to the Montreal newspaper was sent for rather than by the statesman, but we may be pardoned if we take the more hopeful view which it suggests, and believe that the famous member for Birmingham may yet live to do more work for the Empire. That the message at any rate correctly represents Mr Chamberlain's feelings and opinions will not be doubted. His view of a truly Imperial, as opposed to an insular, policy have been so broadly and clearly stated on many occasions that we cannot doubt that they are the final convictions of his experience, which in any case he will carry with him to the grave. That the future of England, if it is to be worthy of its past, .must be that of the centre and rallying point of all

the sections of the great Empire and not, on the one hand, that of the dominating mistress of many dependencies, or, on hand, that of a self-centred nation with a policy mainly regulated by what appear to be its own immediate interests, has evidently been the growing convictions of Mr Chamberlain's political career. Time only can show how far he was right in his proposed plans for consolidating the parts of the Empire by preferential trade, but at least until it has been tried we cannot doubt that he will cling to the idea, as his message to Canada indicates that he does at present. Canada, to which his message was sent, has set the example of what may be termed a sentimental preference, and so far it would seem the Dominion sees little cause to regret the policy. Mr Chamberlain, however, is a commercial man, and as such is probably not greatly disposed to believe in the permanent value of sentiment as a factor in so great a structure as that of a world-wide Empire. He believes, and clings to the belief, that the common sense of England, as well as her commercial instincts, will sooner or later convert her to his policy, and in this faith it can hardly be doubted a large proportion of England's colonial children will be disposed to join.