AN EMPIRE TOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 63, 11 September 1937, Page 18

AN EMPIRE TOUR

STORY TOLD IN ENGLAND

Miss Dray ton, who was, in Wellington during part of her Australian and New Zealand tour, gave a most interesting address to Victoria League members when she returned to London and took up her secretarial duties again. She was away from London for seven months, and during that time she travelled something like 35,000 miles, and slept in 51 different places. The special occasion of her trip was to be present at the South Australian celebrations; as an invitation had been sent to the Victoria League which is extremely popular in Australia. Miss Drayton was, naturally and wisely, immensely interested in the "Younger Contingents" which are a feature in Australia and are so useful in building up good citizens and good league members in many parts of the great continent. The Governor-General and

Lady Gowrie took a special interest in the visitor, and were of great service in, seeing that she had every facility in meeting people and for travel. Miss Dray ton. said that all the State Governors andtheir wives showed her the same kindness, and were so very helpful to her on her travels about the big continent.

Her remarks about Canberra were particularly interesting. Miss Dray ton said: "Canberra is at present just;'bits and pieces,' yet it gave me a real thrill, and I gained a cheap notoriety by saying that I thought that Canberra must be a very exciting place to live in. It lis small, but is the beginning of something so big. Before going to Canberra I had the feeling of being rather far I away and cut off from world affairs, but suddenly there one was back in the main stream. I had heard much criticism of the place from different points of view, but I became convinced that the people who planned Canberra were right to give Australia a separate capital. It has so much that is unique, and it is beautifully situated, not'at all the 'ineffective place set in an arid area1 that I had been led to expect." Miss Drayton was at Canberra twice, and was most impressed with its possibilities and beauty. Perth,. Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne all came in for appreciation with their varying points of beauty and interest. Miss Drayton then gave a capital sketch of her five weeks in New Zealand, mentioning the • beautiful harbours, mountains, glaciers, caves, and the thermal region. She was greatly impressed with the attitude of the New Zealanders towards the constitutional crisis created by the abdication of the much-loved Edward VIII. She thought the people were very fine about it. Miss Drayton. realised also the loyalty to the Throne which exists here, and which is such a leading feature of the Victoria League platform.

The conclusion of the address was a very fine summary of the duty of the people of the Empire. She said: "We agreed that in the minds of all members their membership represents, first, an assertion of their loyalty to the Throne^ and their belief that the unity of the Empire is a worthy object for our desires and our work. We found that the wording in our own aims and objects is what we desire to achieve, 'closer union among British subjects in all parts of the world, by personal contacts and better knowledge of one another.' We agreed, too, that members, by their, membership, pledge themselves to help in any practical way that they can with the active work of the league. We also felt that a great many members cannot, for various reasons, give much active help, but that their membership was still a call to look outwards, to look beyond their own branch, their own State, their own country, and to try to have a wider vision about the Empire, a better knowledge of tho peoples who compose it, and of their special problems.

"And we agreed that the Victoria League members must try to realise more fully, because of their membership, the importance of public opinion; that we' should make a definite attempt to inform ourselves, to speak wisely, and to resist, both in ourselves and Others, any habits of shallow criticism and comment. With all this the overseas members are agreed, and in all this they look for inspiration and encouragement to the Victoria League, in the Mother Country. I have come home feeling very humble in face of the wonderful affection and trust with which the Victoria Leagues overseas look to us at home. They look to us for a great deal. There is a real responsibility on all of us not to disappoint them."