ANCIENT HONOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 158, 6 July 1937, Page 7

ANCIENT HONOUR.

FREEDOM OF CITY.

GENEROUS TRIBUTES. MR. SAVAGE'S PREDICTION. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, June 15. The City of London yesterday conferred its freedom on two sturdy sons of Empire—and in return got the nicest pat on the back it has had for a 10115 time. The Rt. Hon. J. A. Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, and the Rt. Hon. M. J. iSavage, Prime Minister of NewZealand, were the recipients of the ancient honour. The pet on the back for the city came from Mr. Lyons. Fresh-faced," with bushy, grey hair, he made a epeech that had the aldermen in their scarlet, furtrimmed robes, and the City Lands Committee, in their cloaks of blue, purring with pleasure. As he stood on the dais, surrounded by the Lord Mayor, the aldermen and guests representative of every branch of public life, he told of a vision of a barefooted boy in a remote Australian township. That little fellow was himself. "It seems a far cry from that remote village to the City of London," said Mr. Lyons; then went on to tell what London stands for to the Empire and the world: — Great Ideal. "Side by side with it* material development there lias been the invisible growth of a great ideal —an ideal which has had it*? expression in tin- buildins! up of a commercial reputation which has earned the respect and the envy of the world. This reputation i< something which has meant verv lnii'-h in the nf the Km;»ire. "Speaking for Australia. I can say we are proud to admit that in our commercial and financial affairs we have followed closely the principles which throughout the centuries have placed the City of London where it is to-day." Led the World. "The people of the British Commonwealth are bound together not onlv by unbreakable ties of blood and sentiment, but also by commercial ties, which I hope will be strengthened in the daye to come," said Mr. Savage. "It has been my great privilesre to come here as the representative of one of the most progressive countries of the earth, comparatively small in population, but we should judge nations as we judge people—by their works. New Zealand in humanitarian legislation has led the world in days gone by and she is aeain takin 2 her place in the vanguard of human progress. "The people of New Zealand, who are essentially British, look forward with confidence to the time when the British Commonwealth of Nations will, to a greater extent than ever before, act as a beacon light to the reet of the world in guiding the human race to a grander destiny and the realisation of the will of God upon earth."