272 Australian Life 



It is quite certain, however, that they will always 

 remain loyal to the Empire, provided there re- 

 mains an Empire to excite the passion of loyalty. 

 The Boer War opened with an incident that 

 appealed most forcibly to every Colonial who 

 cherished this ideal of Empire the invasion of a 

 self-governing Colony by a hostile force. From 

 that time forward, the Australians and New Zea- 

 landers and obviously the Canadians and other 

 Colonials as well regarded the war as peculiarly 

 their war. It was clear enough to any one who 

 saw much of the men who left their homes 

 to fight in South Africa that this aspect of 

 the quarrel had touched their imagination most 

 keenly. It was the first real Colonial war in 

 which the Empire had been engaged, and the 

 notion of Empire suddenly gained an attractive 

 reality in the eyes of Australians. Even so, per- 

 haps, would Canadians and Africans rally to 

 their help if ever Australia were invaded by an 

 enemy. 



From the sentimentalists' standpoint, this view 

 of Australian loyalty is possibly less attractive 

 than the conventional idea of love for " the dear 

 old Mother Country." It is, however, the view- 

 consistent with the Colonial attitude on most 

 Imperial questions. Canada still refuses to pay 

 one penny toward the maintenance of the British 

 fleet, simply because it is a British fleet and not an 

 Imperial fleet. Australia with a grudging re- 

 luctance contributes the sum of ,200,000 annu- 



