NEW ZEALAND’S PART

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 February 1940, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND’S PART

CONTRIBUTION TO MODERN CIVILISATION BOLD SPIRIT OF EXPERIMENT. TRIBUTE AT CENTENNIAL RECEPTION. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright. (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, February 5. Speaking at a New Zealand Centennial reception at the headquarters of the Royal Empire Society, the chairman, Major-General, the Pvt Hon Sir Frederick Sykes, paid a tribute to New Zealand’s contribution to modern civilisation and the bold spirit of experiment animating its leaders and legislators from the time of Mr R. J. Seddon and onwards. New Zealand’s past nobly fitted her for a great task in the present times. There was nothing more certain than that "New Zealand will be crowned with fresh laurels in the coming struggle by her sailors, soldiers and airmen.

Mr W. J. Jordan (New Zealand Hi*gh Commissioner). in reply, said New Zealand had been built on a Christian settlement foundation and had taken its place in the affairs of the Empire and the nations of the world. Reviewing material progress, Mr Jordan quoted figures of exports to Britain, described her war efforts and expressed New Zealand's pride in H.M.S. Achilles for her part in the fight with the Admiral Graf Spee.

The Royal Empire Society sent a message of congratulations to the Governor-General and the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The New Zealand High Commissioner, Mr Jordan, and Mrs Jordan, together with Sir Frederick and Lady Sykes, received a great company of guests, who appreciated a display of New Zealand films, after which Sir Frederick Sykes in a historical review recalled the New Zealanders’ valour in Ihe Great War and their peacetime accomplishments.