WAR MEMORIAL UNVEILED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 118, 22 May 1939, Page 9

WAR MEMORIAL UNVEILED

"THE HEART OF CANADA"

MESSAGE TO WORLD

VALUE OF PBACE & FREEDOM

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

(Received May 22, 9 a.m.) OTTAWA, May 21

Unyeiling the Canadian National War Memorial, the King said:—-

"The time and place of today's ceremony are not without significance. . . . This memorial speaks to the world of Canada's heart, and its symbolism has been beautifully adapted to this great end. It has been well named 'The Response.' One sees at a glance the answer made by Canada when the world's peace was broken and freedom was threatened.

"This memorial does more than commemorate a great event in the past. It has a message for all generations and for all countries — the message which called forth Canada's response. Not by chance do the crowning figures of peace and freedom appear side by side. Peace and freedom cannot loiig be separated. It is well that we have in one world capital a visible reminder of so great a truth. Without freedom there can be no enduring peace, and without peace no enduring freedom.

"But the symbolism of the memorial is even more profound. Something deeper than chivalry is portrayed. It is the spontaneous response to the voice of the nation's conscience. The very soul of the nation is here revealed. Surmounting the arch through which the armed forces of the nation are pressing onward are the figures cf Peace' arid Freedom. To win peace and secure freedom Canada's sons and daughters enrolled during the Great .War, arid for the cause of peace and freedom 60,000 Canadians gave their lives and a still larger number suffered impairment of body or mind. This sacrifice the national memorial holds in remembrance for our own and succeeding generations."

His Majesty concluded by repeating Uie statement-that peace and freedom cannot long be separated.

MINGLED WITH THE CROWD

Their Majesties delighted the crowd ;vhen, at the conclusion of the unveiling ceremony, they broke away from the official arrangements and stayed half-an' hour talking with veterans, with.iour members of. the. mounted police as their only "attendants. They mingled • freely > with the crowd jammed about the base of the memorial.

Just before leaving for the unveiling ceremony their Majesties spoke bytelephone with the Princesses in London. The time was 10 a.m., which is 3 p.m. in England. It was announced that the Princesses had just finished lunch. The connection was clear.