Commonwealth Day Dinner

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32323, 15 June 1970, Page 10

Commonwealth Day Dinner

Lack of communication between individuals and nationswas the problem the world faced today, and people could not to be too impatient and not expect instant universal peace, the acting British High Commissioner for New Zealand (Mr R. A. Daniell) told members of the Royal Commonwealth Society at their Commonwealth Day dinner in Christchurch on Saturday evening.

One problem lay between young and old: a generation gap that had been there through history but was never more obvious than today. “In my generation of children born during World War I we all accepted discipline and authority, not because we were an excessively docile or subservient lot, but because the tinies demanded it if we

were to survive in the austere conditions."

It was the function of youth to explore and question and it was a much more i difficult task for parents to get young people to ask the right questions and to help them find the right answers “There can’t be effective communication unless one can both listen and understand,” said Mr Daniell. It was easy to find material for discouragement about the future when people were deluged daily with bad news, and had to delve deep for the good news. However, so long as societies such as the Royal Commonwealth Society continued, the hope of a greater improvement in life would be strengthened. Mr K. H. Bartlett, the president of the society, read a message from the Queen to society members at the dinner, which was held in honour of the Queen’s birthday. A toast to the society was given by Mr W. Peers, a member for 40 years, who said that the Christchurch branch was the first to be established outside England. It was) formed in 1914, 46 years after the society was founded.