PRINCE OF WALES

Evening Star, Issue 17234, 26 December 1919, Page 4

PRINCE OF WALES

SPEAKS ON BIG SUBJECTS. Press Association—By Telagraph—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association and Beuter. LONDON, December 18. Afc the Guildhall the Prince of Wales was presented with the freedom of the city. The Prince then, .proceeded to the Mansion House, to a luncheon given by the Lord Mayor. En route he was the recipient of further ovations from citizens in the streets. Mr Lloyd George, in proposing the health of the Prince, emphasised thai the Throne united the varying laws, languages,, institutions, and peoples of the Empire, which had a multitude of races owing common loyalty to the Throne. This loyalty had been displayed conspicuously at a time of peril. He* affirmed the Prince's visit to Canada and the other Dominions, which would act like a tonic and would have a powerful and invigorating effect. The Prince of Wales, in responding, described his tour, and said that nothing appealed to him more than the number of ex-service men who greeted him everywhere. He could not speak too strongly of the great debt the Empire owed to the soldiers and sailors. He wanted all ex-service men in every part of the Empire to remember him as an old comrade in arms, and to regard him in the future as a comrade in spirit. He had returned with a much clearer idea of what was meant by the British Empire, or what might more appropriately be called the British ' Commonwealth. British people had long left the Grecian and Roman idea of Empire behind. There was now something far grander implied in the partnership of free natio~hs, living under the same laws, pursuing tho same democratic aims, and actuated by tho same human ideals, and it was the younger nations, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Squth Afrjca, and India that were now universally recognised as nations by the fact that they were signatories to the Peace Treaties,-' which they had fought so magmcently to secure. He~pai3 a tribute to the part India had played in the war, and said that he looked forward to visiting that powerful countrv. The position of the self-governing Dominions was different. They were inhabited by highly advanced democracies, who. had made new civilisations out of a wilderness. " Think," he said, "what they have achieved in four generations. Think of their' noble sacrifices m tho war. There is no limiting the bounds to which their progress and development may some day attain." It was no exaggeration to sav that the united action of tho British Empire in the war was one of the features least expected by the enemy, and it was the most effective in securing a victorious peace. The people of the Old Country must realise that the patriotism of the Dominions was national patriotism, not merely loyalty to Britain; It was loyalty to the world-wide British system of life and government, and, above all, hjralty to. the British Empire, of which Britain or the Dominions were only one part. He had felt the inspiration of this great idea throughout his tour, but he had also learned that the loyalty of the Dominions in a very special sense w,as loyalty to the Crown, and the Crown represented the unity of the Empire. The King was constitutionally Sovereign of the Empire, and he occupied exactly the same place in Canada and the rest of the British Empire as he did in Britain. His house, although originally founded in Britain, belonged equally to all the other nations of the commonwealth. The Prince of .Wales said he looked forward keenly to visiting in the near future the other Dominions, where he knew he weald feel equally at home. After expressing warm appreciation of the welcome given him in the United States, he concluded : The wax put an end to the idea that Great Britain is played out: The Dominions were the first to recognise that Britain took the first strain of the war, bore the heaviest 'burdens, and made the greatest sacrifices. The world still looked anxiously to Britain for an example in confidence and steadiness, Britain's duty was now to show the world that she could work, adjusting social, economic, and industrial problems with general fairness and sympathy. We should strive wholeheartedly towards the goal of happier conditions of life, ensuring that every man and woman in the country should enjoy the just proceeds of labor, and that every child born in the country, should have 6 fair chance.