Loyalty Affirmed

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 101, 15 May 1937, Page 5

Loyalty Affirmed

-Prew Atsn.-

MESSAGE TO KING Foreign Affairs & Defence The Main Issues AIMING FOR PEACE

(By T«I«*rtph-

-Copyright.) -

(Received 15, 12 nooij). LONDON, May 14. At the Imperial Conference, the ' Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, drew attention to their Majesties' generosity in allowing the conference to be held in a Royal Palace for the first time in history. He asked the delegates to rise in their places while he read the messages to their Majesties: The Prime Ministers and other representativea of the British Commonwealth, desire, as their first official act, to present their respectfnl dnty and loyal devotion and pray that the reign so anspiciously inaugurated on Coronation Day may be happy and prosperous and that your Majesties, under Divine Providence, may longf be spared to strengthen the ties of affection and loyalty Uniting the people of the Commonwealth under the Crown." General Hertzog, the South African Prime Minister, seconded the motion, as the representative of the youngest Dominion. The message was approved and immedi&tely despatched to Buckingham Palace. The Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, in his open» ing speech, said: "Since the last Coronation there have been farreaching changes in the status and mutual relationships of the selfgoverning communities of the British Commonwealth which have become an association of peoples, each with sovereign fbeedom of its own but accustomed to co-operate closely with. each other in matters of common concern and all are associated under the Crown." Mr. Baldwin added that they believed in agreement as the main spring and in the democratic institution as the method of Government, and they had set their trust in them because they thought they were the best means that mankind had devised of preserving those things to which they cttached supreme value — liberty and individual freedom of thought, of speech and of conseience. Eeferring to the work before the conference, he said they were egreed 1 that questions of foreign affairs ac|d 1 defence should be their main subjects. 1 It was fitting that they should be, for they were rnet at a time when the international situation was difficult— ^ even threatening, and the responsibility j rest$d upon them to see that their deliberations not only were of service to \ themselves, but also might help in : aome measure towards a solutioh of 1 those international problems which ( were perplexing the world. ( "In all human relationships, co- , operation is most fruitrul when based, as in our Empire, on mntual loyalty i and trust," continued Mr. Baldwin. | ''Progress is ensured by free discus- ■ sion and tolerance. We have given the « peoples of a distracted world proof ] that combined work amongst nations i is as possible as social life is to in- 1 dividuals: I am confident that whatever onr problems, we will be able to llnd a solution through co-operation in unity and purpose under the Crown. The Imperial Conference adjourned at mid-day. Prior to the adjournment the conference established sub-commit-tees on shipping and general economic questions. The initial meeting will be held on May 18 and the principal delegates will reassemble on May 19, immediately comm'encing foreign affairs and detence discussions.