NOT FORGOTTEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 96, 20 October 1937, Page 14

NOT FORGOTTEN

NELSON'S VICTORY BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR "SPIRIT STILL LIVES" • Tomorrow will be the anniversary of a notable event in British naval history, the Battle of Trafalgar, fought 0.1 October 21, 1805, in which Lord Aelson led the British fleet to victory over the French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar. To do honour to Nelson's memory and to remember the great victory that was achieved by him, the Wellington branch of the Navy League held a luncheon gathering today. There were 130 guests, chietj among whom were his .Excellency ihe Governor-General, Lore 1 Galway, and Lady Galway, who were attended by j members of the Government House staff. Associated at the lop table with their Excellencies and Sir James Grose, president of the Wellington Navy League, who presided, were the following: - Wing-Commander Isitt, Mrs. Sprott, Captain Tottenham, Mrs. Wilkes, the Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C., Mrs. Larnach, Sir George Shirtcliffe, Mrs. W. Perry, Captain Oliver, R.N., Mrs. Cochrane, Major-General Duigan, Lady Myers, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, M.P., Mrs. G. W. Forbes, the Hon. F. Jones (Minister of Defence), Mrs. P. Marshall, Mrs. F. Jones, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, M.P Mrs. Oliven, Group-Captain the Hon. E. R. Cochrane, Lady Shirtcliffe, Sir James Elliott. Mrs. Purvis, Mr. R. Boulter, Mrs. Moore, Major Purvis, Mrs. Whatlev, Wing-Commander T M. Wilkes, and Mrs. James Payne. Apologies were received, among others, from the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, the Hon. P. Fraser and Mrs. Fraser, tl.e Hon. W. Nash and Mrs. Nash, the Hon. R. Semple and Mrs. Semple, the Hon. W. E. Parry, Rear-Admiral and Lady Drummond, the Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop), and the Mayor o£ Palmerston North (Mr. A. E. Mansford). NELSON AND HIS COMRADES. After the loyal toast had been honoured, his Excellency proposed the toast, "The Glorious, Immortal Memory of Nelson and His Comrades." It was fitting that at such a gathering and on such a day, said his Excellency, that they should remembei the deeds of Nelson and his gallant men and the fleet and its achievements. He asked those present to cast their minds bacK and try to see if they could grasp the picture of the situation in the early years of 1800, when England was fighting France, and France was organised under that great genius of war, Napoleon. Napoleon had overrun most of the countries of Europe, and had forced some of the greatest kingdoms to sue for peace. The only foe that remained unmoved and unshaken was England, and Napoleon's great ambition was to subdue that Power, which stood between him and the goal of his ambitions. Napoleon established a great armed camp at Boulogne, almost within sight of the coast of England, and in England there was fear and apprehension that the shores of England would be invaded by a foreign foe. Could those present conceive what 1 their feelings would be here in Wellington if it was learned that an armed camp had been established by | the greatest military power in the world and was situated the other side of Cook Strait, in the neighbourhood of Marlborough? What wouid their feelings of apprehension be? That was the situation that had faced Eng- | land, separated from France by about i twenty miles of sea. In France a great I army was ready to be thrown across [ when once the command of the sea had been established. Victory and defeat hung in the balance. Success depended on the skill and courage of those who directed the Navy. The impetus to England's force was Nelson, in command of the English fleet, who was pursuing the French fleet and giving it no peace whatever.. Then the moment arrived when England's great victory was achieved, and a sigh of relief went up through England that the invasion which the people dreaded so much was not to come to pass. DREAMS SHATTERED. After the Battle of Trafalgar, continued his Excellency, Napoleon broke up the armed camp at Boulogne. Any idea of invasion by the French had come to an end. It was the beginning of the end of Napoleon's dreams of world'power, and to Nelson and to the Navy England owed a debt which never could be sufficiently repaid, and which could only be repaid by keeping fresh Nelson's memory and the memory of what he stood for and fought for, and what he died for. There was one thing, said his Excellency , tli at was not perhaps generally known. It was a curious fact iijt history. Three hundred years before Nelson there was a great man in England, Cardinal Wolsey, who was, some people said, England's first great War Minister. In the height of his power Wolsey decided that he would be buried at Windsor and had a most elaborate tomb carved for himself. But Wolsey fell from power, and the tomb was empty for 300 years. It was then decided that the empty tomb should be utilised for burying Nelson, and it was in the tomb carved for Wolsey that Nelson lay in St. Paul's Cathedral. They were present, his Excellency concluded,, to commemorate not only Nelson, but also the spirit of Nelson, and the spirit of Nelson continued in the Navy. It was transmitted by the activities of the Navy League and those who were interested in the training of the young that there might be commemorated and carried on that spirit of dauntless heroism that led Nelson and his men to achieve victory over the French and which saved England from invasion. "So on a day such as this we treasure the memory of Nelson and his men, and, feeling sure that that spirit will survive in the Navy and will be continued, I ask you all to rise and drink to the immortal memory of Nelson."