GUILDHALL SPEECH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 24 June 1939, Page 9

GUILDHALL SPEECH

IMPRESSIONS OF GREAT JOURNEY STRIKING DECLARATION BY HIS MAJESTY ißnlieh Official WirelcM) (Received 24th June. 10.8 a.m.) RUGBY. 23rd June, fn his speech at the Guildhall the King gave some impressions of Their Majesties’ great journey through Canada. America and Newfoundland. The foremost of these was the fact enshrined in the phrase of a North American historian, “over all nations is humanity.” Human feeling was still the most potential of all forces affecting world affairs, the King said. He had been deeply impressed by finding that the great British political testament, Magna Carta, was the object of keen public interest at the World’s Fair at New York. In his reception in Canada His Majesty claimed to have detected the influence of those free institutions and that faith in liberty and justice which the Dominion inherited from the Mother Country. “For it was not alone the actual presence of their King and Queen that made them open their hearts to us. Their welcome, it seemed to me, was also an expression of their thankfulness for those rights of free citizenship which are the heritage of every member of our great Commonwealth of Nations.” In a striking declaration with which he concluded his speech, which was broadcast, the King said: “It was my desire to serve the ideals of that commonwealth which led me to undertake my journey—to foster its sane, wholesome faJth —to show if I could that its headship which I have been called upon to assume exists to-day as a potent force for the promoting of peace and goodwill among mankind.”

AMAZING STREET SCENES Yesterday’s amazing scenes were repeated in London’s streets when Their Majesties drove to luncheon at the Guildhall, where they were the city’s guests for the first time since their return from Australia and New Zealand. Enormous crowds began packing the decorated streets four hours before Their Majesties left the Palace in an open landau with a Life Guards escort. The route, along which an incessant roll of cheering accompanied the smiling couple, was lined with London’s record muster of troops of all arms. The King, replying to the Lord Mayor’s toast, said: “The Canadian tour was a momentous and happy experience to us both and historically unique. It is my earnest hope that it may also have some importance in the influence upon t v o Empire’s future destiny. It was my desire to serve the ideals of the Commonwealth that led me to undertake the journey. It will be a source of thankfulness to us right through our lives if we have in some degree succeeded.” Mr and Mrs Jordan attended the luncheon.