MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S COLONIAL TOUR.
MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD in his admirable and severely urbane essay on the literary influence of academies declares that " in the bulk of the intellectual work of a nation which has no centre there is observable a note of provinciality." It is necessary, he tells us, to get rid of this note if we would reach the plat- form " where alone the best and highest intellectual work can be said fairly to begin." The note is caused " by remoteness from a centre of correct information," and even great powers of mind need for reference a. " sovereign organ of opinion." Mr. Arnold was, of course, referring to national culture and literature, but all that he says applies with equal force to the constitutional conditions of a great Empire. The application of these principles to those conditions was not made for more than thirty years after the date of Mr. Arnold's essay, but the work has now been done by one who has as keen an appreciation and as confirmed a dislike of political and departmental Philistinism as ever filled the mind of the man who so fully realised the need of continuous warfare against the Philistines. It may seem strange that the mantle of Mr. Matthew Arnold should have fallen upon the shoulders of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, but of the fact there can be no manner of doubt. His conduct of the Colonial Office, his Colonial tour, and his Natal speeches all prove that he is in open conflict with the Philistine tradition which controlled the Colonial Office before he became Secretary, and which still appears too often to control the War Office and the Foreign Office.
This fact is far more fully realised in the Colonies than it is here, and Mr. Chamberlain's magnificent and enthusiastic reception at Durban and at Pietermaritzburg proves how keenly Natal appreciates the man who has borne an almost intolerable burden of work and of abuse during the last three years. The Colony which had the most to lose by the war realises the fact that Mr. Chamber- lain in 1899 accurately grasped the position, and had then done all that was possible to make his Department " a centre of correct information " ; and she recognises that in the future intercourse of the Colonies and the Mother- country no note of provinciality will exclude the operations of patriotism and intelligence. The fact that Mr. Chamberlain from the very hour of his landing has made it clear that he comes with no panacea for existing evils, with no " magician's wand" wherewith to banish local problems, has not in any way diminished the popular affection with which be is regarded. It is sufficient for the people of South Africa that Mr. Chamberlain comes to them, as one of their own papers has said, as an optimist and a friend, and " not as a monstrous embodi- ment of red-tape." Assured that he is not a Philistine, South Africans are prepared to give to the Colonial Secretary the most sympathetic hearing, and to believe that his hardest sayings are the sayings of a statesman and not those of a• party politician. With such sayings it is, of course, possible to disagree—and we do not find ourselves altogether in agreement with certain foreshadowings of Mr. Chamberlain's policy in regard to the taxation of mines —.but it is not possible to attribute to them bad faith or political motives. Mr. Chamberlain is in South Africa for the purpose of examining the various local problems with a perfectly unbiassed mind. It may be, it prob- ably will be, that he will be able to suggest princi- ples which will ultimately solve these problems ; but he fully realises, as he said on his landing to the Municipality of Durban, that " time, patience, and local goodwill " are necessary to any solution. His presence in South Africa will do much to promote goodwill, and will bring home to all classes of the community the fact that the Imperial Government have both in war and peace worked in good faith for the well-being of our great South African Colonies, and will spare no effort which will make for their political health and social prosperity.
Mr. Chamberlain, however, has gone to South Africa, in no pauperising spirit, and with no intention of ruining the community with lavish promises of Imperial " out- relief." He has taken the earliest opportunity of emphasising what we may call the true economic relations of the Mother-country and her Colonies. In the past those relations have been neglected—neglected, perhaps, on both sides—but a new era has dawned, and has brought with it a mutual sense of responsibility that can in no case be neglected. Mr. Chamberlain has told Natal that Britain now fully realises her responsibilities, and is ready and willing to cherish and support her children until they reach manhood. On the other band, the Colonies that have reached manhood have duties to their mother of which they must be mindful. Britain up to the present time has had to bear almost the whole burden of Empire, but in future, as in the late war, the Colonies must keep in mind a sense of their obligations. Mr. Chamberlain in thus drawing the attention of the whole Empire to the duties of the Colonies that have attained manhood struck the right, the catholic, note. Strength lies in the local realisation. of responsibility, and the Imperial idea means the focussing of the strength thus gained. When Mr. Chamberlain, therefore, carefully warned his hearers against provincialism of thought and effort, and showed that all development must take place with reference to the centre, he was in reality warning the Empire against the "note of provinciality" in its various parts. The Empire can never reach its highest civilising level until the Imperial idea is familiar to every subject of the Crown, and every person in every Colony feels himself as much a Briton as does any dweller in the Isles. Therefore Mr. Chamberlain defended with charac-. teristic vigour that " much-abused but deserving institu- tion, Downing Street." Doubtless distance, he pointed out, has its disadvantages, but nevertheless sometimes those at a distance are able to take a broader and wider view of things, and to come to a right decision, "even though it should involve the sacrifice of Colonial opinion." This is one of those hard sayings that it is difficult for the Colonial subjects of the Crown at first to accept. Yet it really represents the essence of Mr. Chamberlain's position with respect to Imperialism, as it represented the essence of Mr. Arnold's position with respect to Culture. If there is to be an Empire at all, there must be a " sovereign organ of opinion " to which all local opinion must in case of conflict, and after full consideration, bow. It is a necessity of federated Empire, and throws upon the central Power a. sense of vast and accumulating responsi- bility. That responsibility Downing Street may gladly accept. Indeed, it has only to keep up its present standard of efficiency in order to bear the burden. As Mr. Chamber- lain pointed out at Durban, the Colonial Service represents " the greatest, ablest, purest Civil Service ever known." It is, moreover, uncontaminated with that Philistinism of red-tape which still renders other Departments inefficient, and it is steadily attracting to itself an able class of men who ask nothing better of life than to play a part in the adminis- tration of our great Colonial Empire. The lesson which Mr. Chamberlain's Colonial visit chiefly teaches us seems, therefore, to be the necessity that both the Colonies and Downing Street should develop to the utmost the growing sense of mutual responsibility ; that the Colonies which have reached manhood should be mindful of their duties to the Empire, and should keep the Imperial idea ever before them ; that Britain should be mindful of her enormous responsibility as the centre from which correct knowledge and infallible opinion as to Imperial needs and aspirations are distributed and imposed. The integration of the Empire and the abolition of provincialism may well be the highest aspiration of British statesmanship.
Previous page
