IMPERIAL UNITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23067, 18 June 1938, Page 12

IMPERIAL UNITY

" CLOSER THAN EVER" ' DUKE OF KENT'S SPEECH CROWN THE BINDING LINK [FBOM OtTR OWN CORRESPONDENT] LONDON. May 28 " At present the Empire is closer in its unity than ever before," said the Duke of Kent at the Empire Day banquet of the combined Empire Societies. A distinguished gathering, numbering some 1500, was present, including representatives of all the Dominions, India, and many of the colonies. The High Commissioner, Mr., W. J. Jordan, accompanied by Mrs. Jordan, represented New Zealand. " The world has moved far and fast since I attended your last banquet," the Duke continued. "But there has emerged one great feature —the unity of the Empire. It is the realisation that the Empire is in practice what we all hoped in theory that it might one day become. " The Crown is more than gold and jewels —it is the link binding the. British Commonwealth of Nations; it is the link binding the ideals of these nations into a solid unity, working for peace, prosperity and for the benefit of mankind. Corner-stone ol the Fabric "If the Empire is to continue its, great influence for good throughout the world, we must maintain that unity evenly and consistently through every phase of its development. Unity is the very corner-stone of its fabric, and if that corner-stone were over displaced its whole character would be changed. a i m et somebody the other day who made a remark which impressed me very much. 'We are,' he said, 'in great danger of losing all our standards of judgment. There is practically no principle which 20 years ago was absolute which has not been discarded.' "I do not entirely agree with him, but I think there is a great deal of truth in what he said. We are in great danger of deceiving ourselves into the belief that all this change is progressive and unless we maintain some stable and guiding principle for our everyday affairs we shall find that, in reality our progress has been retrogression. . .. • " If we remember the Empire/ if we honour and love it, and if we look upon it as the mainstay of peace, order and civilisation in its highest sense, then we may make the 20th century a ( period of greatness in the history of the world. I hope this will be our achievement'and our contribution to the welfare of mankind." The Duke also referred to the value of the work of the Empire societies. They helped to make contacts and added to the realisation that Empiro unity must never be thought of as something which only showed itself in times of crisis and war. Lord Stanley on His New Poit Lord Stanley, in making his first speech as Dominions Secretary, Baid, it had always been his ambition to be appointed to that post, a desire that had been intensified by the "very happy six months he had spent as Under-Sec-retary. Mr. Malcolm Mac Donald, however, was a hard man to follow. He had never put a foot wrong, and his culminating feat had been the happy, outcome of the Anglo-Eire negotiations. The Dominions Office appreciated very much the work that the various Empire societies were rendering. They had done a tremendous lot to foster relations in all parts of the Empire, and in making visitors feel at home in England. Formerly, the English had rather bad reputations' as hosts. Visitors had declared them to be "All right when we get to know them, but by the time we know them it is time to go home." Thanks to the societies, England was rapidly losing that reputation, and it was quite impossible to exaggerate the service they were rendering. ■