The Northern Advocate Daily THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1936. “HOW IS THE EMPIRE?”

Northern Advocate, 23 January 1936, Page 6

The Northern Advocate Daily

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1936. “HOW IS THE EMPIRE?”

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper.

In a speech which the: Prime Minister of Britain, Mr Stanley Baldwin, broadcast from London last evening, and which was doubtless heard by many millions of ■ people in every part of the world, he paid , a heart-stirring tribute to bis late Majesty King George. It was not so much the tribute which a Prime Minister paid to a departed monarch, as the loving admiration of oUe man for a dear friend whom he had just lost, that made Mr Baldwin’s speech memorable. Simply, and obviously under stress of emotion, Mr Baldwin spoke of King George as he had been privileged _to know him with intimacy during the past twenty years, and his hearers were enabled to understand in some measure the extent to which his late Majesty had laboured in the interests of the Empire, the welfare of which was the subject of his last conscious inquiry. “How is- the Empire? lie asked of his private secretary, and when Lord Wigram replied, “All is well, Sir, with the Empire,” the dying monarch, smiling content, once again _ lapsed, into unconsciousness. This _ incident, which will be enshrined in the history of the British nation, provides justification for the words with which Mr Baldwin brought his speech to a conclusion. King George’s reign, he said, was marked by far-reaching constitutional and parliamentary changes, but he had handed down to > his son the Throne he had received from his father with its foundations strengthened and its moral authority, its honour and its dignity enhanced. It was an incomparable and awe-inspiring inheritage into which King Edward VIII had entered. Never were truer words uttered. Incomparable indeed is the inheritance • of King EdAvard, but Avho, surveying the future, with all the problems in the offing, can deny that the responsibilities Avith Avbicli the neAV Sovereign has been invested are aAve-inspiring. Great privileges are always accompanied by great responsibilities, and it is a matter for thankfulness that the successor to King George comes to the Throne Avell equipped for the discharge of his responsibilities. Changes of thought in every department of life have come Avith the years, and in no respect have they been greater than in so far as-the British Empire is concerned. Britishers are proud to claim membership of the greatest Empire the world has ever known. But great possessions may be, to Empire as to individual, an encumbrance rather than a help. Tilie use to which possessions are put is the all-import-ant matter. The time has gone Avhen communities Avere content unquestioningly to alloAV wealth to be unequally distributed. The same thing applies to the possession of territory. Nations which are cramped Avithin boundaries that do not give them room for comfortable existence, let alone expansion, cannot be expected to A r ieAV Avith friendly eyes huge areas of territory lying idle or, at best, only partly developed by the nations avlio claim dominion over them. The owners of such territory must either make use of it or alloAV others to do so. This fact constitutes one of the great problems Avith Avhieh the British Empire must grapple, and it is indeed encouraging that there

should have come to the Throne .one who, as a result of his travel and intercourse with people of all nations, is impressed by the need for an international outlook upon many questions which, prior to the days of his illustrious grandfather and father, were regarded too often from a purely national point of view. King Edward, it may be safely asserted, will exercise a wise and expansive influence in regard to tins matter, the Imperial control of which has undergone a great constitutional change as a result of the passage of the Statute of Westminster. Questions of great moment at home and abroad await the attention of the Empire’s statesmen. The need for co-operation between the various units of the Empire was never more urgent, and assurance that it will be forthcoming was never better founded. King Edward truly has been invested with great responsibility, but a loyal people, who learned to love him as the 'Prince of Wales, know he I will prove a beneficent Monarch, !

as his father was before him, and will pray that when he inquires “How is the Empire?” the reply may be: “All is well, Sir, with the Empire.”