EMPIRE DAY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 23 May 1936, Page 6

EMPIRE DAY

. “OUR GREAT HERITAGE” ORIGIN OF- MOVEMENT To-morrow, Sunday, 24th May, is celebrated as Empire Day, and it is also the anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria. It was the late Earl of Meath who selected this dale as an appropriate one on which Britons might commemorate "tlie great heritage handed down to us by our fathers.” But the celebration of Empire Day as visualised by its founder never fully materialised. It apparently did not appeal to popular imagination, and. apart from the living of flags and references to .it in the schools, it has never been observed in any particular way. The Empire Day movement, however, lias never lacked prominent supporters at Homo and elsewhere, the staunchest being the Royal Empire Society and tho Imperial Institute. The latter, which used to be known as the Royal Colonial Institute, has expressed the wish that tlie dav should be celebrated as “tho outward sign of an inward awakening of the people who constitute the British Empire to the serious duties which lie at their door.”

The founder of the movement 'got his original inspiration from what he read about a ceremony at a Canadian school where the Union Jack was hoisted and the National Anthem sung. Developing this idea, he enlisted the sympathy of the various Governors and Prime Ministers throughout the Empire. Queen Victoria’s birthday was chosen as a suitable date, and in 1916 Empire Day received official recognition in England. In that year the late Viscount Milner in the House of Lords asked the Government whether there was any reason why the Union Jack should not be flown from Government buildings in the United Kingdom as bad become the custom in the Dominions. He gained his point as regards flag-flying, but no amount of persuasion would induce the Government to decree that the day should be a statutory holiday.

“THOSE WRETCHED COLONIES”

In order to emphasise the weakness of the Empire spirit during the earlier years of Queen Victoria’s reign, the late Earl of Meatli wrote the following article for a London paper a few years before his death: — “When one thinks of the enthusiasm with which Empire Day is observed

to-day in almost all British Dominions overseas, as well as in Great Britain, it is difficult to believe that a very few years before the Royal Colonial Institute was founded in 1868 the general opinion of the ruling classes in England was that the colonies were of no benefit to the Motherland, and should be got' rid of as speedily and as peacefully as possible. “It was in 1852 that Disraeli wrote to Lord Malmesbury as follows: — “These wretched colonies will all be independent in a few years and are a millstone round our nodes.’

“This was not only the Tory view of the day, for Cobdcn said in 1865: ‘We are told of the loyalty of the Canadians, but this is an ironical term to apply to people "who neither pay our taxes, nor obey our laws, nor hold themselves liable to fight our battles, who would repudiate our right to the Sovereignty over an acre of their territory, and who claim the right of imposing their own Customs duties, even to the exclusion of our manufactures. W"e are two peoples'4o all intents and purposes, and it is a perilous delusion to both parties to keep’ up a sham connection and dependence which will snap asunder if it should ever he put to the test of stern reality.’ : ; ; * “What would have been Cobden’s astonishment if lie had lived to know that this same Canada, of whose loyalty he doubted in 1865, would, in 1914, send 680,000 men to the Great War, double the entire army maintained by Great Britain at that time, and that Canada’s contribution towards Britain’s forces in the war with Germany would be as large as the whole of Napoieon’s gigantic Grand Army with which he invaded Russia in 1812 ! \

“Not only‘this, hut what would he have said had he known that in the Great War of 1914, this despised British Empire would place 9,000,000 armed men in the field, of whom 6,200,000 came from Great Britain, 680,000 from Canada, 413,000 from Australia, and 227,000 from New Zealand, .136,000 from South Africa, 10,000 from Newfoundland, and not fewer than 1,600,OGQ from India?” LATE EARL BEATTY’S MESSAGE (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, This Day. The following message relating to Empire Day (to-morrow, Sunday) was prepared by the late Admiral of the Fleet Earl* Beatty, shortly before his death “As President of the Empire Day Movement in succession Ic the lute Earl Jellicoe, whose lamented death last year was so heavy a loss to us and to the cause which lie had so much at heart, it is my privilege to address you this Empire Day. “Since last Empire Day we have mourned the death of a beloved Scve- j reign who was indeed the father of his j people—that world-wide family to I whom I now speak. Wc'recall with j gratitude the late King-Emperor’s wls- . dotn and kindliness, and his unweary- j ing devotion to the welfare of his sub- ! jects, and we cherish, his memory with I lasting affection. :

“Upon this, the first Empire Day of the reign of King Edward A ITT, let us join in offering to his Majesty our respectful congratulations upon Ins accession. an assurance of our loyalty to his Throne and our attachment to his person. ami our heartfelt wishes that his reign may be long and glorious. “In this time of unexampled international anxiety, let us celebrate Empire Day in a spirit of deep thankfulness that we ai:o citizens of a great and unit-

ed Empire', puv.-f: fa! in "the cause of world m a-c. ‘ As an Empire, wc must by opr evu:"db and bur exertions thrive to secure a .n eater measure of tolerance

Tin null BUtfapawwr—o—a ri»iiiiiiiwarariwOTiß~r‘ifWW , " , ' l " I,MBMMBna and understanding among the nations ; as individuals, we must determine, every one of us, to play our part in upholding the great traditions of our race. “I trust that Empire Day may be given special significance this year to mark his Majesty's accession, and I send my warmest greetings and best wishes to yov.all.” BEATTY.