JOYS OF TRAVEL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 32

JOYS OF TRAVEL.

THE ROYAL TOUR. WONDETS OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 15. What is expected tc be the last public appearance of the Duke and Duchess of York prior to their coming tour was the very nleasant luncheon given in their honour by the Australian and New Zealand Luncheon C.ub at the Hotel Cecil on Decembei 7. The chair was taken by Major-general Sir Newton J. Moore, who, as a cantain, was in command of the Royal Escort when the King, as Duke of York, visited Australia 25 years ago. The Grand Hall of the Hotel Cecil was very suitably arranged with a number of small tables, in addition to the usual high table. All the company was there assembled to await the arrival of the guests of the day. The Duchess of York looked very happy and smiling, and she was most becomingly dressed in a two-piece costume of powder blue, with roll collar and cuffs of a light-toned fur; her hat of powder blue had a brush panache to correspond, placed at the right side. She carried a bouquet of pink carnations. At the high ■‘able, which was decorated with mimosa, the Duke had Mr Bruce at i.is right hard. The Duchess sat between the chairman and the' Right -Hon. L. S. Amery (Secretary of State, for Dominion Affairs). Others at the high table included Earl and ’’ountess Cavan, Sir J. Cook and Dame Mary Cook, Dr and Mrs Cyril Norwood, and Lieutenant-commander Colin Buist. It w..s mfortunate that New Zealand had no official representation. Mr Coates, having another engagement, had arranged- ‘that the High Commissioner should represent the Dominion, but. Sir James Parr had had to leave hurriedly for Paris three days before on account of the serious illness there of Lady Parr. The Chairman expressed to the company the High Commissioner’s great regret at his enforced absence. — Those present included: Rear-admiral Sir H. IT. Share, Wing-commandet Louis Greig, Paymaster-surgeon-commander H. E. Y. White, Captain and Mrs H. J. Mills, Air and Mrs Al. J. Nathan, Air Stronach Paterson. Airs Pennethorne, Captain D. Simson. Air and Airs J. L. F. Vogel. Sir A. ;.nd Lady Weigull, Air and Airs C. A. Knight. PROMISED PERSONAL WELCOAIE. The Australian Prime Alinister, proposing the toabt "The Duke and Duchess of York,’’ said that the great welcome their Royal Highnesses would receive in Australia and New Zealand would be due to the realisation by the people of the great privilege they enjoyed in being part of the British Empire, blit more particularly because they would recognise

the Duke as the personal representative of his Alajesty, who represented the unity of the Empire and the embodiment of that mystic and extraordinary thing that was called the Empire’s constitution. That welcome would also be personal to the Duke and Duchess because, although Australians were far distant, they did hear what passed in this old land, and knew how their Royal Highnesses had carried out the duties and obligations which rested upon them.— (Cheers.) THE OLD COUNTRY “NOT DONE YET.” The Duke of York, in response, said: “The Duchess and I hope to leave early in January, and I am glad to have this chance of telling you how delighted we are at the thought of visiting your country. In particular, I count it a very high honour that I have been asked, as his Alajesty’s representative, to open the new capital of the Commonwealth, which, I trust, may inaugurate a new period of prosperity and development for Australia and her people.— (Cheers.) “Travel is good for everyone. ‘Go and see for yourselves’ is a fine precept, if only one has the time and means to act upon it. And travel is becoming quicker and easier; every day sees some advance in the means of locomotion and communication. The furthest parts of the Empire are not nowadays so very far afield, as time goes. In fact, time as well as distance, is almost vanishing. Lord Stonehaven traverses the vast stretches of Australia by aeroplane, and thinks no more of it than we might of a simple train journey from London to Edinburgh. Sir Alan Cobham flies to Australia and back in a matter of a few weeks. Air Bruce sends a message by wireless from Rugby to Australia, and the ansiver comes within three-and-twenty minutes. They tell me that it may not be so long before Air Coates in Wellington will be able to talk by wireless with London, and the reply will then come in three-and-twenty seconds, or whatever space of time it takes men to answer one another when they meet face to face.— (Cheers.) Indeed, there is almost a risk that the inventors will go on inventing until it will not be possible to travel anywhere because you will be swept beyond your destination in the very moment of starting—(laughter)—and so the Duchess ana. I want to make haste and go out and see Australia and New Zealand for ourselves before the progress of science has defeated its own ends.— (Laughter.) THE ISLAND OF THE LONG, WHITE CLOUD. “I cannot tell you how much we are both looking forward to it all. We have seen something of the Empire already, for we have been to East Africa, but that has merely whetted the appetite for more travel. . There was a great writer, a master of English—and incidentally he, like so many masters of our language, was a Scotsman—(laughter)—who made his home in an island group in the ocean which washes the sh.ores of your country. He recorded that it was ‘better to travel hopefully than to arrive.’ Perhaps in some cases this might be true. There is a thrill in the though of the journey to' that vast continent of the Southern Seas and in voyaging to the island of the Long White Cloud. But, however, attractive the journey, better still is the thought of the welcome which, we know, awaits us at the journey’s end. —(cheers.) “At a time like this, with the Imperial Conference just over, we have had in London your Prime Ministers and Ministers and many other Australians and New Zealanders. . They have hardly seen Great Britain at its best; we have been going through a period of severe industrial difficulty, and the burden lies heavy upon us all. But theXOld Country is not done yet—(loud cheers) — we are far from it. There is leeway to make up, but I know’, and you know that we shall came through triumphant, and the first to rejoice ,n our renewed prosperity will be our kinsmen overseas.—(Cheers.) But whatever the difficulties under which our country is labouring, I hope that all those who have come over in connection with the Conference will be returning with the happiest recollections of their welcome here, and I am sure that they will not forget to take back to their own peonle a message of warm affection from us who live in this little island which is so dear to us all. j thank you all very much, and I say to you, not ‘Good-bye,’ but ‘Au revoir.’ ” — (Cheers.) THE CROWN AND THE EMPIRE. Air Amery (Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs) said they had met to say farewell to the Duke and Duchess of York, and also to say ‘Do not stay away too long and be sure to come back.’ The Duke had quoted Stevenson that it was better to travel hopefully than to arrive. There was a story of a prince who went to represent his State at some international celebration at Malta. About three weeks later he returned, and the admiral of the warship explained that he certain there was no such place as Malta, for he had sailed the Mediterranean for three weeks and had been unable to find it.—(Laughter.) He trusted that, the Renown would not fail to find so modest and shrinking a little spot as Australia.—(Laughter.) The Duke was going to Australia as the representative of the Crown, which since the Imperial Conference stood out more clearly as the gieat uniting factor of the Empire. In tho Empire were many Parliaments and many Governments, but only one Crown. To that Crown the people of the Empire were united in loyalty, and through that Crown they, were united to each other.— (Cheers.) That Crown was not merely a mystic symbol of unity. _ It was also something personal, something human. Mr Amery said ho had been thinking of that future —not merely the immediate future, when Prime Alinisters would come “Homo” by aeroplane, but of the day when they would step into the high-power station at say, Canberra, be disintegrated, flashed across space, and “re-assembled” at Rugby. —(Laughter.) That would represent enormous advantages, but it might also occasion serious consitutional and personal problems—if, for example, Mr Hughes and General Hertzog were flashed over simultaneously, and “got mixed up” on the way across.—(Laughter.) That was a problem that, happily, we need not contemplate today. To such risks their Royal Highnesses would not be exposed. Tho Chairman, in his reply, recalled that 25 years ago he. commanded the Royal escort when the King (then Duke of York) witnessed the birth of Australia as a nation,