MOTHER ENGLAND

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 26, 23 September 1931, Page 4

MOTHER ENGLAND

ADDRESS TO ROTARY MR. E. EARLE VAILE OUTLINES HISTORY OF MOTHER COUNTRY. ELIZABETH, THE EMPIEE BUILDEE, At the weekly luncheo'n meeting of the Rotorua Rot'ary Club on Monday, Mr. E. Earle Vaile gave ari address, his subject being "Mother England." Mr. Vaile briefly outlined the history of England, dividing it into five periods, the first of which was that of the native Britons. Then followed the Roraan occupation, the Saxon era, and the Normap and An-glo-Norman periods to 1558, when Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne. Mr. Vaile eonsidered that Queen Elizabeth, more than any other person, had initiated the modern period. He said she was the greatest sove- I reign England ever- had. . She ascend- ' ed the throne with a doubtful title, i because the marriage of her father, Henry VIII, with Catherine of Aragon, was not legal. At that time the population of England was only 5,000,000; the public revenues, £500,00; the coinage was debased; and there was no army and no navy. Yet she 'set out to attaek Spain, the most powerful country in Europe, her policy- culminating in the defeat of the invincible Armada in 1588.

Brunswick Era. The next period dealt with by Mr. Vaile was that of the rule of the House of Brunswick, during which, he said, the three leading events were the loss of the American colonies, the conquest of India and the Napoleonic wars. Mr. Vaile said he tnought that the English were too ready to accept the whole of the blame for the American War of Independence. Prior to that war, the English colonists in America had occupied only a small strip of the Atlantic seaboard, and were completely surrounded by French settlements in the Mississippi Valley and Canada, frorn which they were in constant danger of attack. The English expedition Under General Wolfe once and for all relieved them from this pressure, and England suggested that the colonies should pay portion of the cost. When the colonies did not respond, England, maybe unwisely, but certainly unjustly, insisted upon some payment and imposed taxes. It should be .remembered he continued, tnat at that time the population of England was only 12,000,000, while that of the colonies was 6,000,000, and that the war had been condueted at a distance of 4000 miles in the days before telegraphs or steamers had made communication easy. Mr .Vaile said he could forgive the American colonists many things, but not the calling in to their assistance of France, the very enemy from whom England had delivered them.

England's Achievements. Turning to the conquest of India by a private company, and the government of India since then, Mr. Vaile said he regarded these as among the greatest achievements in human history. Mr. Vaile reminded his audience that in the Great War England had carried the world on her back. No foreign soldier, he said, had entered any part of the British Empire, nor had the enemy been ahle to land anywhere on its shores and the Empire had asked help from no one. "This brings us," he said, "to the England we know, cuitivated, combed, brushed, and polished up for 1000 years; of incomparable beauty and unassailable security; a country on which the foreign foes has not been able to place a foot for eight and a half centuries, a reeord unique in history. London is still the heart of the Empire and the centre of civilisation. The people of England possess in a marked degree the three qualities necessary for freedom; the ability to fight, the capacity for work, and character." British Aristocracy. Mr. Vaile said be eonsidered the British aristocracy the most remarkable race of men ever produced, combining as they did the genious of the Greeks with the character of the Romans. He gave an impressive ITst of great Englishmen in all departments of human endeavour. The common people also, he said, possessed the qualities of honesty, dependability and tenacity. English merchants and financiers were the most enterprising, skilful and honest in the world. And coming down to the London policeman, courteous, well informed, and fearless, he was one of the most finished products of eivilisation. Mr. Vaile referred to the burdens of England and the falsity of the foreigner's idea that England leans on her colonies. New Zealand, he said, would not be independent for six months without the Mother Country's protection. "The power and the influence of England throughout the world is remarlcable, and to have been born an Englishman was a very great privilege indeed," Mr. Vaile concluded. There was a good attendance of members under the chairmanship of the president, Rotarian J. Ii. Buddle, and Mr. Vaile was listened to with close attention.