THE DANGER TO THE EMPIRE.
WE can assure our readers that it is in no conven- tional, and also in no partisan, sense that we use the words which stand at the head of this article. The Empire is in danger, and that danger is due to the reck- lessness with which Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Balfour are preparing to use the free nations of the Empire as pawns in the party game. Unless they can be prevented from doing this by a protest from all true Imperialists, we run a very great risk. Three days after Mr. Chamberlain launched his Fiscal policy in May, 1903, we told our readers that we meant to do all in our power to oppose that policy because we were Imperialists first, and desired before all things to maintain unimpaired the union of free nations in a free Empire. We were Free-traders, we made it clear, because we were Imperialists, and were determined to stake everything in opposing Mr. Chamber- lain's policy because of the effect it must have on the unity of the Empire. Events have since proved that the position we then took up of opposition to the Chamberlain policy on Imperial grounds was a sound one. Through- out two years of fierce and irresponsible controversy on the part of Mr. Chamberlain and his allies attempts have again and again been made to keep alive the dying fire of Preference and Protection by means which have put in jeopardy the safety of the Imperial union. At this moment a specially reckless attempt is being made to use the Empire to gain votes for party purposes. The country has unmistakably shown that it will have nothing whatever to do with straightforward Preference and. Protection, either as recommended boldly and whole-heartedly by Mr. Chamberlain, or timidly and half-heartedly by Mr. Balfour. Accordingly recourse is now to be had to a new device for stimulating interest in a discredited policy.
The scheme hit upon by Mr. Chamberlain, which unhappily Mr. Balfour has been induced to endorse, though we know from his previous utterances that he regarded it only six months ago as so dangerous that he volunteered a pledge that it should not be employed with his sanction, is as follows. The General Election is to be postponed till after the Colonial Conference has met in London and done its work. Though this has, of course, not been stated in so many words, the Conference will, if possible, be persuaded to suggest " spontaneously " a scheme of Imperial Preference with the object of uniting the Empire in fiscal bonds, or, to use Mr. Balfour's phrase in his letter to the Whitby electors, of "binding more closely together the various parts of our Empire." If the Colonial representatives can be induced to pass resolutions in favour of some form of fiscal union, and to outline some vague scheme for its adoption, the Conference will have done the work required of it by the Tariff Reform League and the party managers, and will be sent about its business. Then will follow the General Election, during which in every constituency in the kingdom the issue will be presented by the Chamberlainites and Balfouiites in some such form as this The properly accredited representatives of the Colonies have made the people of the Mother-country a clear and generous offer. They have shown you how the Empire may be bound closer together and be placed upon a permanent basis secure for all time by a system of fiscal union. Will you reject this generous offer from your children, and throw it back in their faces ? They have made and are prepared to make great sacrifices to secure such a system of fiscal union. Will you make no sacrifices in return ? Remember, it is a parting of the ways. If you now say " Yes " to the daughter-States, and show a little sympathy for their proposals, the Empire may still continue great and glorious. If you reject their proposals, and let them see that the voters in the Motherland think only of what they believe to be their own sordid interests, the fate of the Empire is sealed. The Colonies will recognise that selfish- ness and inertia have overcome the Homeland, and will turn sadly away, realising that the United Kingdom is too insular and too self-absorbed—too deeply sunk in the slough of Little Englandism—to be worthy of playing a truly Imperial part.' We do not believe that in the fore- going sketch we are in the least exaggerating what Mr. Chamberlain will tell us if the General Election is post- poned till after the Conference, and if he and his friends are allowed to engineer the right kind of resolutions in that Conference. A frantic appeal is certain to be made in order to carry the Election. All the old rhetoric about "the appointed hour having struck," about "the crisis of our fate," about "the need for an instant decision," and about "saving the Empire while yet there is time," will be trotted out anew, and we shall be told finally that "every vote given against the Chamberlain policy is a vote given against the Empire and our fellow-citizens oversea." Empire, be his views on the Fiscal question what they may, doubt that such appeals as these will do the Empire infinite harm ? Should an Election be carried by such means, hopes will have been raised which it will ho impossible to fulfil ; and if the appeal fails completely, which is far more likely, the Colonies, through the reck- lessness of the great electioneerer, will have been placed, though, we fully admit, not through any fault of their own, in the invidious position of those who appear to have had an impassioned overture rejected. We appeal, then, with- out hesitation to all true and sincere Imperialists—and quite as confidently to those who hold Protectionist views as to Free-traders—to do their best to prevent the Empire being flung into the party arena in this mad fashion. Thoughtful Imperialists who nevertheless favour Protec- tion will, we sincerely trust, impress upon Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Balfour the fact that the nation will not endure to have the principle of Imperial union degraded to party ends. Our party politicians need to be taught that the Empire, like the Monarchy, must be kept out of the polling-booths.
Though the dangers to the Empire presented by the circumstances which we have described above are many and great, and though we cannot help feeling a good deal of anxiety in regard to them, we also feel that, even if Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Balfour get their way, and try to use the Colonies as pawns in the party game, the injury may not be so great as ought, we admit, to be expected on logical grounds. We deprecate most strongly the running of any risk in this respect ; but if, through Mr. Chamber- lain's recklessness and Mr. Balfour's accommodating weakness, we have to run it, we rely with confidence upon the good sense and good feeling of the Colonies—and we are certain we shall not rely upon them in vain—to mitigate the danger. The self-governing nations of the Empire, as we have again and again pointed out, have shown hitherto not the slightest inclination to yield to the temptations offered by Mr. Chamberlain to support him in his preposterous declaration of "No Preference, no Empire ! " and in his attempts to show that they will only remain loyal to the Imperial connection if "my policy" is carried out. We believe that they will stand as firm under the new series of temptations as under the old. Even if the Unionist party prove unable to restrain their leaders from the attempt to use the Empire for party purposes, we believe that the Colonies will intervene to forbid an appeal to party passion being made in their names. The majority of them are no doubt led by men who are at home convinced Protectionists ; but these statesmen are also men of good feeling and good sense, and. realise the dangers that must come from any attempt to make the Empire the monopoly of one side in British politics. They will, we feel confident, turn with indigna- tion and contempt from any political leader who attempts such a course. They have been trained in a political school similar to ours, and they will see clearly enough through any vote-catching propaganda. There is nothing that men of British race detest so much as being "made use of." When, then, they see the attempt to place the names of the Colonies and of the Empire on the front sheet of a party prospectus they will, we are sure, give the most unmistakable proof that they will have neither part nor lot in tactics so discreditable.
We have written strongly, for we feel strongly, and not so much as Free-traders as Imperialists. If the Empire is to remain powerful and united, it can only be through the best men in the State, whatever their political views, resolving that it shall never be used as a pawn in the party game.
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