EMPIRE IS LIKE ROTARY’S WHEEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 207, 21 November 1927, Page 13

EMPIRE IS LIKE ROTARY’S WHEEL

STRENGTH IN UNITY LINKED TOGETHER FOR SERVICE Taking the wheel, the insignia of Rotary, as his text, Mr. Amery delivered Auckland Kotarians, with whom he lunched to-day, a little homily. The wheel was likened by the Minister to the British Empire. “Like your wheel it is linked together for service/* explained Mr. Amery. The Secretary of State for the Dominions was introduced by the Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, who said he could not over emphasise the importance of Mr, Amery’s miss'ion. He was received by Mr. J. W. Hayden, president, and the District Governor of Rotary in New Zealand, Mr. Charles Rhodes. Other guests included the ConsulGeneral for Japan, Mr. • Togukawa, Captain Brass, M.P., and the Undersecretary of Internal Affairs, Mr. J. Hislop. Mr. Amery declared that the Empire did not force uniformity upon any one part. Each was an entity of its own. That was one of the great characteristics of the Empire. DOMINIONS INDIVIDUAL “New Zealand and Australia, South Africa and Canada are all different,” he declared. “One is as individual as the other, just as Britain herself is individual. Yet all are linked, like our Wheel of Rotary, by one train of thought—one common ideal.” Loyalty to each other; he insisted, was just as essential as loyalty to the person of his Majesty the King. Though a single tariff, propounded by a single Government, said Mr. Amery, was not yet altogether possible, a common aim of Empire preference, supported by trade and financial assistance, might be attainable. He strongly advocated Empire marketing and every other method of pooling the resources of the Empire. “The British Empire is a union for peace,” said the Minister, “and it is also a union which collaborates in the general peace of the world.”