Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 19, 1937 A KING’S EULOGIUM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 19 November 1937, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 19, 1937 A KING’S EULOGIUM

SELDOM lias a ruling monarch spoken so wisely as has King Leopold of Belgium during his visit to London. Being only too sadly aware of the economic conditions which unhappily exist in so many countries of the Luropean Continent. King Leopold was able to appreciate the prosperity of the Empire's capital. In part he said, “The British Lmpire represents so important a part of the human race that it cannot but realise more clearly than any other nation how closely the fate of mankind is bound up with its own,” and the King went on to explain the reason of the British nation’s profound knowledge of the great economic problems, which it has so largely solved so far as they affect Great Britain, but which remain to be solved in many other Luropean countries. Such solution will not be easy, for the very reason which King Leopold pointed cut —namely, the difference in character between the British people and the nations of Continental Europe. It was British courage, determination, and hopefulness—the incomparable characteristic of being able to repudiate defeat—which enabled the British nation to overcome the economic depression which began some nine years ago, and still affects detrimentally some of the greatest nations in Lurope and other Continents. But if in the emergency the British character was so valuable an asset, what is Lo be said of the assets which contributed so materially to create the happy conditions in Great Britain, which impressed the Belgian monarch? There were - many factors which enabled Great Britain to weather the devastating blizzard which overwhelmed so many other countries. In the first place, she had solidly behind her the 400 million people of the Empire, and its wealth, its industries, its undeveloped resources, and above all its hardworking peoples. Then there was the incalculable asset of those peoples’ unity under the Crown. The political stability of the Empire gives its peoples stability in economic matters, when the political differences of foreign nations upset the world’s prosperity, and induce widespread trouble. It would not be correct to say that the Empire is self-supporting and self-sufficient in an economic sense, though there is little doubt that it might be made so, but it must be evident to every wellinformed man in the world—and it certainly is evident to King Eeopold of Belgium—that the political stability of the British Empire is unquestionable; that its economic resources are very great; that its future would appear to be assured, whatever troubles may be in store for Continental Europe if Great Britain retains the economic co-operation of the British Commonwealth of Nations (including the Dominions), and provided that the whole vast and complicated political fabric of the Empire remains happily united under the Crown.