396 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE PERILS OF AN EMPTY EMPIRE. 



In the Uiii/cd Empin-ioj "Soyt^mhi:: the Australian, 

 i\Ir. Harry S. Gullett, writes warningly concerning 

 the empty places of our Dominions oversea. The 

 world has become very small, he says. The European 

 is close to Canada and .-Australia ; the Asiatic is even 

 closer : — 



The Canadian talks bravely : so ilo we A^l^L^.>lians. But who 

 can traverse the thousands of miles of llie Aniciican frontier 

 across which is a nation ninety millions strong, a young am- 

 bitious nation which openly covets its northern neighbour's 

 ,„ods, and remain insensible to the futility of that talk unless 

 behind it are many, many more Canadians than there are to- 

 day? Who can be blind to the possibilities of trouble from 

 Asia away out on the Pacific? In our hearts we know that the 

 Britiali Navy, and that alone, stands between us and the un- 

 scrupulous land-hunger of the world. We know that if that 

 Navv goes down in the next few years we go down ; or that at 

 best we struggle on part owners of lands in which we are now 

 absolute, destined to go warring through centuries with foes 

 :,cross a frontier. 



Mr. Gullett has itnconquerable failli in the richness 

 of these empty lands. He says : — 



Australia wants twenty millions of people as soon .as she can 

 get them ; so does Canada. 'J'hose numljcrs would mean local 

 safety. INIore, they would mean safely for the Mother Country, 

 or at least a safety far greater than she can at present afford. 

 It would mean, with a few more millions in New Zealand and 

 elsewhere, the doubling of the white people under the British 

 flag, and the doubling of its Dreadnought-building capacity and 

 its strength on sea and lani.i. It would mean safety against 

 any conceivable combination of I'owers. It would mean an 

 extension indefinitely of British suprem.acy in the world. For 

 we in Australia or Canada would not stop at twenty millions. 

 Twenty millions would give us safety against aggression, but it 

 w .)uld only represent a Meeting milestone along our march to 

 greater stienglli and influence. From twenty millions we 

 >liould rush to forty, and on to numbers you people in this brave 

 little Homeland would find it hard indeed to believe jiossible. 



To make the Empire strong against the aggressor 

 we must people it. He concludes with an earnest 

 plea that the people of the United Kingdom should 

 give to the Empire's rich empty lands more of her 

 sons. " Send us your people." 



A TREASURE ISLAND TRULY. 



In the October Bulletin of the Pan-American Union 

 Mr. Granville Fortescue gives a pleasing account of 

 the island lying sixty miles south of the coast of 

 (Alba, charted as the Isle of Tines. It has had a 

 chequered history. From the time of Drake it 

 became a pirate rendezvous, the tomb of ill-gotten 

 riches. Later it became a slave-fattening depot, 

 where the poor wretches half done to death in the 

 passage from .\frica were got into condition for the 

 market. In March, 1908, an .\merican named C. M. 

 Johnson arrived in the island, with fourteen dollars 

 in iiis pocket. He saw the commercial jjossibilities 

 of ihi; island. He bought 17,500 acres of the best 

 land on the island for 200 dollars. By .some means 

 or other he found the money to cover the first ojjtioii, 

 formed a company of twenty-si.\ Americans, and 

 finally retired with a fortune estimated at a (juarter of 

 a million. The present settlers, after years of con- 

 tinued toil, have turned the pasture lands into some 



of the finest citrus orchards to be found in Culia. The 

 island is entirely owned by these Americans. They 

 grow lemons and grape-fruit. The writer thinks 

 that the most valuable gifts of Nature in the island 

 are the thermal springs. They are beneficial beyond 

 the mere figures of the analysis of the curative pro- 

 perties they possess. The island could be made into 

 one of Nature's sanatoriums, a winter health resort 

 without rival. But to attract invalids a well-arranged, 

 up-to-date hotel, etc., with all lu.xurious appliances, 

 is needed. The writer pro[)hesies that the man who 

 turns this idea into a reality will achieve great profit 

 for himself, as well as prove a real benefactor to those 

 that suffer. 



THE POPE AND THE BIBLE. 



Mr. E. T. B.aluwin does not like the Pope's 

 pronouncement against Modernism, but with that 

 exception his paper on Pius X. in the American 

 Review of Reviaos is an unbroken eulogy. He tells 

 how the fiction of the Pope being a jjtisoner in the 

 Vatican tells hardly on the old man, who would gladly 

 get back to his earlier haunts. Everyone knows that 

 when he left Venice to come to the Papal Election 

 he took a return ticket. It is said that night after 

 night the new Pope, heartily homesick, will take out 

 that return ticket and gaze long and fondly at it. 



The first tussle between what might be called the 

 Vatican lobby and the new pontiff took place over 

 the bishopric ol Lucca. A certain nobleman who had 

 embraced holy orders was recommended by the 

 lobbyists : — 



The Pope called them to him. " My children," he began, 

 "you have tried to make me advance a patrician and not a 

 plebeian to (he episcopate. But I have done the latter thing. 

 Uo you not see that your course is only a way of saying that, 

 if you h.ad had your way, I should not be Pope?" The 

 lobbyists saw the point. They recognised that, after all, the 

 new pontiff was probably a stifl'-necked mountaineer, and that 

 he would have to have his way for a while. He has. 



The Pope is strongly in favour of jxipular use of 

 the Bible. The writer says : — 



Despite the standing charge of many Protestant bigots that 

 the authorities of the Church of Rome would always oppose the 

 reading of the Scriptures by the people, the translations and 

 explanations of the Gospels in Italian, printed by the authority 

 of the .Saint Jerome .^ssociation, received the Pope's special 

 approval. He declared : — " Gladly do I give my blessing, and 

 that with both hands and w ilh a full heart : for I do not doubt that 

 this work will produce the richest fruit, and is already blessed 

 by God. The more we read the Gospels the stronger our faith 

 becomes. The Gospels are writings valuable for everybody, 

 .and under all circumstances. I have lived among the common 

 people, and know what they want and what pleases them. Tell 

 them the simplest liible stories and you will have attentive 

 listeners and effect blessed results. Vour purpose is to spread 

 the Gospel. Vou arc doing a noble work, tiome people think 

 that the peasants, with their plain, everyday way of thinking, 

 would not profit by the reading of the .Scriptures. This is 

 incorrect. The average peasant is a shrew<ler thinker than we 

 may suspect and knows how to diaw the correct lessons from 

 the .ScrijJtures ofliii even better th.an many of the preachers." 



Leo XIII.. .says the writer, was the last purely 

 temporal prince of the Church. Pius X. is before 

 everything a spiritual prince. 



