The West Indian Bundle of Sticks. 



By N. Darnell Davis. 



[ANY years ago, in the earliest days of the making 

 of the Suez Canal, a solitary Frenchman was 

 observed digging away on the Isthmus. Asked 

 what he was about, the lonely pioneer made answer, "/ 

 am digging the Suez Canal." Somewhat similar to the 

 role of that solitary Frenchman is the part now being 

 played by those earnest men who, scattered far and 

 wide throughout the British Empire, are working slowly 

 but surely in the cause of Imperial Federation. These 

 true patriots have made a beginning of a grand work. 

 They are, it is hue, merely digging away for the foun- 

 dations, which must be laid wide and deep in the com- 

 mon welfare. They can hardly hope to live long enough 

 to see the completion of the Imperial superstructure. 

 Nevertheless, animated by the noble enthusiasm which 

 inspires them, they cease not to proclaim the patriotic 

 sentiment that Englishmen who go f rth to East or West, 

 to North or South, should remain Englishmen still, and 

 that, the wide world over, Englishmen should stick to 

 one another, and to the Old Country, in lasting Union. 



In order to insure that Imperial Federation shall be 

 accomplished in the future, it is necessary that steps be 

 taken in the present for the consolidation of the outlying 

 parts of the Empire. In this direction British North 

 America has led the way by the formation of the 

 Dominion of Canada In Australia, the colonies have 

 been visibly drawing together in the common interest, 



