THE PRINCE OF WALES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 5

THE PRINCE OF WALES

INFLUENCE OF THE MONARCHY SIR L. HALSEY’S VIEWS. (From Otjr Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 17. At a meeting last Sunday of the Portsmouth post-war Brotherhood, Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey delivered an address upon “The Prince, of Wales’s Empire Travels.” Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Roger Keyes, Commander-in-chief, presided, and Vice-admiral L. A. B. Donaldson read the Lessons. Sir Lionel gave it as his own opinion that it was the monarchy that kept the Empire together. He had accompanied the Prince, and such was his conclusion from personal observation and experience. Without the influence of the Monarchy, the Empire would tumble into a number of little independent countries, which in time would be swallowed up by stronger, countries. The monarchy formed a binding link of the Empire, because it was above all parties and politics, and acceptable to all. The principle on which the Prince had acted from the start in his Empire tours was to meet as many people as he possibly could. On many occasions the Prince had received 20,000 or 30,000 people, and had stood for over two hours on end so that none might be disappointed., LEARNING LANGUAGES. Although spread over six years, the Prince’s tours had meant in the aggregate his absence from England for three ■years, during which he had travelled more than 250,000 miles. The Prince always went into the interior of any country which he visited, and he learned something of the language that the people spoke. While in South Africa he learned enough Afrikaans to be able to carry on a conversation with the Boers. He also acquired a conversational knowledge of Swahili, and when in Quebec he always .made his speeches to the Freneh-Canadians in French. Before leaving for his present tour of South America, the Prince had worked hard at learning Spanish. The Prince had also seen, every conceivable sort of manufacture, and had visited every kind of mine. SEA SENSE OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE. Sir Roger Keyes remarked: “We live, in a rather unhappy time at the moment. At our seaports there is the disturbing fact of hundreds of ships rusting at their moorings, and about One-third of the personnel of the mercantile marine is unemployed. There is a steady decline in our naval expenditure, and at the same time there is a rise in the naval expenditure of most other countries. I have most unbounded faith in the sea sense of the British people, and the utmost confidence that our Empire prosperity, which has always followed in the wake of sea power, will be restored. Therefore my message to you to-day is: ‘The Empire and its speedy return to prosperity.’ ”