CIVIC RECEPTION AT AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26265, 9 November 1950, Page 2

CIVIC RECEPTION AT AUCKLAND

VISITORS FROM OVERSEAS parliaments (Netii Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 8. Where there were common needs, there should be common policies, said the chairman of the council of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (Senator A. W. Roebuck, of Canada) at a civic reception to members of the association in the Auckland Town Hall last night. Nineteen delegates, on their way to the association’s conference in Wellington, were welcomed by about 300 Auckland citizens. i

"Canada. New Zealand, Australia, and the United States are all the same in one important sense: their coasts are all lapped by the waters of the Pacific Opean,” he said. "The purpose of our association—an association which represents 48 legislatures from nations in every corner of the globe —is to strive towards understanding, good will, and friendship.” Viscount Alexander of Hillsborough, leader of the United Kingdom delegation, said that in the present condition of the world such a meeting was of great importance. ‘Tn the principles of the Commonwealth we nave set an example to the world. We have shown the way to a permanent mutual association of nations, an association which could lead to peace.” he said. Viscount Alexander praised the service of the New Zealand Navy, which had so well lived up to the best traditions of the British Navy, and commended New Zealand’s action in supporting the United Nations in Korea. Dr. O. H. Malik, of Pakistan, said it ,was to the honour of the United Kingdom that it had voluntarily withdrawn its political hold on India and Pakistan. “The Commonwealth is a Commonwealth— a significant change from an empire. It is a challenge to us to make it a Commonwealth in fact as well in name.” Welcoming the delegates, the Mayor <Sir John AllUm) said he cfluld recall no occasion when such a distinguished group of men in the political field had visited Auckland.