“WHAT THE EMPIRE MEANS TO ME"

Shannon News, 9 November 1926, Page 3

“WHAT THE EMPIRE MEANS TO ME"

♦ Dame Nellie Melba, in the Brltsh Empire Review, writes: — “For all of us, I believe ,the Empire means something different. For the young it calls up a vision of pomp and glory. They see the waving of flags in far countries .they hear the blowing of bugles on distant plains. For the old, maybe, it signifies security, a comfortable feeHng of protection ,no matter in wh-at part of the world they may find themselves. To the merchant the Empire means trade —commerce far-flung, stretching golden tentacles into the remotest seas. To the priest it is a vast, unexplored field, waiting to be sown with the Word of God. And to the artist —how many things, how many emotions, does it not recall? It may mean the golden flash of wattle |n the woods of my beloved Australia, flaming like a thousand torches which no darkness can extinguish. It may mean a sunset on the African veldt, or the echo of a swift Ganadian river.

It may mean the song of birds in the Cotswolds, or the glitter of fireflies in a Colombo dusk. For all that there is of beauty in this world, we possess.

There is no scent, no song, no colour that is not to be found in our „vast domains. “But to me? Ah—that is a difficult question. Were I only an artist. I should tell you what the Empire meant to me the sight of the blue mountains outside my Australian home —so serene, so „vast, so majestic. Often, as the light faded, I have sat and watch-

cd those mountains .seen them turn from blue to deeper blue, seen them fade into the universal night, and prayed that when my time came those mountains would be the last of» earth’s beauties upon which my tired eyes should rest.

“But lam not only an artist. lam

a woman, too, and I value my womanhood more than my art. You may think it unpicturesque of me, but I think kind hearts are more than cadenzas, and Y would rather lay down oh my pillow at "night with a clear consciehce than sleep with the echo of ten thousand cheers ringing in my head. And the woman in me prompts me to say that, the Empire means responsibility. I am sorry if this sounds ‘unco guid,’ but I cannot help it. It is the truth. Whenever I travel I find myself unconsciously sticking up for my own country. I have fought Australia’s battles in many strange places in this world — over a dinner table in New York, on board ship in the Southern - Seas, in the concert halls of Paris. I have tried to bring Australian singers to the fame which they deserved. I have tried to introduce Australian goods to those who had never known them. In a thousand ways, too large or too small to enumerate. I have carriedN on the work throughout my life. “I claim no credit for it. I do not do it for gain, nor for any theory I do it for instinct. Yet—if I were to theorise about it I should probably say something like this: “Here’ am I —a woman whose life bus been made possible by the blood and sweat of my fellow countrymen. I can sail in any sea, unafraid, because the English flag is protecting me. I. can fulfil my life’s purpose, without fear, 'can build my house on firm rock, sing my songs where I please —for the same reason Is it not for me, therefore, to do iny little part, to offer my own personal thanksgiving, which means service?

“.Responsibility! It is a beautiful word. Unhappy are those who do not know its meaning.”