LORD ALLENBY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19700, 29 January 1926, Page 9

LORD ALLENBY.

RECEPTION AT WELLINGTON. GREETED WITH ENTHUSIASM. THE BONDS OF EMPIRE. (Peh United Pbess Association.) WELLINGTON, January 28. .A -welcome, wonderful in its enthusiasm was tendered Lord and Lady Allenby by the mayor and councillors of the city, representatives of the Government, of the judiciary, and civic bodies, returned soldiers and a great gathering of citizens at the Town hall at noon to-day. The hall and platform were decorated gaily with flags of the Allied Nations and greenery, with, as a general decoration, a great silken Union Jack. As Lord and Lady Allenby entered the hall the organ pealed out, but for a moment only was it heard, and then the applause and cheering drowned its music. Louder cheering followered again when the Mayor “to really liven everyone up,” as he remarked, called for cheers for the visitors. Among those on the platform were_ the mayoress, the Hon J. A. Young (Minister of Health), Sir James Parr (Minister of Education and Postmaster-General), the Hon F. J. Rolleston (Alinister of Defence, Sir Robert Stout, Sir Joseph Ward, Mr Justice Reed, Mr Justice M‘Gregor, the Rev. H. Van Staveren, -members of the City Council and representatives of the Government Departments and local bodies. Apologies for unavoidable absence were read from the Hon W. Downie Stewart (Attorney-General), the Hon A. D. M‘Leod (Alinister of Lands), the Hon W. Nosworthy (Minister of Finance), and Air M. Cohen (cliairman of the Wellington Harbour Board). A message of greeting was road from the Alinister’s Association. The Mayor in the course of his speech said. “This is not the time or place to rehearse the great achievements of our guest. I must say, however, we honour him to-day as one of the Empire’s greatest men—(Loud applause).—On© who rose to the occasion when his country was most In need, one who was entrusted with a momentous task and one upon whose judgment so many lives would depend, both friend and foe. I believe 1 may reasonably say that the wide world is indebted to Lord Allenby for the broad vision and conspicuous wisdom displayed by him in carrying out his gigantic trust-.” The mayor concluded by paying a glowing tribute to Lady Allenby and wishing both the visitors a pleasant time in the Dominion. The Hon F. J. Rolleston, who spoke briefly as the representative of the Government' said that all remembered with pleasure and gratitude the great services rendered to the Empire by Lord Allenby during the war, and it was especially gratifying to him that his first public Ministerial act was to join in welcoming so eminent a soldier. Speeches were also delivered by Sir Robert Stout, Councillor H. D. Bennett, and Mr W. Pascoe, the latter on behalf of the returned soldiers. Lord Allenby rose to reply amidst great applause. He said that since his arrival in New Zealand he had the pleasure of meeting very many of those gallant warriors who carried through the campaign in Palestine and Syria, and he hoped to meet many more before he left the country. He had "been in the Dominion only about- 30 hours, but he had seen sufficient to say that it (was a land which should breed heroes. He did not think he had ever seen better products of a hero-growing land than the warriors from this country with -whom he had the honour to be associated in the Great War. (Applause). Thev were worthy of their mother country and* the mother" country was worthy of them. He was sure the Dominion would go on turning out men of the same stamp —men who would make New Zealand a great nation, because she was intended by Providence to become a mighty nation to hold its own, and yet remain a loyal unit of the British Empire. The dominions of the Empire had been bound together more than ever Before, and, by the stress of the great conflict w© had gone through the Empire had been blended in a way that no other experience could give. The war had shown the Mother Country what she owed to the dominions, and vice versa,, and the dominions had realised what they meant to one another. The whole Empire was bound together in one great family. He had found that the dominating sentiment wherever he had been, and from what little he had seen of New Zealand ho had found the same feeling which existed in other parts of the Empire—loyalty not only to the Alother Country, but to each other.