BONDS OF EMPIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22517, 7 September 1936, Page 11

BONDS OF EMPIRE

DUTY OP DOMINION

MODERN RESPONSIBILITIES CANADIAN VISITOR'S ADDRESS The urgent need for guarding jealously the co-operation and understanding existing between Great Britain and the other units of the Empire in the present troublous days through which the world was passing, was emphasised by the Rt. Hon. R. B. Bennett, a former Prime Minister of Canada, and by the New Zealand Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, at the rally of the combined Orphans' Clubs of the Auckland Province in the Town Hall on Saturday night. The Mayor of Auckland, Mp. Ernest Davis, presided over an attendance of about 1250 club members and their guests. The hall was specially decorated. " I am a visitor, but no Canadian can be a stranger in Nfcw Zealand," Mr. Bennett said. Canadians and New Zealanders were both subjects of the same King and lived under the protecting aegis of the same Throne, while the splendid sons of both countries had fought together for a common cause.

There rested with the people of the Empire a greater responsibility than ever before, for there never had be«n a day for centures when there was the same necessity for unity of purpose for the freedom of mankind, Mr. Bennett continued. In New Zealand he saw evidences of the appreciation of that responsibility. " We may differ, and we may quarrel about political questions; Governments come and go, but the tradition of the British race has to be upheld and perpetuated through all time," Mr. Semple said. " There is no room for difference there, particularly in these troubled times. During the last few years we have witnessed democracies perish, crowns crumble and despotic dictatorships emerge from the ruins of ancient democracies. " We can see to-day that the British Empire is the only one in the world that is holding fast to the rights of her people. If she slips, civilisation is gone. If we are not ready to meet all emergencies, then God help humanity. The British Empire and her Commonwealth of Nations is the only and real safeguard for God's people in the days to come," the Minister concluded. " The thing to my mind is to prevent inroads from countries that can teach us nothing, but destroy the love and fellowship that have kept us together through the centuries."