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The Bijou Theatre held a large gathering on Sunday | night, when a couple of excellent addresses were given | covering the Empire Day celebrations. Mr Percy Laidler | presided. The vocalist of the evening was Mr Percy | Robinson, whose resonant voice was heard to advantage and | with acceptance in "The | Diver." The numbers by the choir and orchestra | were finely rendered and splendidly applauded. Miss Young | and Miss Paxton accompanied.

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Mr J. Thorn, from New Zealand, in the space of twenty | minutes, dealt with his own experiences as a soldier and | of Empire-building generally, He was cleverly satirical in | connection with jingoism, and as graphically earnest in | reciting the horrors of war. The address was both gay and | grave, concluding with a peroration of force. It was | frequently applauded and loudly so at its conclusion.

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Mr J. Curtin, who was enthusiastically received, at the | outset disclaimed any intention of devoting time to the | Empire humbug now in the air. He reminded his hearers that | the history of England was not the history of the world. | The acceptable purblind view of English history was | entirely deplorable. He proceeded to refer to the Empires | of antiquity, contending in passing that all empires had | rested on an economic basis. Rapidly he brought his | audience to the Western movement in Imperial ascension. | His historical sketch took stock of medieval empires and | their Italian nature. Of the Venetians he pointed out that | they were traders only, and not conquerors. The discovery | of America by Columbus had a disastrous effect on Venetian | prestige. The Portuguese took the lead and developed a | Maritime service. Their insistence on all trading being | done via Lisbon largely accounted for the rise of Holland | and England. Portugal and Spain went down before their | keener rivals, but Spanish colonisation in South America | was noteworthy. The Dutch colonised Java, Batavia, etc, | and the Dutch-India Co. wielded vast influence. Meanwhile | England was undergoing a remarkable transformation. | Drake's circumnavigation of the world, supported by those | qualities of Empire-building in which England had never | been deficient and with brilliant Statesmanship, gave | encouragement to handicraft. Then Cromwell's Navigation | Act contributed to England's superseding of Holland. It | was notable that no nation was ever great because it | produced and consumed; it became great as it established | auction marts for the world. England became a nation of | shopkeepers. The establishment of the British-India Co. | and the Bank of England immensely aided its commercial | development. All through the struggle for national | supremacy commercial necessities determined the course of | events.

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Incidental reference was made by Mr Curtin to the | effect of the French Revolution and of the English | Industrial Revolution in regard to trading, and tracing | from these he found that today Empire existed solely to | further the capitalistic system. That was why Empire | became a matter of moment to Socialism. The wars of the | nineteenth century had been wars for markets, or for | strategical positions necessary to commerce. These wars | were clearly explainable by their material interests. | Capitalism was the root of Imperialism as we knew | Imperialism today; and there was now no fundamental | difference between Empires - each | represented one class organisation, Capitalism. Today | there was perhaps a score of Empires; previously one | Empire at a time dominated, and once it fell it fell | forever.

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The lecturer proceeded to analyse capitalistic | conditions, and claimed that Imperialism was the only | policy by which they could prolong their existence. As to | the scares re "Englishman's homes" and foreign balloons, | these things were but the paraphernalia of the policy. The | bulk of Englishmen had no homes.

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The speaker affirmed that England would not be overcome | on the battlefield, but by human intelligence. England was | not going down because of any superior rival, but because | her interests were merging into the interests of all | capitalistic nations, One or two things there had to be ~~ | either a federation of Empires under capitalism, or a | federation of the working-class under Socialism. Marx had | said Capitalism must nestle everywhere. And so it wasn’t | today a question of national supremacy, but of class | supremacy. Imperialism was an economic programme. But | inasmuch as Imperialism didn't feed its people | - and they had been fed in ancient Empires | - and didn't need to feed the human machine so | much as the iron machine, it must fail. The Socialist system | was possible, as brotherhood was possible, because alone | in accord with the industrial requirements of the | time.

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The lecture was a scholarly and effective one, as | marked for its depth in conclusion as its research in | realities. Naturally, and before so intellectually alert | an audience, it won an attentive hearing, ending in | unstinted applause.

On Sunday night next Mr Frank | Anstey, MLA, will lecture on | "The Martyrdom of Man."