Lord Cobham Stresses Importance Of Unity

Press, Volume C, Issue 29402, 3 January 1961, Page 8

Lord Cobham Stresses Importance Of Unity

(New Zeaumd Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 2. Christmas was a festival of peace and the family, said the Governor-General (Lord Cobham) in a New Year broadcast. Peace and the family were indissolubly and eternally linked for on the preservation of each hung the future of the other. “Before turning the lock and opening the gate of the New Year, we might look back for one moment upon the road we have just trodden. It has been no comfortable road—it ran uphill, and the last few miles were definitely not tar-sealed.” he said.

“My wife and I were in Lon-, don when the Four Power conference collapsed—and it did so with the suddeness of a phenomenon well-known to New Zealand motorists, when the fine smooth highway abruptly comes to an end and one finds oneself bounding crabwise at 40 miles an hour over a piece of ’road under repair’ ’ ’ Lord Cobham continued.

“In short, last year was one of frustration and disappointment. The high hopes placed upon the Four Power conference were dashed to the ground.” Lord Cobham said the British people having discovered over some 500 years of autocratic rule the truth of the famous aphorism that “all power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” had since discovered the thudding truth that the conception of democracy could, in the final analysis, be boiled down to one basic -principle, which is the power of the people to change its government at regular intervals.

“That is democracy, and, like all human institutions, democracy

is fallible. No system of government makes greater d.mands upon a whole nation.

now ’ the *orid. no less ■ than the nursery, is stuffed with new toys. The nursery i s full nt l tricycles, jet aeroplanes Mni ? cally-controlled space-sh.ps and i all the rest of it, but in a week • or so, they will be laid aside or trodden on. and the children win return to doing what they realiv ’ enjoy, which is turning sand, castles out of old tins and bottles Would that the world was halt as wise. Somebody wrote recently 'the road to Hell is paved with good inventions’, and I believe old Dr. Johnson, had he lived today, would have approved the amendment Personal Responsibility “ The world, after all. is only a huge and unmanageable family. Most of us know how suddenly an apparently well-ordered children s party turns to pandemonium. No sooner are the crackers pulled. and the paper hats donned than the room becomes a semi-inferno of whistles bangs and squeaks. And before long Jane, aged six. is pulling the hair of Tommy, aged five, because the latter has put in some dirtv work over the division of the spoils of the last cracker. “So it is with the world. And s ° ft will be until we all realise that true civilizations, as opposed to modern mass-fabricated substitutes, depend upon belief in personal responsibility. If a people hasn t that tap root to the unconscious. it may become powerful P i°f, perous ~ but ' as sure as night follows day, it will sooner or later turn into a soulless and sterile tyranny. “For what shall it profit a nation if it shall solve all its social problems and lose the character that made it a nation in the first place? The peace we all seek is net a mere abstention from war: it is that inner peace that is born, not of prospeiity, but of a sense of achievement in the day's work well done and the race well run.

Commonwealth's Challenge 'lt is a sad paradox that it took one of the darkest moments of the war for the British people to recapture that unity, determination and unselfishness which, if used intelligently in the 1930 s’ might have prevented the war altogether. “In 1940. for the first time for a hundred years, we all came nearer to attaining that inner peace that is born of atonement in the old original meaning of the word. Everything was at stake, everyone was working towards one common end. the days of doubt and hesitation were over.

“The Commonwealth faces a challenge during the next few years which is far more a spiritual and moral one than a military one. Together with the United States ot America, it can still save the world by its example. “The enemies of freedom call us ‘imperialists.’ If the Commonwealth is a child of imperialism, then the word is surely one which should arouse feelings of pride rather than shame. There are stains on the record of British imperialism—when mere mortals are operating any system there will always be blots—but seldom if ever in history have the British used force overseas to impose doctrine upon others. Therein lies the difference between imperialism and tyranny.

“So it is today: the Commonwealth countries seek only peaceful co-existence: they will achieve it if they remain resolute, strong, and above all, united.” Tribute to Americans

Speaking of recent signs of a weakening of the American trade position. Lord Cobham said: “We should always remember the Americans are carrying more than their fair share of freedom’s load, and until we can take more of its weight the least we can all do is to give them our sympathy and encouragement. “Let us hope and pray. then, that 19S1 will show a lighter sky than the one which looms over us all now. There is no room for over-optimism, but at the same time we need not despair. The discovery of nuclear fission is a dubious blessing, but. at least, it has the effect of making a would-be aggressor pause, and each year that passes allows more time for the free world to muster the forces of sanity and good-

will. “I wish you, the people of New Zealand and the island territories, a happy New Year, wherever you may be. The last three years have been particularly happy ones for my family and me. Government House started as an official residence, 11,000 miles from the old country: now we feel that it is quite simply, home — and it is to you that we owe our warmest thanks for all you have done to make it so.”