TO TOUR CANADA

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 80, 15 October 1928, Page 3

TO TOUR CANADA

■■ •: ♦ ';.. ■ ; SCHOLARSHIP PARTY ■> FIFTY YOUNG PEOPLE EAREWELL CEREMONIES (From "The Port's" Repr«tßt«tl«.> LONDON, 2nd August. Fifty successful contestants—twentyfive boys and twenty-five girls—in. the "Daily Sketch" and Allied ■■Newspaper* £20,000 Empire free travel and scholarship scheme have set out for Canada. Thoy Trill travel 15,000 miles in seven weeks. The scheme was launched in. the spring of this year, and the competition was open to young, people^between the ages of fourteen and. twentyone. ■■■';. The King and Queen sent a farewell message to the young travellers. The Prince of Wales, who from the inception of the scheme evinced the warmest personal interest in its objects, not only sped them on their great and wonderful journey with kindly words but arranged for the party to visit his Canadian home, the ranch in Alberta with its broad acres lying in the - foothill! of the Rocky Mountains. The Duke of York likewise, and the Prime Minister and the Secretary for the Dominions, added their words of God speed, while the Prime Minister of Canada welcomed them with the hope that their tour will prove not only a source of lasting pleasure and profit to themselves, but a stimulus to continued and increasing travel and intercourse among all the sister peoples of the British Commonwealth of Nations. At a luncheon given to the party; at the Mansion House the Hon. L. S. Amery proposed the toast of "The Young Ambassadors of Empire." He congratulated the allied newspapers and Mr. Frank Lascot, the organising director, in the launching of a remarkable Imperial scheme. The idea or! a scholarship which should take the form of a sight of the Empire was one which, having taken root, was gome to stay. "There Is," he concluded, "a tendency in some quarters to think that wo in Great Britain are a little decadent. You young ambassadors will /be the best proof that that is not true, and when you come back it will be as ambassadors of Canada. You will tell your friends something of the spirit of welcome you have met with, and you will have" added to. the bonds of personal contact and human interest which constitute the fabric which holds the British Empire together." . ; AT HOUSE OF COMMONS. Two of the scholarship winners were chosen to reply to the toast, and the speeches led Sir Robert Home to express the conviction that in later years they would adorn our own or a Dominion Parliament. The speakers were Miss Phyllis- M. Warner, educated at the Girls' High School, Nuneaton, and now in her first year at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; and Charles Hargrave, of Newbury Grammar School, and employed in the Hungerford branch of ■ the Westminster Bank. After their visit to the Mansion House the young travellers-went on. to the House, of Commons, where they were received by Sir John Sandeman Allen, MiP.', together with members',- of Parliament who are Fellows of the Royal Colonial Institute and. the member! representing their own constituencies. Mr. Churchill, who was asked to say a few words, said they would be the representatives of Britain, and would remombor to bear themselves in, that capacity, so that nothing but honour and repute could come to our ■ country because they were its standard-bearers. They will,also carry a niessago tosay that the.heart and strength of;the Old Country were undiininished. . The competition was ? open, without any restriction except that of . age. From every type of school and college, from factory, office, shop, and mill tho aspirants were chosen, with the result that the party is drawn from every part of> the country and from, every .grade of society. :Thus at.the send-off luncheon one guest was. the, son of : a'ship's plater, another: a farmer's daughter, now an Oxford ' undergraduate, one a girl telephonist, another the daughter of a dignitary of the Church. ■■/.■ ,-.. .; /..'•• NEW GRAND TOUR. ■': "It'would have been surprising, indeed," says the "Daily Telegraph," "if such a scheme had not from the .beginning called forth the lively, interest and support of the nation's leaders and. those of the Empire. Already Mr. Bruce (Prime Minister of Australia) has cabled his hope that the scheme may be extended to his own great country. There can be little question but that it: will, for the expedition now; starting is but a pioneer venture in a. movement which. Ub organisers hope will ultimately embrace the whole Empire.. Very justly may it be claimed as a patriotic effort in .Empire education.: In former days the. grand tour of Europe was part: of the education of well-endowed youth. This,new grand tour is broader in conception and deeper in significance than that which' custom once ordained for the wealthy and highly born. It arises out of :a 'desire to confer full understanding of a great heritage upon those who hereafter shall have their part in maintaining it unimpaired. / By its com-plete-freedom from class distinction it interprets the spirit of democracy at its best. None can estimate the benefits which will flow from such a movement; it is of the essence of the scheme that it shall bring into education such an influence as will be,felt not here. o* there only, but throughout the Motherland and Dominions and in every department of life. The beginning has been nobly planned, and its development must, in the words of the Duke of York, 'prove of great benefit to!the Empire.'"