DUKE AS PUBLIC SPEAKER

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21376, 19 January 1935, Page 18

DUKE AS PUBLIC SPEAKER

Fine Bearing An Asset SOME EXTRACTS FROM HIS SPEECHES The Duke of Gloucester has the natural dislike of the soldier for speaking in public, but when he set himself to master his nervousness he made rapid progress. He composes his own speeches, has a facility .for turning a phrase, and, though lacking the experience of the Prince of Wales, has developed considerable fluency. His tall figure and soldierly bearing are assets to him on the platform. Some characteristic extracts from the Duke's public speeches are given below: — Receiving the Freedom of the City of London, 1921: All here will agree, I think, that work without play cannot keep a nation young and healthy. I cannot imagine a better means of promoting true comradeship than by encouraging all classes to join together in clean and manly sports. At the Opening of a New Village School at Melton recently: May I say to the children who meet me returning from hunting, and ask how many foxes I have killed—to which I often reply exaggeratedly—that "forrard, forrard!" is as good a motto for them as for the fox hunter. The Liverpool Boys' Association "At Home," January 16, 1934: You are dealing with fallible human material; you have the boy at the most difficult time of his life.

The abolition of the slums is not solely a question of bricks and mortar. Money is valueless without leadership. The growth of sympathy and understanding between men of all ranks of life is vital to the future of the nation. One of the links which ought to unite Public School boy and working boy is their common love of sport. As President of the National Association of Boys' Clubs to the Whittlesey Boys' Club, October 21, 1933: More to-day perhaps than ever before do we need to realise that almost the most important thing in life is the relationship of man to man. If men can live in accord with one another, sustaining and understanding one another so that true friendship can grow up between them, then will the source of many of the evils and the troubles of this world disappear. At the Mansion House, London, in an Appeal for Funds to Develop the Social Service Movement, especially in distressed areas, October 12, 1933. Nowadays in many cases a boy's leisure hours are unfortunately his longest, and it is of obvious importance to the community how, during the critical years after leaving school, his leisure is spent. A nation's greatest care must be the welfare of its boyhood. A sense of tolerance, friendship, and understanding I believe to be of the greatest importance in the modern world. At a Civil Lunch at Manchester, January 16, 1934: The boy develops his own personality whilst learning to subordinate it to the welfare of the whole community. We are seeking to promote greater friendship between man and man, whatever his birth, whatever his creed, whatever his race. If you think only of material ends, if you see in the boy nothing more than the future workman, you cannot ignore these years (from 14 to 18), for they are vital to his strength, his health, and his efficiency. Still less can you ignore them if you wish for him a higher destiny.