N.Z. AND "HOME."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 259, 1 November 1932, Page 3

N.Z. AND "HOME."

ADMIRATION OF BRITAIN.

« COURAGE AND TENACITY." MR. DOWNIE STEWART'S SPEECH. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 23. "As a raw youth, fresh from college, I paid a short visit to England about 30 years ago," said Mr. Downie Stewart in a speeeli to members of the New Zealand Society, which gave a luncheon in his honour. "I cannot help contrasting this visit with my first one to England, when I was too shy to call on friends in London, and by my own fault spent some lonely days here—for there is no place like a large city in which to feel lonely. "Apart from the overwhelming hospitality which has been extended to me, my most vivid impression on revisiting England is one that is common to all overseas visitors, namely the exquisite beauty of England and the English landscape. In the case of visitors from overseas Dominions, we are not merely spellbound by the beauty of the landscape and the rich historical romance going back over thousands of years, but there comes to us a sense of familiarity, as if something in our blood was calling us to view again the soil from which our forefathers sprang, and the rock from which we were hewn." "Will Weather the Storm." After giving an account of the economic condition of the Dominion, and the steps taken by the Government to combat the depression, Mr. Stewart said:

"We are still battling in the face of the storm, but there are signs of an improvement. The trade balance has made a wonderful recovery. The banking position is sound and satisfactory, and tlio Customs revenue has risen substantially in recent months. There has been some rise in the world price for our staple exports; the unemployment figures show a tendency to fall, and there is a marked note of hope and optimism throughout the community. I am making no prophecy, but I believe that if the present trend continues, and if the efforts now being made in the leading countries of the world to stimulate business activity and improve prices bear fruit, we in Ney Zealand will weather the storm and overcome our difficulties.

"This leads mo to say how deeply grateful New Zealand is to the British Government, the British Treasury and our London bankers and financial agents for all the advice, assistance and friendly help they have given to us during this time of stress and trouble. They havo appreciated our difficulties, and they have refrained from reproaching us for our past borrowing, and what was, perhaps, unwise expenditure in some directions.

"Wβ count ourselves extremely fortunato that we at all times enjoyed England's generous help and confidence. From time to time foreign countries have offered to lend us money, but my reply im been that when they will lend to us at tho same rate as the British investor; and when they will grant us an open market for our exports in the same generous way as Britain does, to enable us to pay our interest and principal; and if they will, in addition, grant us the protection of a powerful Navy to keep open our trade routes, and to protect us from foreign aggression, then we may be tempted to consider their offer. In saying this, of course, I cast no reflection on other Dominions, but so far we have not thought it expedient to have recourse in any market but this. 'Our Spiritual Home.' "Finally, I would like, on behalf of New Zealand, to express our admiration of the courage and tenacity with which Great Britain is standing up to the overwhelming difficulties with which she is faced. . . Tho people of the Dominion, who were proud to be companions in arms with Great Britain during the war, and who, in this world-wide depression, have been companions in distress, count themselves above all to be companions in good fortune, in the fact that we enjoy the inestimable privilege of being part of the British Empire. We live under the august prestige and power of this great country, whose sovereign and peculiar virtue is that she has grown grey with centuries of experience and wisdom in the art of governing man. An American writer recently said that Great Britain alone had learned the paradoxical secret that if you wish to bind nien to you you must leave them free—free to lead their own lives, to observe their own customs, to develop their own institutions. Thus she harmonises different forms of national sentiment in free and willing subordination to common ideals, law and government. The transcendent genius of Great Britain is that it reconciles apparently incompatible interests and aspirations in the service of humanity. "We in New Zealand regard Britain not only as being the financial leader of the world, by virtue of her integrity and probity, but, what is of still more supreme importance, she maintains, in our view, the moral leadership of the w.orld, and if peace, order and prosperity are to be restored to a troubled world w e believe that it will be through the example and leadership and inspiration of this great country which we regard as our spiritual home."