London City Fetes Royalty

Evening Star, Issue 26102, 16 May 1947, Page 5

London City Fetes Royalty

Priceless Partnership of Empire Commonwealth Extolled By King

(Rec. 10 a.m.) LONDON, May 15. “ South Africans feel most strongly that the world needs Britain now more than ever, and there is a firm faith in her ability to weather the present storms, and to continue to play a noble part in shaping the future of the world,” said the King, in one of the longest speeches he has ever delivered, in reply to the loyal toast proposed by the Lord Mayor, at a luncheon in the Guildhall to welcome the Royal party home. “ I share that faith. I shall hold it to the end of my days. Come what may, nothing will ever shake my belief that this old country—;old in history, experience, and achievement is at heart as young and as vigorous as she has ever been.”

Strength Beyond Politics

Speaking of the “ priceless partnership ” of the Commonwealth, the King said: “The experience of. warfare bravely waged together, and the realisation of the common need of peace and reconstruction, have given to the nations of the Commonwealth the sense of a spiritual no less than a material partnership—an intangible bond of union. That partnership is of priceless value, not only to those nations themselves, but to the cause of the united international effort for the better ordering of a distracted world.” The King said he was naturally •peaking particularly of the countries he had just visited. He added that the wonderful evidence recently given by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand of the practical desire to help the Home Country was a still further proof of that sense of partnership.

Through South African Eyes

The King said he had been greatly helped on the tour by evidence on all 6ides of South Africa’s sympathy for the men and women of the British isles and the South Africans’ admiration for their fortitude in their gallant struggle against post-war misfortunes. “ Never has the British reputation stood higher in South Africa than today. It was a very impressive experience for me to see our people here, among whom I have spent the greater part of my life, as others at a distance see them South Africans are convinced that Britain’s mission in the world is not ended, but is only entevnig unon a new phase. In the wave of imperialist expansion in the last century Britain played a great part, on which opinion in South Africa, and elsewhere, was deeply divided. “ Now, as South Africans see it, another and finer mission is opening out before Britain. Her heroic and tragic sacrifices and the new moral prestige which has come to.

“ As Sovereign of Our Commonwealth and Empire, I owe an equal duty to all its units. I wish to thank them from tlie bottom of my heart for the spirit of comradeship which they have once more so practically shown,” declared the King. “ My travels have made Iwo things clearer to me than ever. One is the strength for peace and good which the Commonwealth and Empire derives from the wide dispersion of its resources—a strength which no political system possesses in equal measure, a strength which we must all do our utmost to enlarge by mutual help for the benefit of all. The other is the value of moral unity and mutual understanding whereby our widely-dis-tributed strength may be as effective in the tasks of peace as in the ordeal of war. “ All that 1 as Sovereign can do by travel and understanding to promote that unity will, I assure you, be done.”

her have prepared her for a new role in world affairs. She speaks in the supreme councils of the world, not merely with an authority based on physical force and war potential, but with moral authority and unrivalled experience in the handling of men and human affairs.” The King said that while memories of South Africa were vivid and happy, he was glad to be back, for the ordeals through which the people of Britain had - passed had never been far from his thoughts. “ I was often sorely torn between duty towards the wonderful country I have just left and anxiety to share first hand, as I have always tried to do, the troubles which faced you here.” The King said that there was still much to be learned in Britain about her comrades overseas. He trusted his Ministers, members of Parliament, and others, would seize every opportunity for Empire travel as eagerly as he himself.