THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1919, Page 4

THE BRITISH EMPIRE

SPEECH BY PRINCE OF WADES. LONDON, Deoember 18. At the conclusion of the Guildhall function, when the Prince of Wales was presented wtih an address of welcome from the City; of London, on his return from America, the Prince, while proceeding to the Mansion House to a luncheon given by ,the Lord Mayor, was the recipient of further ovations from the citizens in the streets.

Mr Lloyd George in proposing the health of the Prince of Wales, emphasised that the Throne united the varying laws, language, institutions, and peoples of the British Empire which had a multitude of races owing to a common loyalty to the Throne. This loyalty had. been displayed conspicuously in the time of peril. Ho affirmed that the visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada and the other oversea Dominions would act like a tonic and have a powerful and invigorating effect. The Prince of Wales, in responding, described bis tour, and said that nothing had appealed to him more than the number of ex-service men who had greeted him everywhere. He could not speak too strongly of the great debt the Empire owed to its soldiers and sailors. He wanted all ex-service men in every part of the Empire to remember him, as an old comrade-in-arms, and regard him in future as a comrade in spirit. •He had returned with a much clearer idea of what was meant by the British Empire, or what might more appropriately be called the British Commonwealth. The British people had long left the Grecian and Roman idea of (Empire behind. Behind the British Empire there was now something far grander implied in a partnership of free nations living under the same democratic aims, and actuated by the same human ideals and it was the younger nations, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India, were now universally recognised as nations by the fact that they were signatories to the Peace Treaties, which tney had fought so magnificently to secure.

Tde Prince of Wales paid a tribute to the part that India had played in tlie war, and said that he looked forward to visiting that wonderful country The position of the self-governing Dominions was different. They were inhabited by highly-advanced Democracies who had made new civilisations out of the wildernesses. Continuing, the Prince of Wales said: “Think what they have achieved in four generations. Think of their noble sacrifices in the war. There is no limiting the bounds to which their progress and development may some day attain.” It was no exaggeration to say that the united action of the British Empire in the war was one of the features least expected by the enemy, and it was most effective in securing a victorious peace. The people of the Old Country must realise that the patriotism of the Dominions was a national patriotism—not mere loyalty to Britain. It was loyalty to the world-wide British system of life and government, and, above all, loyalty to the British Empire, of which Britain or the Dominions were only one part

He had felt the inspiration of this great idea throughout his ,tour; but he had also learned that the loyalty of the Dominions, in a very special sense, was loyalty to the Crown, and. the Crown represented .the unity of the Empire. .The King • was constitutionally the Sovereign of the Empire and occupied exactly the same place in Canada, and the rest of the British Empire as he did iij. Great Britain. His House, although orignally founded in Britain, belonged equally to all the other nations of the Commonwealth.

The Prince of Wales said he looked forward keenly to visiting, in the near future, the other Dominions, where he knew he would feel equally at home. After expressing warm appreciation of the welcome given him in the United States, he concluded: “The war has put an end to the idea that Britain is played out. The Dominions were the first to recognise that. Britain took the first strain of the war, bore the heaviest burdens, and made the greatest sacrifices. Tire world still looks anxiously to Britain for an example in confidence and steadiness. Britain’s duty is now to show the world that she can work in adjusting social, economic, and industrial problems with general fairness and sympathy. We must istrivie wholeheartedly towards the goal of happier conditions of life, ensuring that every man and woman in the country shall enjoy the just proceeds of their labours, and that every child born into the country shall have a fair sporting chance.’