“FESTIVAL OF FAMILY”

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 81, 29 December 1934, Page 11

“FESTIVAL OF FAMILY”

The King’s Broadcast CHRISTMAS IN ENGLAND (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, December 27. The Christmas “Festival of the Family,” as the King described it in his broadcast to the peoples of the Empire, was celebrated throughout Britain quietly and in an atmosphere of more confident optimism than has been the case for some years. The holiday was without news, for politics were temporarily forgotten, and there was a happy absence of those calamities which so often comprise news. It was a “green” Christmas of mild and occasionally wet weather. Family reunions were general throughout the country. Greetings by Jong-distance telephone and telegraph kept the Post Office exceptionally busy, btit most people stayed at home' and the roads were singularly free from traffic. As in the case of the two preceding years the great event of Christmas Day was the King’s broadcast, and the programme of Empire greetings which preceded it. The King's short message had an impressive simplicity and sincerity, and was addressed to all members of the Empire family. There were special greetings to the Dominions, “through whom the family has become a fellowship.of free nations,” to far distant colonies, and to the peoples ot India, to whom his Majesty sent assurance of his constant care for them and of his desire that "they too may ever more fully realise and value their own place in the unity of the family ’’ ‘Although the world is still restless and troubled," said the King, “the clouds are lifting. We have still our own troubles to meet, but if we meet them in the family spirit, they will be overcome for private and party interests will be controlled by care tor. the whole community.” Head of Great Family. In a moving passage at the end of his message, the King said: “May I add very simply and sincerely that, if I may be regarded as in some true sense head of this great and widespread family, sharing its life and sustained by its affections, this will be a full reward for the long and sometimes anxious labours of my reign of wellnigh five and twenty years. As I sit. in my own home I am thinking of the great multitudes who are listening to my voice, whether they be in British homes or in the far-off regions of the world. For you all, and especially for your children, I wish you a happy Christmas. I, commend yon to the Father of whom every family ,in Heaven and oh earth is named God bless you all.” The Empire broadcast which preceded rhe King’s message heightened the effect of his words Listeners were taken without a moment’s wait from one extremity of the Empire to the other, from Australia to Canada, from the North-west Frontier of India to Rhodesia. Little talks from these places gave an extraordinary effect of unity which has overcome distance, but not the least impressive was the c<meluding item from limington Central Village/ Britain, where an old shepherd. who had never visited London nor seen the sea. told in broad dialect of his life on the Cotswolds Only in Australia was any difficulty experienced in hearing the King’s message, which was relayed throughout the United States and some other countries, as well as throughout all parts of the Empire.