EMPIRE AND CROWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1939, Page 8

EMPIRE AND CROWN

KING’S SPEECH TO CANADIAN PARLIAMENT Free and Equal Association of Nations FRIENDSHIP WITH ALL PEOPLES DESIRED By Telegraph. —Press Association. —Copyright. (Received This Day, 12.45. p.m.) OTTAWA, .May 19. The address given by the King, at first in English and then, in French, from the Throne in the Senate of the Canadian Parliament is as follows: — “I thank yon sincerely for your addresses received on my arrival at Quebec. The Queen and I deeply appreciate your loyal and affectionate messages. I am very happy that my visit to Canada affords me the opportunity of meeting in Parliament assembled the members of both Houses. No ceremony could more completely symbolise t]ie free and equal association of the nations of our commonwealth. “As my father said on the occasion of his Silver Jubilee, the unity of the British Empire is no longer expressed by the supremacy of the time-honoured Parliament that sits at Westminster. It finds expression today in a free association of nations enjoying common principles of government, a common attachment to ideals of peace and freedom and bound together bv a common allegiance to the Crown. ■ The Queen and I have been deeply touched by the warmth of the welcome accorded us since our arrival in Canada. We are greatly looking forward to our visit to each of.the provinces and, before our return, to paying a brief visit to the United States. It is my earnest hope that my present visit may give my Canadian people a deeper conception of their unity as a nation. I hope also that my visit to the United States will help to maintain the very friendly relations existing between that, great country and the nations of the commonwealth. These visits, like the one recently made by the Queen and myself to the Continent of Europe, will, we trust, be viewed as an expression of the spirit of our peoples, which seeks ardently for closer friendship and better relations not only with our kith and kin, but with the peoples of all nations and races. Honourable members of the Senate and members of the House of Commons, may the Blessing of Divine Providence rest upon your labours and upon my Realm of Canada.”