DISTINGUISHED VISITORS

Evening Star, Issue 21905, 17 December 1934, Page 9

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS

RECEPTION TO SIR FABIAN AND LADY WARE AN APPEAL FOR EMPIRE UNITY A civic reception was tendered to Sir Fabian Ware, permanent vice-presi-dent of the Imperial War Graves Cofnmission, and Lady Ware, in the Council Chambers this morning. The Mayor (the Rev. E. T. Cox) said that it was a great pleasure to welcome General Sir Fabian Ware and Lady Ware to the city. They were not only on holiday, but were visiting the dominion in connection with the great mission with which Sir Fabian was entrusted. Everyone recognised the magnitude of tho work tho commission had in hand, and appreciated tho care and attention paid to the graves of the men who fell in the war. It .was instinctive in human nature that they should honour the ashes of the heroic dead, and the great national memorials were our most sacred edifices. Westminster Abbey, for instance, was more precious than other cathedrals and abbeys, because it enshrined the memorials to the illustrious dead of the Empire. One of tho most impressive experiences to befall the New Zealander in London was to walk down Whitehall and see men raising their hats as they passed the Cenotaph, a reminder of the respect and honour paid to the dead of the nation. His Worship suggested that this gesture could well be emulated in Dunedin, and that people passing our own memorial should raise their hats or pause for a moment. It was the least tribute they could offer. “ I hope you will carry back to England fond memories of the loyalty and devotion of this part of the Empire,” the mayor concluded.

“ The Imperial War Graves Commission is not 'a British organisation, but an Impex-ial one, which should bo a guide to all other imperial organisations carrying on work important to the whole Empire,” said Sir James Allen, who supported the mayor in his welcome.

The commission was essentially a military one, and an integral part of the Army, but composed only of officers and men unfit for service in the trenches. , Sir Fabian Ware was one of the commissioners, and at the close of the war had been asked to become chairman of the commission and make that his life’s work and permanent occupation. He came to Dunedin at this time not only as one interested in the dominion’s dead, but as a journalist. It was pleasing to welcome him as the one-time editor of the ‘ Morning Post,’ London’s oldest paper, which during his seven years’ service (1905-11) had shown great developmnet. In Sir Fabian’s time the policy of the paper had changed from Conservative Unionist to Tory Democracy, whilst it had been a great social reform paper, producing anti-sweating legislation. It had also become an imperialistic or-' ganisatlon. Prior to his association with the ‘Morning Post’ Sir Fabian liad been one of Lord Milner’s “ young men ” in South Africa. Ho also had been Director-General of Education in the Transvaal, as well as a member of the Legislative Council. In 1917 the Prince of Wales had submitted to the Imperial Conference a memorandum from Sir Fabian, suggesting the formation of an imperial body to care for the graves of fallen soldiers. In the memorandum had been a draft charter for the imperial body, which after amendment by the conference had been adopted. . With Sir Fabian at its head—spiritually enthusiastic as a man to his country should be—the organisation had created an endowment fund, the interest on which was being used for the upkeep of the war graves. The recent changes in exchange rates had affected the fund, so that there was now insufficient revenue being obtained from the interest to cover maintenance expenses. New Zealanders, together with the other members of the Empire, had been asked to continue their subscriptions until such time as the deficiency in the fund’s interest was remedied.

In reference to Lady Ware, Sir James Allen said that she not only helped and sympathised with her husband in his work, but took, an important part in public life herself. She was the moderate leader of the Unionist Reform Association, was a strong believer in and worker for the League of Nations Union, and was a member of the Hospitality Committee of the Victoria League.

