EMPIRE DAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 24 May 1934, Page 7

EMPIRE DAY.

ANNIVERSARY OF VICTORIA’S BIRTH. To-day is Empire Day (or Victoria Day), being the anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria. The day was selected in 1902 by the Earl of Meath as a suitable date for commemorating his ideals about Empire. The Empire Day movement has many prominent supporters at Home, amongst them being the Royal Empire Society, while the Royal Colonial Institute has expressed the wish that the day should be celebrated as the “outward sign of an inward awakening of the people who constitute the British Empire to the serious, duties which lie at their door.” LORD BLEDISLOE’S MESSAGE. CO-OPERATIVE SPIRIT URGED. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, May 23. The following message to the people of New Zealand has been issued by the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe: “This being Empire Day, I desire to extend a friendly greeting to His Majesty's subjects of both races in this Dominion, and to express the earnest hope that the clouds of industrial depression, which for the last three years have hung like a pall over New Zealand, in common with other parts of the Empire, may during the next 12 months give place to the sunshine of economic prosperity and fresh hope and confidence.

“That the Dominion lias weathered the economic blizzard as well as she has is due in no small degree to the courage, patience and mutual helpfulness of her virile population of all classes. If the British Empire is to preserve her strength and her immeasurable power for promoting peace and prosperity throughout the world, these qualities must be maintained in the less stressful days which appear to lie ahead of us, both within our own national borders and within those of our more extensive Imperial heritage. “The stability and influence of the British Empire depend largely upon the sense of comradeship, consciousness of identity of interest, and mutual sympathy existing between its several parts, and especially between the Dominions and the Mother Country. Imperial solidarity is of the very essence of Empire prosperity; so on Empire Day let us each and all remember the obligation which rests upon us to do our utmost to promote it and thus, with God’s blessing, to advance the welfare of mankind.” MESSAGE FROM LORD JELLICOE. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, May 24. In connection with the celebration of Empire Day, the following message has been sent to the Dominions by the president of the Empire Day Movement in London, Admiral of'the Fleet Earl Jellicoe: —“It is my privilege, as president of the Empire Day Movement, once again to send a message of warmest greeting to all parts of His Majesty's Dominions. In doing so this year it is with very real pleasure that I note the change that has taken place during the-last 12 months in the economic situation—a change which has resulted in a steady improvement in trade and a gradual hut sure diminution in the figures of unemployment, the problem which has been the cause of such anxiety during the last few years, and which has given rise to so much distress. The road to our old prosperity mav still be lengthy, but the spirit which lias enabled our people throughout the Empire to overcome the formidable difficulties which confronted us two years ago will unquestionably remain'to enable us to meet any. troubles yet before us. Unity, comradeship and sympathy between the people who compose our great Empire are, and ever will be, essential to its strength and prosperity. The well-being and happiness ot 493 million people depend upon Empire prosperity, and undoubtedly the peace of the world is largely affected bv the influence which the Empire can exert upon international problems. For this influence our combined Btrength is necessary.. The Empire Day Movement exists to impress upon the people of the Empire their responsibility in these matters. Slay this Empire Day he celebrated with, one thought An each mind; that our Empire with God’s blessing, shall grow stronger and stronger m the cause of world peace and prosperity.