"MOTHER ENGLAND"

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 207, 2 September 1936, Page 5

"MOTHER ENGLAND"

WORLD SAFETY VALVE

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. " BRITISH THE BEST." (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this clay. "In two years and three months' time the people will have the opportunity of saying that we have not fulfilled the political aims we said we would, and they can say to us, 'Farewell. You are done as far as we are concerned.'" said the Minister of Transport, the Hon. R. Semple, in replying to the toast of the Government at a social function last night. "The people, however', may also say, 'Well done tliou good and faithful servants. Go hack and step on it,'" Mr. Semple continued. "I can say this with a smile," he said, "for, 110 matter what the judgment. we will accept it with dignity and grace." The Minister said he did not intend to discuss party politics. Although they had differences along political lines they would agree that, with all the faults and failings of political institutions in the Bi-itisli Commonwealth of Nations, they were far ahead of any other form of Government in the known world. When they looked out at the state of the world to-day they must come to the conclusion that those who were living within the four corners of the British Commonwealth ought to be thankful that they were British citizens. They had seen overnight the political liberties of nations snatched away, and their religious liberty challenged. They had witnessed a form of despotism and slavery reign supreme. "When the people talk to me about some other country I ask them in turn who in .this country would swap the New Zealand form of Government for the Russian form, and who would swap our rights and privileges for the system which obtains in Germany, Spain and Italy or any of those countries. Mother England to-day is the sheet anchor of democracy, and the safety valve of the world. We have got to hold fast to those traditions that are sacred to the heart of every British subject," he declared.