WARP AND WEFT OF EMPIRE

Southland Times, Issue 24445, 27 May 1941, Page 2

WARP AND WEFT OF EMPIRE

CALL TO SERVICE “It is scarcely fair to demand the sacrifice of youth which is 'at present being so willingly given at such terrible cost to secure our comfort and safety and then when the war is over to throw the burden of ‘winning the peace’ on the shoulders of youth also. “New Zealanders sleep in a cradle of safety the product of the nobility, the bravery, the endurance and the suffering of all those who fight for King and country, and for all those ways of life that the good name of the British people stands for. What can we at home do to repay this obligation?” These are extracts from an Empire Day address given by Bro. G. F. Griffiths at a meeting of the Invercargill Orphans’ Club on Saturday night. The title of the address was “Woven Names,” and in the course of his opening remarks Mr Griffiths gave a brief account of the origin of the names of persons, tracing their development step by step from the use of a single name, through to the adoption of surnames as family names, the introduction of Christian names, the reason for nicknames and hyphenated names. The examples given in many instances provided a spice of humour to the address.

Mr' Griffiths pointed out, however, ■ that he wished his address to be inspirational since the British Empire had reached a crisis that demanded a serious outlook on life if the Empire was to fulfil its destiny. FABRIC OF EMPIRE The speaker treated the British Empire as an ever-growing woven fabric, I the warp being composed of the an- ! cestral lines of all those races of ; people whose individual representa- ' tives had woven as the weft of the fabric their own lives and services to | the Empire. This line of thought led to the suggestion that while in former days a person’s name was given to identify some peculiar characteristic, 1 some occupation, or some locality, nowadays the child had no option but 'to accept the name given to it by its parents and endeavour to develop a personality that would be recalled whenever the name was used. By adopting a motto such as that which guided Rotarians, ‘Service Above Self,’ young people would be able to serve the Empire in whatever institutions they found most suitable to their ability and desire, gradually moving through to national or even international service should the opportunity for such service occur. In the past, said the speaker, there had been many slogans which had led to achievement mainly through hard work and sacrifice. Today’s slogan seemed to be ‘The New Order.’ He urged his hearers to recognize that their duty lay in doing all in their power while still capable of service to lay a sound foundation on which youth could build. “In every age there is some new movement for the betterment of the people and no one is too old to be a pioneer in the movement that is to bring about the new order,’’ Mr Griffiths continued. “If we fail as individuals to develop our personalities in the service of the Empire and thereby detract from the beauty and strength of the whole Imperial fabric, we shall deserve to be known, with other traitors, as ‘the maggot in the apple/ ” In conclusion, Mr Griffiths quoted the following lines from the last scene of Shakespeare’s Richard 111. “God. if Thy will be so, Enrich the time to come with smooth-

fac’d peace, With smiling plenty and fair, prosperous days! Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lore? That would produce these bloody days

again, And make poor England weep in

streams of blood. Let them not live to taste this land’s

increase That would with treason wound this fair land’s peace.”