DUKE OF YORS.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 March 1922, Page 4

DUKE OF YORS.

POSSIBLE VISIT TO THE ANTIPODES. SIR JAMES ALLEN EXTENDS A WELCOME. LONDON, Jan. 26. H.R.H. the Duke of York, who was the guest of the Australian and New Zealand Luncheon Club to-day, had somje complimentary things to say of New Zealand and Australia, and when lie expressed the hope that lie would lie able to visit those countries himself at no "very distant date, it certainly sounded not a mode polite sentiment, but the prediction of an actual fact. It is Australia Day, arid Australia House and Australians in London generally are celebrating it as a festival, but the Duke in bis speech was careful to extend bis remarks to the wider sphere of Australasia rather than to specialise in allusion to the Commonwealth alone. This morning, Sir Joseph Cook, the High Commissioner for Australia, opened an exhibition of the products of the Commonwealth in the Great Hall of Australia House. All day long, cinematographic films are being displayed for the bonefit of the public, showing the processes of tlje industries of the country. This afternoon there is an Australian service at St Dunstan’s in the East, and to-night a reception and ball at Australia House. At to-day’s luncheon at the Hotel Cecil Sir James Allen was seated at the right hand of the Duke, and the chairman (Sir Joseph Cribk) on the left. The very large company included other High Commissioners and all the Agents-General for the colonies, several ex-eoloiiial Governors, and many Australians and New Zealanders resident in London. A feature of the decorations was the extensive use oi wattle, and a large number of the gur-sts wore sprigs of it in their buttonholes. The Australian ami New Zealand (lags were draped behind the principal table.

Mo R E FIRMLY- EST ABL lS! JED THRONE.

Sir Joseph Cook, in proposing the health of the Duke of Aork, recalled that twenty-one years ago lie was sworn as a member of the first federal Parliament by the present King, who was then Duke of York. Since then Australasia has had a visitor than whom none had ever been more welcome. The Prince of Wales seemed to he getting on satisfactorily in India, hut however great his success lie could not possibly get on better than lie did in Australia. It would he a great day for the Southern Continent, it in the evolution of affairs it had the lionoui also of welcoming the Duke ol A oik. On Australia’s birthday it was well to reflect that while dynasties had fallen and thrones had crumpled, the British Crown was more firmly established than ever. This was because the King and oil the members of his family were overv day doing kingly and legal things. The King and all connected with him did their duty by the people with the people ami for the people. The way they did it during the war touched the hearts of people all over the Empire. The sense of duty penetrated the entire family, who could stand upright and courageously look the whole world in the lace. In response,' the Duke of York said | R . appreciated very highly the honour which had been shown him. “Like the rest of my family,” he said, “1 am vci> proud to think that I belong as much to Australia and New Zealand as I do to the Mother Country, and to the other nations of the Empire. The invitation which von have extended to me this afternoon strengthens my belief and hope that those sentiments are reciprocated. “My knowledge of your great country is limited, alas! to the results of my reading and to wluit 1 have heard from my brother, hut I would like to assure you all that when circumstances allow and when good fortune favours mo, Australasia will receive no more willing or more interested visitor than myself. I learnt that New Zealand, with its temperate climate, its magnificent and varied scenery, and its blue encircling Sl> a is as attractive a country as may he found anywheie. And 1 also learn that Australia is a unique island continent a very world itself. A world of boundless space, and probably in the future of boundless nealtli. But one does net need to leave these slimes m order to realise that Australasia’s greatest asset is the riamina offer people. They are of the truest slock to I b found in all the combinations of the Britannic League of Nations, for

nowhere else is the Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Celtic strain less mingled with that of other races. Australians and New Zealanders were drawn almost exclusively from tA> British Islands, and oceanic legislation has pieservrd the purely British element, and to a large extent, diverted the threatem-d overflow from other congested areas. When Captain Phillip landed at Port Jackson 131 years ago to-day he know Hint lie was planting a British colony, hut he could never have foreseen how purely British it would be made, or how swiftly it would grow to greatness.

THE FAMOUS ANZAC. “When the Anzac soldiers were seen striding through our streets we liked to recognise in the tall, litllo, musculai figures the epitome of British breeding under a kindlier sun, and more lihoial air than we enjoy in these misty and more crowded islands. And when the all conquering ‘All Blacks’ and the redoubtable ‘Wallabies’ of some years ago, and more recently still when your triumphant cricketers and masterly tennis players made the Home-grown stock for the time being take second place, we were all able to cherish a family pride in our conquerors, and to congratulate them very warmly on their victories as first rate sportsmen. And when this first rate breed of sportsmen produced the famous Anzacs, who added such lustre to the Empire and won imperishable renown, our pride in them had no limit. With that breed of men and with the spirit of independence which they possess, together with their vigour, courage, and pertinacity, Australasia has good grounds for her invincible faith in herself; confident in her own might ( but at the same time mindful of her privileges and liter ties to the greatest association of nations to which we are all proud to belong, and the existence of which means larg-

er liberty, nobler opportunities and greater happiness.”

Sir James Allen proposed a. vote of thanks tq the Duke of York for attend- . ing the luncheon and for his very sym- • pat lie tic, and loyal speech. “It was j well for tis to know that the loyalty was not all on one side,” lie said.

“Loyalty from the people and loyalty from tlie Throne—we had them both, j We belong to Australia and New Zea-, land, hut Australia and New Zealand j equally strongly belongs to the Royal I Family. If His Royal Highness should visit Australia he could not come into those waters without also visiting New Zealand, and I offer him a hearty wel*eome on behalf of the people of the Dominion if he should come out to the Southern Isles.” Sir James concluded by a vote of thanks to the chairman and welcomed him as a fellow High Commissioner and on behalf of the New Zealanders who were in the United Kingdom at the present time. During the luncheon .Miss Margaret Bruce, a young Australian soprano, sang for the first time publicly in this country the Australian national song. The National Anthem was also sung by her when the loyal toast was proposed. The Duke was received with great enthusiasm and his toast was drunk with musical honours,