May 21.
Ir is a traditional complaint against Englishmen that they do not read history. Whether this equally true of Scots, Irish and Welsh, we do not know. By what one can gather they ave at least well stored in respect of local history. But we doubt very ich whether they are much better informed than the Englishman about the story of the Empire which they equally helped him to found. How many people could give an approximately accurate account of the steps by ich Canada, India, South Africa, Australia, not to mention the almost countless Crown colonies and dependencies, came within the imperial circle of nations that pay allegiance to King George? It is this deficiency which the celebration of Empire without permission.
Day was founded just twenty: years ago to remedy. It is out of reason to expect the ordinary man to read history with the avidity of college professors, among whom, algo, one seems to remember that there is an eternal controversy as to what-history. really means and how it ought to be studied. But at least he may, be encouraged to pause for one @ay in the year to remember that he is a "citizen of no mean city" and to think for a while on what the Empire stands for, the. privileges that are his asa mem-_ ber-of it and the responsibilities.
An attempt was made a few. years, ago to substitute "British: Commonwealth". for "British Empire." One still comes across the phrase here and there; but it has failed to "'catch on," and-one may be glad of the fact. Rightly used and understood, the words "empire" and "kingdom"-have a force of appeal to the imagination which commonwealth can never command. Why the latter word was ever suggested one does not know, except, perhaps, to satiety the scruples of those curiously, constituted people who see every patriotic emotion an obsecure cause of offence to some other nation and, in particular, objected to Empire Day as tend-1 to inculcate noxious ideas of Jingoism and the militarist in the young. Whatever el British Empire stands foi not chauvinist. It threw itself into the war against a Prussian tyranny, just as a century ago it fought against the Napoleonic, with all the energy and determi ation of which it was capable: Ibut once war was over, it began to break up ships, and disband armies as fast as it could. fact, when we try to analyse what the Empire exactly means to each and all of us, it is very difficult to find satisfactory answer. Tt is certainly no source of wealth to the people of Great Britain, except to in the dividuals as more upon military defence than they would. Nor do they make use of it to get the supplies of life more cheaply has a general election been fought on the question of imperial protection and both times has it been rejected. That it is a source of strength to all of us was proved by the Great War; and yet so little had we realized the possibilities of empire, that it was undoubtedly quite surprise to the stay-at-home Briton to see how his fellows from all parts of the world came pour-mgr across the seas at the call of the common peril. And this great inrush of fighting men was the best answer that could b desired for the Little Englander and any who from abroad might look with suspicious eyes on the British Empire's expansion. For it is perfectly certain that these men would not have left theft, homes and families in the Dominions and colonies, had they not felt that the Empire stood for a system of government and for ethical ideas that were worth defending even to the death. Nor was this conviction restricted to white men. Of all the wretched mistakes that in recent years have been made in India, "none was more deluded than the belief, on the outbreak of war, that she must be bribed into good behaviour by concessions to the nationalist minority or she would mutiny. So far as the vast mass of Indians understood the issues in the war, they understood that their welfare was bound up in the victory of Britain, of the principles for which she fought and to the benefit of which their. own daily surroundings bore so much eloquent witness.
And yet as we look back on the development of the Empire, the strangest thing of all is to see how comparatively recent has been the growth of these very principles, which now are the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.