17 FEBRUARY 1900, Page 14

A MONUMENT TO COLONIALS WHO HAVE FALLEN IN THE WAR.

[TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIRS I have just read in your article on "The Colonies and the Empire" your suggestion as to a monument to our Colonial fellow-subjects who have fallen in the war. Will you allow me to suggest what I consider a practical and not unworthy scheme ? In front of St. Mark's, at Venice, there still stand four great flag-poles, set in rich bronze sockets, and painted red, which formerly bore the ensigns of the great Venetian dependencies, Cyprus, the Morea, &c. Why should we not have the same thing in front of St. Paul's? St. Paul's is in the heart of the capital; it was the cathedral of Greater Britain when the Bishop of London was the Bishop of all our Colonies; it contains the last resting-place of many of our proconsuls; it is the most national of all our cathedrals. Four great masts, to represent Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, set in splendid and emblematic bases, and properly decorated, would be artistically an addition to a now historic site. The standards of the Colonies would be hoisted on all national occasions of rejoicing, or, half-mast high, on all occasions of national or local mourning. Such a monument in this conspicuous position would declare to all that England and her Colonies

are indeed one —I am, Sir, &c., Jolla' S. SINCL.LIR.

The Vicarage, Cirencester. [The Colonies are not dependencies, but parts of a whole of which we also are only pars major, but the idea of flying the flags of the four free nations on all great occasions is certainly an excellent one.—En. Spectator.]