THE AUSTRALIAN'S LACK OF PATRIOTISM.
It so happens that the Australian couldn't, even if he wanted to, say,
"This is my own, my native land." That is, of course, with any degree of
truth. For the Australian has long since put the country in pawn.
Instead of evincing any lofty sentiment, however, the Australian is
generally to be heard cursing his country, and a good number of him get
away from it the first opportunity the good God gives them. And small
wonder. It is a land of burlesque. It is built on entirely wrong
principles. The mountains are all round the coast, and they keep the
rain from going inside. The consequence is that there is always a
drought in the interior, which same remark applies also to the
Australian himself.
"It's a good place to live out of," says the ignominious Australian, if
you ask him anything about it.
In his dunderheadedness he can't see that he has fenced out enterprise,
and is fast legislating himself out of the country. The emigration
figures of Australia represent those of the inhabitants who can scrape
a couple of hundred pounds together in order to escape the national
debt, the suckers, and the reprehensible politician.
When it was proposed that Australia should borrow the money in England
to give England a Dreadnought, one of the State Premiers was interviewed
on the subject. He sounded the depths in patriotic sentiment by
remarking, "It would be a good advertisement!"
It is only in a Mr. Alfred Deakin peroration or that of some other
silver-tongue that you hear of Australian patriotism. Silver tongue, by
the way, is a mere euphemism; there is a more direct and much shorter
Saxon synonym.
If Australia were a great country, it would have the natural corollary,
a great man. But it has never produced one.
Sir Henry Parkes once proposed to erect a mausoleum for the illustrious
dead of Australia, but the hopelessness of getting eligible corpses
caused the idea to be abandoned. There are, however, in Australia many
unexplained monuments. Among the latest was one in Brisbane, raised to a
deceased Rugby football player. Will the Australian ever get any sort of
sense of proportion?
But a people, I suppose, must first of all have love of country before
it gets a standard of measurement. If a plebiscite were taken it would
be found that the memory of Edward Kelly is far more revered by the
citizens of this mean country than that of any other citizen. This
national hero was familiarly known as Ned Kelly. After a series of
misunderstandings with the police, he died suddenly one morning.
The individual Australian, be it here remarked, does not consider the
collective Australian much class, and the Australian who has travelled
has a sneaking disregard for his compatriots. If he has spent two months
in London, he returns an ape Englishman. So far as loose clothes and
cheap mannerisms will carry him he is a Londoner. It is a noticeable
fact that he imitates the most inane of insular types. The more howling
the particular London ass of the period, the more sincere the Australian
flattery of him. This needs no comment.
And when this two-months-in-England idiot returns to Australia some
gushing she-Australian will say to him--
"Oh, Mr. Absent Two-Months (Printer, don't forget the hyphen), I can
tell you're an Englishman. You're so different from the Australian."
At this Mr. Absent Two-Months will smile smugly, conscious of the higher
appraisement.
Then he will commend her for her discernment in words.
"Well--er, I was born out he--ah," he will say, "But, you know, I--er
have lived in England--haw!"
She just dotes on Englishmen. She likes the way they turn their trousers
up at the bottoms.
Then they start. He will agree with her in sweeping depreciation of
Australia and all who live in it, and he will tell her what a jolly
country England is. She will sigh sympathetically to the cad, instead of
calling in the dust-bin emptier to pole-axe him. It would be a more
patriotic extreme.
Now how could this kind of woman kindle the spark of patriotism in her
children, assuming for the moment that she was prepared to bear them?
How could she instil love of country? She has no passion for things
Australian. Her mother never adopted the country for a start. She was
one of those wistful creatures who called Old England "Home," and her
children learnt it right enough.
And these Australian women are now lending a voice in the country's
affairs. The word voice is used deliberately. It is about the only thing
the Australian will lend the country.