Thus, "with all its eloquence, literary and pictorial, it strives
to make the bushman believe in John Bull-Cohen, the griping moneylender, the slave-driver, the nation whose only interest in anything human or divine is centred in its money value. There is no sneer, remember, at the race to which the Australian mainly belongs ; the Bulletin's point is that the Briton no longer governs himself in England,—that he is here the victim of greedy British finaneiers, and that his kin in Australia should cut loose before the same grip is irrevocably tightened on them." The seriousness of the situation, in the view of the writer, is enhanced by the fact that the recent outburst of patriotic feeling has died away, that the war is already half forgotten, and that the arch-Separatists, in spite of their extravagance, are in the main the soundest guides on matters purely Australian, while the noisiest advocates of the Imperial connection are suspect on account of their financial policy. The remedy for this unsatisfactory situation is to dis- sociate true Imperialism from bad local administration. The writer sums up his warning to England as follows : "If we from ignorance or stupidity play into the hands of his Anti- British mentors, we may find him [the Australian] marching out of the house in a huff before we know that any dispute has really begun." On the general bearings of the article we speak in another column, but may merely add here that the writer dwells with much force on the impolicy of making the services rendered by Australia in the war the occasion for demanding an enhanced contribution towards the joint per- manent naval expenditure.
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