It was said of Sir George Parkin that he changed the mind of England. Sir George Parkin was a staunch supporter of the Institute, and what was said of him was literally true of the Institute.. If] the value of its propaganda and educational work has not been fully realized, the explanation is that it} has never been aggressive or partisan. At critical times such as those when it was proposed to cede JGambia to France, or when French claims to fishery' rights in Newfoundiand made a proper understanding of the: issue vital to Imperial "interests, or when German] designs on New Guinea became a source of anxiety to Australia, the Institute was active in drawing up reports and memorials calculated strengthen official hands by] educating public opinion. The Institute has sometimes been criticize ed because it failed"to give a lead on great problems that divided, and still divide, the public. Apparent weakness has surely been intact fits "strength. Only an Irishman could essay to promote Empire unity by accentuating division. The result.of the course consistently pursued during 58 years is that the Institute numbers among its 15,000} Fellows, members of every part from diehard Tory to Socialist. It Provides.the rallying centre common to Empire patriots, who might! fight like Kilkenny cats over game economic or domestic problem, but} fare prepared to work in harmony, for the goal of Empir unity.
The animated and inspiring but} brief history of certain other s0- cities is the best proof of the wisdom of the line taken by the Institute, which thrives whilst they fare barely memories, The Imperial Federation League clit on the Bably "did harm that counterbeisan reef. Its break.
flanced the good it achieved in years of excellent and promising] work. A witness in, I think, the Pigott case, charged with cowardice, retorted that he would sooner be coward for five minutes than dead for the rest of his life. The Royal Colonial Institute would not have served the cause of Empire unity as it has done and is doing by {taking sides when the issue might have involved its own decline. It has been as constitutional as\ the monarchy itself, with the result that it has established its found: tions even more firmly in the soil on which it was originally raised, Its mission to-day is as it ever} was—first to educate the public what the Empire is and what it tineans to every one of its citizens, and second to be the centre within the Empire where all who cherish its ideals may concentrate, Public Opinion and the Empi Wide-flung, Branches No one who studies the utterances of public men or the literature of the middle decades of the nineteenth Jeentury can doubt that the Colonial Society, soon to be known as the Royal Colonial Institute, came into existence at a moment when the Little Englanders were confident? of ultimate, perhaps early, vietnry. Its founders threw themselves athjwart the inglorious faction, and by r. propaganda secured the so. that, as Tennyson id, "the strength of effusive thought" had "time and space to work and spread." A couple of years ago a Danish scholar published a remarkable book entitled "Studies in Mid-Vietorian Imperialism." His researches Jcovered every available printed sheet, and what struck him was the "astounding" change in public opinion regarding the Empire at the fend of the "sixties. Was it mere coincidence that this "change synronioed with the oxy activities of the Rogal Colonial' Institute The Institute is essentially learned society which, whilst imparting through its sessional ad-Jdresses and its journal, "United Empire," all available information on Empire subjects, seizes every opportunity of honouring those who serve, or are called upon to serve, the King in any of his dominions overseas possessions. But it is something more. Without for a moment losing sight of the high purpose which is its raison ette, has come to recognize that the social side may usefully be developed. Henze in recent years, with the accession of ladies to the full privileges of membership in conformity with the spirit of the age, the Institute has inaugurated a Juncheon room, which has. g(wn increasingly popular, a ladies" drawing room, and a lounge where coffee or tea—or—ymething stronger—and a cigarette may Jenjoyed by-men and women in coni-mon. Thus, whilst the brary with 160,000 volumes andthe: news+ from every comte of the Empire] {ip sional adverse on mater' of Eire, importance "by wel Thownauthontis, ud the other eves and' fexiares that ave Siinesoned fe during Atty. yeas are fully maintained, the Institute] has become more and more the Ially "mecting'pace "of overseas visitors and those interested in the Empire, The harry which, Wyatt Tilby has said, is, like, the Empire, "building for hundred years ahead," is the mine whence} the student recognizes that he or: the can edu be sure of ex testing the precious metal of Empire Tnowiedges and house and soco committee devises receptions, outings, and oon sat 5 Beton busine dosing & haley more especially to thous whose
Af'bome ig to make the mont their time in congenial company. 'Branches of the Institute in places Tie Hostel, Brighton and 'Boorse mouth afford further privileges to Imembery and cary of lea the ord work done at the cots. Sale' ride tinct in Aue tralia, he has the benefit of the New South Wales branch with a home in' Sydney second any to that of the parent body wet branes. Melbourne and Add will give] him hearty welcome. So, too, in New Zealand, Canada,. South Africa and other parts of the Empire, he will find branches or local] representives eager to dp all in that pawer to serve hin Great Building Prog)
In manifold ways the Institute continues to discharge its mission, and its view of the future ig man-fest in its great-building programme on account of which a fund is being raised that will enable it to erect for itself a" home in Northumberland Avenue not merely worthy of the Empire, but commensurate with the opportunities that do not lessen with the advance of time. It has been suggested that the Institute is mot the necessity to-day it was forty or fifty years ago. I take precise. ly the opposite view. Circums. tances have changed, and in changing have brought about, conditions in which new possibilities of danger lurk. Self-determination and what Lord Milner called washy internationalism—are! guerilla forees not less menacing, to the integrity of the Empire than was the self. Tt statesmen who said that members gf the British Commonwealth Nations must hang together if they would not hang separately. Whilst that remains true, the charter of the Royal Colonial Institute must provide the first articles of patrioti faith for all the loyal sons of thi Empire.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.