RECEIVED BY KING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 18, 21 July 1939, Page 16

RECEIVED BY KING

THE HON. W. NASH

VISIT TO BIRMINGHAM

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, July 3

An audience with the King at Buckingham Palace,, visits to Kidderminster and Birmingham, and several addresses, including one to the British Empire Club, have kept the Hon. W. Nash fully occupied during the past week. It was the. second occasion upon which Mr. Nash had been received by the King. The first was during his previous visit. . At Birmingham, Mr. Nash was the guest of the Lord Mayor at a luncheon at which he met Lord Austin, directors of Joseph Lucas, Ltd., arid Dunlop j Rubber Company, Ltd., and other prominent industrialists. The works of Joseph Lucas, Ltd., were visited in the forenoon; Mr. Nash was received by' Mr t Oliver Lucas, deputy chairman and joint managing director. The Lord Mayor was of the party, which included Mr. G. Neville Sperryn, chairman of the Tariffs Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. H. Eyles, secretary of the chamber. I The Lord Mayor, welcoming Mr. ] Nash after luncheon at the Council House, said that without minimising the difficulties that exist in New Zealand and in Britain, he was confident that Mr. Nash was. working for the closest possible relationship between the two' countries and was as anxious I to appreciate Great Britain's difficulties as he was to make clear the special difficulties and requirements of New j Zealand. These personal contacts were of immense value, for more could be accomplished in ten minutes between the right people than by months of correspondence. "I sincerely hope," the Lord Mayor said, "that Mr. Nash will return to New Zealand with much accomplished, and will assure our friends there that whatever difficulties may exist temporarily the people in the Old Country think just as much of them as ever. In sending them best wishes we look for even closer friendship in the future than in the past." GLAD TO BE BACK. Mr. Nash said it vvas a privilege to come back to Birmingham once again and to find its chief citizen someone whom he lived close to when he lived at Bourneyille 40 years ago. It was such associations that linked people together irrespective of distances, and bound Englishmen, Scots, Irishmen, and Welshmen together in whatever part of the world they happened to be. There were associations in the Commonwealth idea that could not be broken. No people in the world desired peace more than the English-speaking peoples. There might be some things wrong inside the Commonwealth, and the section of political life to which he belonged would continue to fight to alter them. One thing that all could fight for irrespective of political outlook and of criticism was freedom to be ourselves, freedom to have a Labour, Unionist, and Liberal movement whatever these names might mean. It was important, too, that the peoples composing the British Commonwealth should tie their trade as much as possible with one another. In New Zealand they had difficulties, but he had found in the Mother Country a sincerity and decency in the discussions he had had that made it difficult to fight. Mr. Nash hoped that New Zealand s relations with England would continue happy, that the minor difference between* them would gradually be overcome and that not less, but more trade would be done between the countries, with stronger ties than ever before, because of the good feelings that the j countries had for one another. In the afternoon Mr. Nash visited the works of the Dunlop Rubber Com- j pany. '• ■ \