THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, MAY 10, 1937 AT THE EMPIRE'S TABLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22724, 10 May 1937, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, MAY 10, 1937 AT THE EMPIRE'S TABLE

The honour being paid in London to the Dominion Prime Ministers and other British parliamentary delegates from overseas is worth more than casual thought. Their assembling in the great metropolis at this time is itself enough to excite unusual interest. They have gone there for the Coronation. Associated with this attraction are the Imperial Conference and that.of the Empire Parliamentary Association. Both are important. It is probable that the Imperial Conference will be as momentous as any of its predecessors in the long series of round-table discussions on the welfare of the Empire. But the Coronation is the magnet that has supremely summoned these delegates. To this they have gone of their own volition — invited, not bidden. No other will was in their setting out, save that of the peoples they repi'esent, whose desire it was that the love and loyalty, cherishing abroad the British Throne, should have intimate expression to Their Majesties. Some amongst these travelled visitors will be privileged to share the official joys of the occasion to only a limited extent, but they will doubtless count themselves fortunate to be even on the edge of the ceremonial circle. Others, such as the Dominion Prime Ministers, are already within its sweep. Their high duty it is, in obedience to the wish that sent them across the seas, to bear a prominent part, in conveying the fealty of Outer Britain. The kindly light that beats upon the British Throne will have them for a while in its welcoming radiance. A day or two ago these Prime Ministers had united audience with the King. In turn they will be guests of Mr. Baldwin at Chequers, where a homelier atmosphere than can be felt at No. 10 Downing Street can be enjoyed. And through all the wonderful days of the Coronation festal they will have, for themselves but even more for the leal lands they represent, an unforgettable experience. Of these experiences the luncheon given by the United Kingdom branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association is one of special note, made unique by the presence of His Majesty. "It is the first time," said the King in the course of his effective speech, "a- Sovereign has been present at a luncheon in Westminster Hall to meet those who represent the Legislatures of the Empire." He well described the occasion as historic. None blessed with a gift for imaginative appreciation can fail to catch the meaning of it. There was something unusually impres'sive in the joint audience shared by the Dominion Prime Ministers the other day: that was an event to stir memories of " the expansion of England," as Seeley once named the out-thrusting enterprise of colonisation that created Greater Britain, and to bring vividly to mind enduring results of that enterprise. The genius of Rudyard Kipling caught and put into valiant verse the pulse of the splendid toil and endurance thus achieving; and His Majesty's welcome to these Prime Ministers, assembled to bring home the spiritual tribute of outer lands " come of the blood," was an honour in keeping with the best that this unofficial Laureate of the Empire ever wrote. But this other occasion, when they sat down at what was, in a real sense, the Empire's table, and listened to the King's words about principles " carried by the people of our race to the ends of the earth" words spoken to a company representative of legislative leaders in the Homeland and in far territories variously attached to the British Throne—was greater still. It has brilliantly depicted the fact that the British Commonwealth of Nations has a unity in its variety and a consistent

principle in its manifold progress. Toward parliamentary government, to adapt His Majesty's words, this progress has moved. Where it has faltered, the blame belongs to some temporary forgetfulness of the ideal or to some obstructing circumstances too formidable to be quickly overcome ; wherever the way has been open and the spii'it of liberty been alert, parliamentary institutions have grown apace. Now, as the eve of the Coronation finds a remarkably representative group of the Commonwealth's legislators in social intercourse within the august precincts of the Mother of Parliaments, their King in the midst and their thought turned by him to the service of democratic institutions, it is well that the truth should have emphasis. These days ( are full of girdings against Parliaments—rule by dictators who have robbed Parliaments of power while maintaining their sham existence, schemes to overthrow free institutions and govern by a class-coterie, reckless tamperings with established means of making and administering law. Under pretence of 'serving order, lawlessness demands to be given licence to work its own wayward will. Cliques ti'y to wrest and hold ! a dominating influence. The British way is different—to fashion means of lawful self - expression by every portion of the community, under a constitutional Monarch, himself an embodiment of the principle. His crowning will speak clearly of this, and it is profoundly appropriate that at the Empire's table he should himself enunciate the truth as that glad event draws near;..