The Morning Post on Monday printed an interesting series of
resolutions adopted by the Toronto Board of Trade on the subject of Imperial Union, which will be presented at the next Congress of Canadian Chambers of Commerce. With the first two, which deal with Colonial Preference, we are of curse not in sympathy, but the others are worth the attention of all who seek Imperial Union on sane and permanent lines. One asks that "the naturalisation laws of the Empire should be so unified as to make any citizen who has been duly naturalised in any one part of his Majesty's dominions a British subject wherever the flag waves." A common basis of Imperial citizenship is a highly desirable reform. A man born in Australia or Canada is a full British citizen, but a man naturalised there may not be, since the modes of naturalisation differ throughout the Empire. A very slight change would bring, the divergent laws into harmony. Another resolution insists upon the importance of a free interchange of newspapers throughout the Empire, and asks for the reform of postal rates accordingly. There are many similar matters in which the practical work of Imperial consolidation can be furthered ; and it is there, and not in coquetting with exploded fallacies, that the Imperialist should find his task. The common citizenship is in itself an Imperial nexus of immeasurable strength, and everything should be done to make men realise the depth of meaning and of sentiment in those three "narrow words," Givis Britannic= sum.
Previous page
