THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1938 ROYAL VISITS ABROAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23191, 10 November 1938, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1938 ROYAL VISITS ABROAD

Acitoss the Atlantic, next year, if present intentions be fulfilled, King George and Queen Elizabeth will travel to visit Canada and the United States. By announcement in the King's Speech at the opening of the British Parliament, expectation of these visits is confirmed. They mean no ordinary journeying by Their Majesties. It is no strange thing, as is well known, for them to go abroad. As representatives of the Royal House, they took their .share of duty in making a progress of some of the Dominions before accession to the Throne—before, indeed, accession was in prospect. New Zealand, for instance, remembers with undiminished pleasure their gracious presence in this country. It told, as other experiences of the kind have told, that > the Dominions were no longer far away as distance is measured by affectionate interest, and that younger members of the Royal Family gladly accepted the custom, established early in this century, of delegating ceremonial tasks in order to relieve, and at the same time extend, the personal contacts of the Monarch. But the forthcoming visit to Canada will be different, and even more so will be the visit to the United States. For the first time in the history of the Empire, a reigning Sovereign will be welcomed in person on the soil of a distant Dominion. In 1911 King George V. and Queen Mary went to India for a coronation festival at Delhi, a ceremony memorable for its significance in the closer voluntary attachment of that dependency to the Crown • and Ireland has, on occasion, been the iscene of Royal welcomes in the literal meaning of the phrase. These events, however, stand apart. In prospect is a fully Royal voyage, in the wake of Britain's first colonising venture across an ocean, to a land become self-governing within 'the realm ; and associated with this voyage will be an excursion into the ineighbouring land, where British history was not so happiiy made, there to enjoy the hospitality of the man standing in George Washing

ton's shoes. | The Canadian part of the tour, singular though it will be and full Jof interest to the whole British Commonwealth, makes less appeal to historical imagination than the days to be spent as President Roosevelt's guests. Even his invitation attracts genial thought. Long years :roll back, years that began in the hope of finding on the other side of the world a redress for limits suffered amid the rivalries of Europe, years that went on, through hazards and misfortunes, until the earliest dream of colonial expansion came bitterly untrue. Time has, on both sides, healed the wounds of that startling hostility. Whatever of recollection is left has no smart. Although in the sphere of international politics a great gulf seems sometimes fixed, many a bridge has been fashioned, and this Royal visit may make another. Our King and Queen will not be, officially, guests of the American people ; yet it can be taken for granted that their arrival on American soil will be hailed with more than the customary friendliness shown to strangers within the gate. After all, blood really is thicker than water, and ithe multiple bond between the two English-speaking nations i& made of "vital 3tuff. There will, of course, be different American reactions to the fact that Britain's King and Queen go to the cordial greetings of the President. Already is vocal ithe fear that, in some way not easily definable, their presence in "the White House" at Washington may lead to entanglement in the disquieting quarrels of far-off Europe. But there need be little anxiety on thi« account. The President is, to be sure, on strict reading of the venerated American Constitution, custodian-in-chief of foreign policy, although Congress has taken good care that his representation of the people in this shall not be extravagantly interpreted and applied. Sufficient safeguards are in being, and neither Mr. Roosevelt nor King George can be suspected ,of wishing to move a hair's breadth beyond what is proper to their stations. This being understood, as it can bo and will be, no American will sleep less comfortably when the British King and Queen are beneath the President's roof. Instead, there will be millions of American hearts glad because of that, and who knows what accession of kindliness will, grow as the simple human implications are understood and remembered'!

I'rom one point of view, this prospective visit to the -United States is unique, vastly different from the many Royal visits to the adjacent lands of Europe. Those have all been paid to nations definitely foreign, cherishing national ideals and traditions more or less alien. They have been marked by cordiality, but the cordiality,-.has triumphed over divergencies. In this instance is a prevailing background of racial sympathy, in spite of the composite nature of the product of a vaunted "melting-pot." On their side the British people, particularly those of the oversea territories, can regard this unusual visit abroad with the utmost goodwill. But for the untoward happenings that tore apart the two peoples, it is reasonably certain that Britain's colonial expansion would not have taken the course that lpd, eventually, to the creation of the world-wide commonwealth, in which the freedom of self-determination has been achieved in a spreading success under the flag. Thus the Dominions owe much, indirectly, to British defeat in the War of Independence, and can think only with satisfaction, especially in days of international anxiety, of this unexampled voyage of their King and Queen across the Atlantic, to be at home for a while under thei Stars and Stripes.