BRITISH SPIRIT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23708, 15 July 1940, Page 9

BRITISH SPIRIT

"CANNOT BE BROKEN" HERITAGE OF EMPIRE AMERICAN'S TRIBUTE "The British Empire is more than a great empire—it is a symbol of a spirit 1 believe it is impossible to conquer," said the Rev. C. E. Rowley in aii address, "An American Salutes the British Empire," given last evening in St. Andrew's Church. Mr. Rowley was returning with his family to America in the Niagara when she struck a mine and foundered, and he will shortly leave again for the United States.

In his address be pointed out that it was especially realised in time of war what a great thing was a national heritage. Some of the most sacred and irreplaceable possessions, he said, were the heritage of the British Empire. As an American lie saluted that heritage with feelings almost approaching awe. When one surveyed the great achievements of the English and British peoples since the time when Londinium was an outpost of the Roman Empire to the present, when it stood as the citadel of a much greater empire, his feelings were understandable. There was the tradition of English literature of which there was nothing like in America; there was the British tradition of the sea; there was the British lighting spirit, which grew in doggedness against odds and which refused to acknowledge defeat. It was an ignoble thing to say that the Empire was merely fighting for its life, the speaker continued. It was fighting for much more than that. What it once said to Spain, to Napoleon, to the Kaiser Wilhelm and again to-day was expressed in the Biblical text, "The Lord forbid it me that I should give up the heritage of my fathers unto thee."

Mr. Rowley said he was often asked if America would become involved in the war. It was already involved. This was a world war, and no nation could escape being involved to some degree. With an unanimity which had surprised him America had chosen which country to support in the war, and which country to supply with materials.