HOPE AND GLORY
Sir,-Marie Rae seems to have overlooked the conclusion of my letter which referred to that in the British character which could establish new claims for Britain as the land of hope and glory. What the British have done recently and are now doing may well proye to be a contribution to that end. They may achieve a new supremacy, not: by military might and the musical nourishment of vainglorious nationalism, but by the deploying of moral and spiritual resources in the world of international relations. They may shed that smug conceit which causes so many to refer to other races by such contemptuous terms as Chinks, Chows, Dagoes, Frogs, Wogs, Wops, ete. They may escape from the attitude of mind which produced the following: "The natives of India know perfectly well that they are governed by a superior race’-Lord aftesbury, "Nothing is to be gained by coddling weak and primitive man. .. It is pure
sentimental bosh to say that Africa belongs to.a lot of naked blacks, It belongs to the race that can make the best use of it. I am for the white man and the English race."--Kipling, 1899. We fought a war because Hitler entertained like thoughts in a German context, Then, there is the indefensible line: "God who made thee/ mighty, etc." Did He? If so, how? Was it by helping us to win the Opium War and allowing us to take Hong Kong as a prize, rewarding us for forcing the Chinese te become opium addicts? Or was it by helping us to win the Maori wars when the Maoris passionately demanded that we leave their country, but we by means of bullets and bayonets convinced them that we intended to remain? Amongst empires that have been, the British holds an outstanding place, But empires built by means of what the Victorians called "just and necessary wars" are tainted with so many evils and inhumanities that we need not weep to see them dissolving, It is a mistake to keep alive jingoism that is better buried.
J. MALTON
MURRAY
(Oamaru) _
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 812, 18 February 1955, Page 5
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347HOPE AND GLORY New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 812, 18 February 1955, Page 5
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