UNITED KINGDOM'S NATIONALISM

Since the war, the steady trend toward nationalism throughout the British Empire has resulted in at least two definite achievements. Three weeks ago South Africa voted on the question of absolute secession from the Empire Now Canada nullifies the last symbol of the Empire's existence in the Dominion by winning the privelege of naming her own Governor-General.

At the South African polls the secession party lost, but it lost to a party that stands for nationalism in that district to a far greater extent than has hitherto prevailed. Canada's step toward nationalism, comparatively insignificant at first glance, increases in importance when we realize that she now retains no vestige of the Empire's control in her governmental machinery. The greatly reduced executive powers of her Governor-General will be wielded in the future by a Canadian.

These developments do not forecast the slow disintegration of the British Empire. Any such conclusion is disproved by the decisive results of the South African election. But they are indications that the days of symbolic representatives of the central government in its self-governing states are drawing to a close, that the dominions are virtually independent both in appearance and in fact. During the Twentieth Century there has developed throughout the British territory a spirit of loyalty to a common cause, loyalty not to England but to the Empire. It is only by thus freeing the parts of the realm of all restraint from London, and by letting them develop on an equal footing with England as integral parts of a great system of mutual support and sustenance, that the British Empire can retain its power.