BONDS OF EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1919, Page 5

BONDS OF EMPIRE.

COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS. THE PRINCE AND THE DOMINIONS. By Xelejjaph—Press Assn.—Copyrlulit,, Received December 24, 7.30 p.m. London, Dec- 18. At the conclusion of the Guildhall function, when the Prince of Wales was presented with the Freedom of the City, the Prince, while proceeding to the Mansion House to a luncheon given bj the Lord Mayor, to the recipient oS orations from citizens in the streets. Mr. Lloyd George, in proposing the health of the Prince, emphasised that the Throne united the varying laws of language, institutions and peoples of the Empire, which had a multitude of races owning a common loyalty to the Throne. This loyalty had been displayed conspicuously at a time of peril. He affirmed that the Prince's visit to Canada and the other Dominions would act like a tonic and have a powerful and invigorating effect. The Prince of Wales, in responding, described his tour, and said that nothing, appealed to him more than the number of ex-service men who greeted him everywhere. He could not speak too strongly of the great debt the Empire owed to the soldiers and the sailors. He wanted all ex-service men in every part of the Empire to remember him as an old comrade in arms and to regard liira in future as a comrade in spirit.

THE VISION OF EMPIRE. He had returned with a much clearer idea of what was meant by the British Empire—of what might more appropriately be called the British Commonwealth. Britishers had long felt a Grecian and Roman idea of Empire. There was now something far grander implied in the partnership of free nations living under the same system of laws, pursuing , the same democratic aims, and actuated (by the same human ideals, and the younger nations, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India, were now universally recognised as nations by the fact that they were signatories to. the Peace Treaties, which they had fought so magnificently to secure.

The Prince paid a tribute to the part India played in the war and said that he looked forward to visiting that wonderful country. The position of the selfgoverning Dominions was different; t»ev were inhabited by highly advanced democracies, who had made new civilisations out of the wildernesses, Continuing, the Prince said: "Think what they have achieved in four generations. Think of their -noble sacrifices in war. There !s no limiting the bounds to which their progress and development may some day attain." LOYALTY OF THE DOMINIONS. It was no exaggeration to sav that the united action of the British Empire in the war was one of the features least expected by the enemy, and it was most effective in securing a victorious peace. ?• people of the Old Country must realise the patriotism of the Dominions was a national patriotism, not mere loyalty to Britain. It was loyalty to their own British -'nstitutions, "and loyalty to the world-wide British system of life and.Government, and above all, loyalty to the British Empire, of which Britain, like the Dominions, was only one part. He had felt the inspiration of this great idea throughout his tour, but he had also learned that the loyalty of the Dominions in a very special sense was loyalty, to the Grown, and the Crown represented unity of Empire. The King was constitutionally sovereign of the Empire, and he occupied exactly the same place in. Qmada and the rest of the British Empire as he did in Britain. His house, although originally founded in Britain, belonged equally to all other nations of the Commonwealth. The Prince of Wales said he looked forward keenly to visiting in the near future other Dominions, where he knew he would feel equally at home.

BRITAIN'S NEW TASK. * After expressing his warm appreciation of the welcome given him in the United States he concluded: "The war put an end to the idea that'. Britain is played out. The Dominions were the first to recognise that Britain took the first strain of war, bore the heaviest burdens, and made the greatest sacrifices. The world still looked anxiously to Britain for an example in confidence and steadiness. Britain's duty was now to show the world that she could work towards adjusting the social, economic and industrial problems with general fairness and sympathy. We should strive wholeheartedly towards the goal of happier conditions of life, ensuring that every man and woman in the country enjoy the first proceeds of their labors and that every child born into the country should have a fair sporting chance." —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.