AH IMPERIAL MISSION

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1927, Page 7

AH IMPERIAL MISSION

TOUR OF DUKE OF YORK HISTORY-MAKING VOYAGE GREAT EVENT AT CANBERRA By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright, Received Jan. 6, 8.25 p.m. London, Jan. 6. All indications are that the Duke and Duchess of York will have the heartiest send-off to-day. The newspapers give fullest details of the arrangements for their departure, and probably there will ■be record crowds her© and at Portsmouth, Th© Daily Telegraph says editorially: “Th© Duke and Duchess of York will be t’ollow’ed throughout their historic voyage by the best wishes of all classes who have learned to appreciate the public spirit with which the Duke and Duchess fulfil the duties devolving upon them by reason of their nearness io the Throne. The ceremony at Canberra will be notable in the history of the Empire, for the Crown has become, more than ever, the recognised link binding together a commonwealth in which all nations are equally autonomous and free to work out their own destinies. As Mr, Churchill remarked, the age of control has com© to an end, and the age of comprehension has begun. The King’s speech at Canberra will be' as historic as the proclamation of Victoria as Empress of India.” The Daily Chronicle stresses the fact that special interest in the Royal tour centres in Canberra. "In both the United States and Canada,” it says, “the idea of a Federal capital has served to set the federal idea above and apart from the State jealousies, and has helped all citizens to realise that the federation, not the State, is their nation. If the Australian people grow eventually to their full stature, then Canberra will be one of the world’s main capitals.” The Morning Post thinks that “the Canberra opening will, in future, be marked as the opening of a greater and more prosperous era in Australia’s de- elopment.” The Times quotes, the Duke’s own words: “I am one of those who hold that the main principle which should be adopted in finding’ the solution for the great problems of to-day, be they political or industrial, ie the principle of the personal touch.” The Times adds: “In that spirit he sets out, like his father and brother before him, on his Imperial mission.”