AN ANTI-IMPERIALIST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9021, 7 January 1908, Page 4

AN ANTI-IMPERIALIST.

On the question of Imperialism- Mr Kier .Hardie was very outspokemon Sunday last. He was he said,, no Imperialist, and hated the name of Imperialism. Then" he 'set out to show his reasons, but appears to have limited them to the- recent incident at Home where Indian Mutiny veterans had been called from the workhouse to celebrate th* juDilee of "Hobson's Horse," and then sent back to their, pauper dwellings; and to the introduction of Chinese into the Rand. Here he had fruitful subject-matter for the display of righteous indignation, and naturally his audience cheered his denunciation of these phases of unwisdom upon the part of the Empirebuildets. Whatever difference of opinion may be found to exist in regard to the Chinese question, there can be no doubt that the British Government's methods of treating the nation's discarded soldiers is a blot upon the escutcheon of the Empire. Mr Hardie is a member of the British Parliament, but we have not heard that he has been conspicuous in denouncing this wrong from his place in the House of Commons. At any rate, if he can find nothing more against Imperialism, than the two matters he scath>ng<£y referred to, he has not much cause for adopting an uncompromising antr - Imperiaisltic attitude.. Supposing Mr Kier Hardie were judged by a similar standard he would soon find himself without a Socialistic following. What would he think if Socialism were to be judged and condemned because some of its leaders have done much to bring it into contempt? M'r Hardie ought to know that many and grave errors of the past are not going to be the means of destroying the Imperialistic spirit of the present or future any more than the explosion of past Socialistic fallacies is likely to destroy the growth of the Socialistic idea. When either or both are proved to be hopelessly unsound, then one or the other or both will be allowed to die unwept. The more likely of the two die from this cause is Socialism in the form in which it

is at present being built up by the self-constituted leaders of the masses.