KING’S EMPIRE BROADCAST

Southland Times, Issue 23827, 26 May 1939, Page 7

KING’S EMPIRE BROADCAST

Influences Of New World Emphasized UNCERTAIN TIMES IN EUROPE (United Press Assn—Telegraph Copyright) WINNIPEG, May 24. In a dramatic broadcast to the Empire from its geographical heart today the King ventured farther into the realm of international politics than any other constitutional monarch has ever done, says the special representative of the Australian Associated Press. His Majesty said:—

“Today is Queen Victoria’s birthday as well as Empire Day, and I am glad that I can speak to you on this day amid surroundings eloquent of the Empire s achievements since Queen Victoria was born. Winnipeg, the city from which I am speaking, was not more than a fort and a hamlet upon an open prairie when Queen Victoria began to reign. Today it is a monument to the faith and energy which have created and upheld throughout the world the greatest empire of our time. The journey which the Queen and I are making in Canada has been a deeply moving experience and 1 am glad of this opportunity of sharing with my subjects in all parts of the world some of the thoughts and feelings which it has inspired in me. “We often talk of the Old World and the New. It is one of the greatest services of the British Empire that it serves to link and harmonize the two. That part of the British realm which lies in Europe and in Asia looks back upon many centuries of civilized life and growth. That part of it which lies in America, Africa and the two great sister nations of Australia, and New Zealand has made its place in world society within the last hundred years. “For a long period of history it was the mind of Europe which led the march and fixed the aims of progress in the world; but that tide of inspiration is no longer running as it did in times gone by. The Christian civilization of Europe is now profoundly troubled and is challenged from within. We are striving to restore its standards, but the task is long and hard. Asia, too, is changing fast and its mind is deeply disturbed. Is not this a moment when the Old World, in its turn, might look for hope and guidance to the achievements of the New? “There is one example in particular which North America can offer to other parts of the world. A century ago, when Queen Victoria began her reign, a great constitutional struggle was in progress in the Canadian provinces, but soon after that time the provinces of Canada achieved responsible self-government. This freedom and this responsibility led them gradually to compose their differences and to cement this noble federation from sea to sea.

DANGEROUS RACIALISM “A sense of race may be a dangerous and disruptive force but the English and the French have shown in Canada that they can keep the pride and distinctive culture which it inspires while yet combining to establish a broader freedom and a greater security than either could achieve alone. “Nor is that the only chapter in North American history that deserves consideration. Canada and the United States have had to dispose of searching differences in aims and interests during the past 100 years but never has one of those differences been resolved by j force or threat. No man—thank God—will ever again conceive of such an arbitrament between the peoples of my Empire and the people of the United States. The faith in reason and in fair play which we share with them is one of the chief ideals that guides the British Empire in all its ways. Today it is not in its power or wealth alone nor in its dominion over other peoples that the true greatness of an empire consists. Those things are but the instrument. They are not the end or the ideal. The end is freedom, justice and peace in equal measure for all, secure against attack from without and from within. It is only by adding to the spiritual dignity and the material happiness of human life, in all its myriad homes that an empire can claim to be of service to its own people and to the world.

“I would end with a special word of greeting to those of my listeners who are young. It is true—and I deplore it deeply—that the skies are overcast in more than one quarter at present. Do not on that account lose heart. Life is a great adventure, and every one of you can be a pioneer, blazing by thought and service the trail to better things. Hold fast to all that is just and of good report in the heritage which your fathers have left you, but strive also to improve and to equalize that heritage for all men and women in the years to come. Remember too, that the key to all true progress lies in faith, hope and love. May God give you their support and may God help them to prevail.”

Only the King’s private secretary (Mr A. F. Lascelles) was present when the King broadcast, the Queen listening in from an adjoining sitting room. Her ladies-in-waiting were grouped with her round a receiving set. The King spoke into two gold microphones set on the table at which he was seated. A small indicator warned him to stand-by, and then that he was “on the air.”

The King acknowledged from the Royal train the reception of Empire Day greetings from the President of the French Republic (M. Albert Lebrun). THE QUEEN DEFIES STEADY RAIN DRIVE THROUGH WINNIPEG IN OPEN CAR WINNIPEG, May 24. . When the King and Queen arrived at Winnipeg in the rain the Queen ordered the hood of the car to be lowered for the drive from the station, says the special correspondent of the Australian Associated Press. The equerries demurred, but the Queen was insistent and the King’s naval cape was hastily secured. The Queen had no umbrella, but a bystander handed her one. The Prime Minister of Canada (Mr W. L. Mackenzie King) commented: “You are very brave.” The Queen replied: “We do not want to disappoint the people.” Winnipeg’s population was swollen to 400,000 by 150,000 Canadian and 50,000 American visitors who gave the Queen a tremendous reception when they saw her driving through the steady rain in a light beige ensemble, holding up her umbrella. Under the terms of the charter granted by King Charles 11, Mr Patrick Ashley, governor of the Hudson Bay

Company, today knelt before the King and humbly presented him with two massive elk heads and two glistening black beaver skins. This picturesque ceremony, which Queen Elizabeth witnessed, took place before the sole remaining gate of Fort Garry, once the great fur trade centre. Under the charter granted in 1670 to Prince Rupert as governor of “the Company of Adventurers of England,” trading into Hudson Bay, the company was required “to yield and pay yearly two elks and two black beavers whensoever and as often as we, our heirs, and successors shall happen to enter into the countrye’s territoryes hereby granted.” The obligation was first met in 1927, when the Prince of Wales visited Canada. Earlier the King and Queen had listened with the greatest interest to the Empire’s moving greetings, by radio. The reception from the eastern hemisphere was poor, but Australia and New Zealand came in strongly; Every word of the Australian “Flying Doctor ana of the New Zealand school girl and Maori was heard clearly.

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST NAZI FLAG CONSUL ASKED TO PULL EMBLEM DOWN (Received May 25, 6.30 p.m.) WINNIPEG, May 24. Before the Royal procession through Winnipeg the crowd demonstrated against a Nazi flag flying from the German Consulate. The Mayor asked the consul to pull down the flag. He refused, and the crowd demonstrated until the King and Queen approached, when the boos turned into cheers. PRIDE IN UNITY OF EMPIRE DUKE OF KENT’S SPEECH AT DINNER LONDON, May 24. The Duke of Kent in a speech at the Royal Empire Society’s dinner said: “The solidarity and the genuine unity of the Commonwealth of Nations is one feature emerging from the years of difficulties and problems. Of this we can be extremely proud. If the people of England have lived anxious moments they were no less anxious than were the Dominions and Colonies. This has emphasized th* unalterable will of the British peoples to live in harmony with their fellows.”