THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1909. EMPIRE SENTIMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9615, 8 October 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1909. EMPIRE SENTIMENT.

Among world-signs of the time by , far the most vivid, most significant, and most memorable is that of the maturity of British Empire senti ment. If the recent sessions of the Commerce Congress in Sydney and the proceedings in Melbourne seem to embody this in a vivid impression we must remember that that repre--1 sents only one scene in the great Empire panorama. Other scenes' have been and are plentifully displaying the unity and versatility of the srattered race which in geographical circumstances, in customs, in local interests and even in language, bristles with dissimilarities, yet is fast united by the national family tie. That it has not been always so, need scarcely be said. Englishmen who fared forth to new countries arrived with their own notions of independence, just because, as Bourke said of the American colonists, they were Englishmen;, and as they saw their new homes grow and flourish an aspiration for political independence came quite naturally—' the more so because "Downing street'' was disposed to be dictatorial when it was not indifferent. Yet another factor in the colonial independence equation - was the republican "red and raw," the ardent soul to whom the idea of a separate and blatantly self-sufficient nationhood was brightly, irresistibly fascinating. But to-day we see quite another picture on the screen. Impeiial indifference has given way to intense Imperial interest and sympathy, the colonial tendency to break away has been succeeded by a desire to get closer and stay closer to the head of the family, and "Empire," becomes a word of incomparably vast significance, typifying something for which history reveals no parallel. The process by which this wonderful result has been reached is quite natural and human. It has been directed by self-interest on the part of some oi; the colonial peoples, for it has taught them that they could not stand alone. In Australia, for instance, there used to be many avowed separationists, but nowadays the man who talked Australian independence, immediate and absolute, would rightly be "set'down an ass," for Australia would scarce stand alp;:e a veek bsfore the country

was rushed either by the swarming . coloured peoples on her northern , frontier or by a European Power ; eager to reproduce itself in a great continent like Australia, The same with Canada, lying temptingly contiguous to a country whose people arj instinct with splendid national arrogance; and with South Africa and also with New Zealand. Let them cast off, and they become in that moment the prey of the greater nations, that are eager to colonise. But there is another and stronger incentive to union in what has called the arch of- family life. When the course of t'n Boer war seemed to put a strain on British resources, the unanimous volunteering of colonial Britishers for war service marked the flaming up of that family spirit and sta.nped into history the extraordinary fact that distance and climate and circumstances counted for absolutely nothing when the flag that symbolised nationalism was flown. Concurrently there has been a revulsion in the British colonial outlook. But the blessings of the British Empire are by no means peculiar to itself. On the contrary, they are world-wide in their operation, and notably because they guarantee the world's peace. It has been well said that if Great Britain lost command of the sea the effect would ce to endanger the pesce not only of Europe but of the world. She neither needs nor seeks expansion, but is content with what she has. She stands," therefore, for peace, for the maintenance of the international status quo. And if any other Power should argue that that is all very well for the nation that has pre-empted all the best snots in the new world—in Africa, A ierica, and Australasia—the answer h that in all those countries the for is equally welcome with the E itisher. We draw no nationality line, but admit the white foreigner to the same privileges as ourselves.. And that is one of the factors of British worldwide success. In the E itish country all tha: is ask*d of tha citizen is obedience to the lawsh° nas an equal

hand with everyone el' in making, and loyalty to the f! >j that guarantees him so much. I.i this the word Empire acq n'res a new meaning. It no longer signifies conquest and aggrandisement; instead it stands for equality and liberty, enjoyed by those who are there, and assured t3 all who come. Obviously that national Liberalism is a root cause of British expansion and s -lidity. If a sense of national familyhcod warms the blood of the born Britisher, appreciations of incomparable benefits makes the newcomer loyal to the rule that Is so good for hi in and his