Mr A. Thomas (president of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ > Association) paid tribute to Sir James Allen’s work in connection with the commission, saying that New Zealand had, been fortunate to have a man of, his calibre representing it. Sir Fabian Ware was a man who had done his duty to his country both in peace and in lyar. He was a man they could look to and honour for bis foresight in preserving the war graves so that in years to come they might pride themselves for having cared for the remains of their fallen comrades. _ Representing the Imperial Ex-Ser-vicemen’s Association Mr L. G. Lilly said that the ex-servicemen in this part of the world followed the activities of the commission with the greatest respect and reverence. ‘ Sir Fabian Ware said that he wished to record immediately that he had rarely heard such an expression of feeling, reserve, and eloquence as had been uttered by the mayor. He himself was naturally' speaking under considerable emotion. It was not an ordinary thing to come 12,000 miles and experience such a welcome. Dunedin could be regarded as possessing many attractive aspects, but to him the most romantic was that it was the gateway to the South Polo. Sir Fabian added that h»s wife regarded it as the “ Edinburgh of the South.” He found some consolation in learning that almost half the inhabitants were not Scots. However, ho that the better half were. (Laughter.) Sir James Allen had told them that he represented a really Imperial organisation. Could they imagine his pride in that he was actually the first man who was able to say that he was as much the servant of New Zealand as ho was of the United Kingdom, or Canada, Australia, South Africa. New Zealand, or Uewfoundland? Ami ho could say, without egotism and with a dear conscience, that he had been a faithful servant of New Zealand. Sir Fabian went on to refer to the great part played by New Zealanders in developing the work of the commission. Mr Massey was Prime Minister at the Imperial Conference .which approved of

the original charter that followed the suggestion of the Prince of Wales. Incidentally, there was no one who. since the latter stages of the war onwards, had taken a more sincere or deeper interest in the organisation than the Prince of Wales. Sir' Fabian also expressed appreciation of the services of Sir Thomas Mackenzie and Sir James Allen, making particular reference to the wisdom and firmness which Sir James brought to the counsels of the commission. Sir Fabian said that he was not here on this particular occasion to speak of the dead. The mayor’s reference to this subject could scarcely have been surpassed in its thought and tenderness. He was no pacificist—he believed that it was better to die fighting something than to live corrupted by it. That was something the dead had taught ns. He was certain, that if war came again, on tho scale of the last struggle, that it would be the end of civilisation, and it was their duty to their dead to preserve, by every means possible, the peace of the world. If they were to be faithful to the memories of the dead they must all work for sanity and self-control. Sir Fabian spoke of the million names recorded in stone over the world. And scattered throughout the world were seven hundred thousand little headstones marking the graves of the men who had fallen—general and private, rich and poor, with equal sacrifice and equal honour. These, to his mind, were the finest monuments of all. They would _ remind posterity of that great organisation in which the principle of “ all for each, and each for all ” was preserved, and of the struggle for : that civilisation, which some said' was now tottering. Sir Fabian did not believe that it was tottering, and neither should there be any anxiety for its_ future. He believed that the of their problems lay in absolute unity. If it had not been for the hundreds of thousands who came from overseas in the last struggle the war would have been lost. And if they were not united in bringing all their forces to bear on the problems of to-day they might fail. He uttered a plea for the preservation of a civilisation based on individual liberty, tempered and controlled by altruism, a principle which only Britain, and possibly France, supported at this time. Sir Fabian had been greatly struck with the youthful energy and optimism that he had found in New Zealand. The most fatal legacy of the war_ in Europe had been a certain cynicism which had wizened the minds of the young there. He did not find that spirit here. He did not, however, wish to create the impression for one moment that the Mother Country; was not going to play her role in this new development as ably as she had done in history. There was no sign of decrepitude or decadence there. He believed that God had given the British Empire an opportunity which was _ as great as that given to the United States after the Treaty of Versailles and which the United States declined. For its development of the machinery of co-operation within the British Empire the commission was to bo admired, as Sir James Allen had remarked, tho speaker continued. _ “ Just as we have to carry out that idea of liberty, tempered and controlled by altruism, in our dealings with one another, we have carried it out until each country has obtained the liberty which was its right and which it demanded,” Sir Fabian said. It was the duty of our statesmen to find some means of communication between each part of the Empire, along the lines modelled by the commission. Each part of the Empire should know what the other was doing and what it proposed to do. He believed that that could be achieved. “ The imperialism in which I believe is not an aggressive imperialism attempting to dominate the world, But, in the words of John Ruskin, to make the Empire ‘ the faithful guardian of great memories in the mist of irreverent and ephemeral visions . . . and amidst the cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped in her stranger valour of goodwill towards men,’ ” Sir Fabian concluded.

Lady Ware also spoke, 'aiid expressed her appreciation of the warmth of the welcome that had been extended to them. The kindness and hospitality they had received seemed to have annihilated distance and made them, feel they were at home and among friends. Sir Fabian Ware, accompanied by Mr 0. L. Ferens (secretary of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association), this afternoon visited the Anderson’s Bay Cemetery and inspected the graves of returned soldiers buried there.