Queen recalls 1776 lesson

Press, 8 July 1976, Page 8

Queen recalls 1776 lesson

NZPA-Reuter Philadelphia The Queen will today begin her visit to Washington after declaring in Philadelphia, the cradle of American liberty, that the, loss of the American colonies was a valuable lesson to Britain. The Queen’s brief speech, delivered before she presented Britain’s bicentennial gift to the United States, surprised everyone by its candour. “It seems to me that Independence Day, the fourth of July, should be celebrated as much in Britain as in America —not in rejoicing at the separation of the American colonies from the British Crown, but in sincere gratitude to the founding fathers of this great republic for having taught Britain a very valu-

able lesson,” the Queen said. “The lesson of the American’War of Independence 200 years ago was respect for other peoples, and other ways of life and government. “We lost the American colonies because we lacked that statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep. “In the next century and a half we kept more closely to the principles of the Magna Carta, which .have been the common heritage of both our countries. “We learned to respect the right of others to govern themselves in their own ways. “This was the outcome of experience learned the hard way in 1776. Without that great act in the cause of lib-

erty performed in Independence Hall 20'0 years ago, we could never have transformed an Empire Of colonies into a Commonwealth of allied nations.” The Queen was greeted enthusiastically by the people of Philadelphia, many of whom, so closely associated with America’s struggle to cast off the colonial yoke, had never before seen a British Monarch. The Queen toured the historic sites of old Philadelphia, touching the Liberty Bell like any other tourist, and visiting Independence Hall, where the Second Continental Congress rejected her ancestor King George 111, as a tyrant, and adopted Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. The British gift, a larger-

than-life replica of the Liberty Bell, produced the only sour note of the day: small groups of protesters appeared at the sites visited by the Queen, carrying placards which read: “British Ban Bible Verse!” and “Send the Bell Back!”

They were supporters of the Fundamentalist preacher, Dr Carl Mclntire, whose complaint is that Britain’s bicentennial bell gift does not carry the Biblical legend moulded into the original bell: “Leviticus 25:10—Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof."

The large and goodhumoured crowd was somewhat mystified, and generally ignored the placards.