ROYAL MEMBER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 March 1939, Page 8

ROYAL MEMBER

NEW ZEALAND SOCIETY DUKE OF KENT JOINS. The New Zealand Society in London has an important new member. At the annua l dinner on New Zealand Day. the Duke of Kent, as the guest of honour, was invited to join its ranks by the High Commissioner, Mr W. J. Jordan. The Duke accepted with the greatest pleasure. He had long wanted to go to New Zealand, and he was looking forward to paying a visit with the Duchess of Kent in Novembei and December, 1940. “New Zealand,” said the Duke, “conjures up the most fascinating pictui es of the most wonderful scenery. If I talk of New Zealand in terms of its scenery I do not want you to think I am suggesting that your scenery is more important than the many able activities in your country,” he' added. “It is hard for us in England to learn about New Zealand, and, in the same way, it is hard for those living m the Dominions to know much about us unless we 'encourage every possible contact. The New Zealand Society is a great help in getting to know each other, and I know that it does much to foster that very personal friendship which exists between the Dominion and this country. True friendship is a very rare and very precious gift, that it really exists in the British Common.wealth of Nations is a thing for which we must all be grateful. But we must try and make it even closer by our personal efforts. . “I am very glad to think that I shaL be able to see the country and perhaps some your Maori people during your centenarv year. When I visit the Franz Josef Glacier, Mount Cook, the hot springs of Rotorua, the Waitomo Caves, or the fine cities of the Dominion; I can assure you that I snail think not only of the beauty of the scene, but what it all stands for in your eyes and ours. When I return from New Zealand I hope I shall be able to dine again with this society, of which I am so proud io have become a member. I hope then that I shall be able to put into practice what I have preached tonight. PRIME MINISTER’S MESSAGE. The High Commissioner, in proposing the toast of the Duke, read the following message from the Prime Minister, Mr M. J. Savage: “Please convey to his Royal Highness, to the other guests and to fellow countrymen on mv"behalf warm greetings and good wishes, and to the New Zealand Socicty appreciation of its most useful ana successful work in London. It if I splendid that New Zealanders abroad have such an opportunity at the annual celebration of the New Zealand Society-to meet in patriotic good fellowship in the very heart of the Commonwealth. . “We are living in times of stiess and some anxiety. and none hopes more fervently than we in New Zealand that the tension of today will give way tomorrow to that certainty of peace without which there can be no prosperity ,or progress. I feel certain' that the unity and strength of the British people is one of the greatest factors for peace at the present time. .“The celebration tonight is a demon--1 stration of feelings of kinship, find loyalty that makes for this unity of new nations with the Homeland. Whatever may be the occasion, New Zealanders today, as in the oast, wlll bc found standing shoulderfio shoulder with the British people wherever they live in upholding the democratic institutions and traditions of liberty which are the vital elements of our ways of „ T In the course of a speech Mr Jordan said: —"Wc take it as a compliment to the people of the Dominion, both Maori and pakeha, that Your Royal Highness has accepted our invitation to be here on the 99th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Without conquest, but by free choice, the Maori people signed the treaty to become subjects of the British Crown. His Royal Highness will sec the place where the treaty was signed and which, thanks to the? public spirit and generosity of Viscount Bledisloe, has become the property of the nation.”