MELBA ON EMPIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 145, 16 December 1926, Page 19

MELBA ON EMPIRE

PRIDE IN WOMANHOOD

KIND HEARTS MORE THAN

CADENZAS.

j Dame Nellie Melba, in the "British Empire Review," writes: "For all of us, I believe, the Empire means something different, tfor the young it calls up a vision of pomp and glory. They see the waving of flags in far countries, they he.ir the blowing of bugles oa distant plains. For the old, maybe, it signifies security, a comfortable feeling of protection, no matter in what Tiart of the world they ma!y find themselves. To the merchant the Empire means trade —commerce ifar-flung, stretching golden tentacles into the remotest seas. To the priest it is a vast, unexplored field, waiting to be sown with the Word of God. And to the artisthow many things, how many emotions, does it not recall? It may mean the golden flash of wattle in the woods of my beloved Australia, flaming like a thousand torches ivhich no darkness can extinguish. It may mean a sunset on. fhe African veldt, or the echo of a swift Canadian river. It may mean the song of birds in the Cotswolda, or the glitter, of fireflies in a Colombo dusk. For all that there is of beauty in this world, we possess. There is no scent, no song, no colour that is , not to be found in our vast domains. ; "But to me? Ah—that is a difficult i question. Were I only an artist, I should j tell you that the Empire meant to me the sight, of the blue mountains outside my Australian home—so serene, so vast, so majestic. Often, as the light faded, I have sal; and watched those mountains, geen them turn from blue to deeper blue, seen them fade into the universal night, and prayed that when my time came those mountains would be the last of earth's beauties upon which my tired eyes should rest. "But I am not only an artist. I am a'woman, too, and I value my womanhood more than my art. You may think it unpicturesque of me, but I think kind hearts are more than cadenzas, and I would rather lie down on my pillow at night with a clear conscience than sleep with ■ the echo of ten thousand cheers ringing in my head. And the woman in me prompts me to say that the Empire means responbility. I am sorry if this sounds 'unco' quid,' hut I cannot help it. It is the truth. Wherever I travel I find myself unconsciously sticking up for my own country. I have fought Australia's battlea in many strange places in this world—over a dinner table in New York, on board ship in the Southern Seas, in the concert halu of Paris. I have tried to bring Australian singers to the fame which they deserved. I have tried to introduce Australian goods to those who had never known them. In a thousand ways, too large or too small to enumerate, I have carried on this work throughout my life. "I claim no credit for it. Ido not do it for gain, nor for any theory—l do it for instinct. Yet—if I were to theorise about it I should probably say something like this: 'Here am I—a woman whose lite has been made possible by the blood and sweat of my fellow-countrymen. I can sail in any sea, unafraid, because the English flag is protecting me. I can fulfill my life's purpose without fear, can build my house on firm rock, sing my. songs where I please—for the same reason. 'Is it not for me, therefore, to do my little part, to offer my own personal thanksgiving, which means service?' "Responsibility! It is a beautiful word. Unhappy are those who do not know its meaning."