HOME AGAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 133, 26 August 1927, Page 13

HOME AGAIN

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

ARRIVAL FROM CANADA

SOME GLOWING TRIBUTES

(British Official Wireless. —Copyrigh

RUGBY, Wednesday. “I AM certain that I do not interpret the spirit of Canada I amiss if I say that /the message the Canadian people gave men to bring home is one of faith, hope and affectionfaith in our common traditions and methods of government; hope for the future, economic and political, of the British Empire; and affection for the British people and for the throne to which we and Canada, and all the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, owe allegiance.”

The Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, and Mrs. Baldwin arrived at Southampton this afternoon in the liner Empress of Scotland, from their Canadian tour. Both sipoke very highly of the way they had been received in Canada. Addressing Press representatives, the Prime Minister said: “I have had a very strenuous time, but it has been a wonderful experience, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It is just 32 days since we sailed from Southampton. In that time we travelled by steamer, train, and motor-car nearly 11,000 miles, an average of 340 miles a day. “During the 19 days we were actually in Canada we visited all her nine provinces, and you must remember that one Canadian province may be three times the size of the whole of the British Isles. In these 19 days I made 26 public speeches. I mention the speeches, for there is an impression that I have been having a holiday. “In some ways the visit was exceptional. It was my great privilege to travel with the Prince of Wales and Prince George, than whom I could wish for no better travelling companions. Then it was the first time a Prime Minister of Great Britain had

visited one of the Dominions during his term of office.” Speaking of the agricultural and mineral possibilities of Canada, he said:—“They are, humanly speaking, unlimited. Yet, in spite of some thickly-populated areas and great manufacturing cities such as Montreal and Toronto there are, over the whole Dominion, only three people to the square mile. Then you will begin to see why Canada’s problem is so different from our own. I did not hear of any serious problem in the relations betwen capital and labour over there. Canada has plenty of elbow room for both. She needs both men and money. We have got to find a means of bringing willing hands and open spaces together.” The Prime Minister added:—“lf I may mention one or two striking characteristics of the Canadian people they are these: Their open-hearted Welcome to the visitor from the Old Country; their keenness to hear, and to hear sympathetically, about our problems, and the way we are fighting through them and solving them; their vigorous optimism about their own future; their confidence in the future and stability of Great Britain and the British Empire.”—A. and N.Z.