MOMENTOUS YEARS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20510, 11 January 1935, Page 1

MOMENTOUS YEARS.

Mr MacDonald’s Comment on ’ King’s Jubilee. BROADCAST FROM LONDON'. British Official Wireless. (Received January 11, 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, January 10. The Prime Minister to-day broadcast greetings to the Commonwealth of Australia from the Cabinet room at No. 10, Downing Street. Reports received from Melbourne alter the broadcast said'that reception was perfect. Mr MacDonald, in reference to the King’s Silver Jubilee, said: “His Mafssty has borne the sceptre of sovereignty and maintained the unity of Empire in times of war and peace, of prosperity and stress. We shall look back in May on twenty-five years of as momentous and eventful a history as ever appeared in the long annals of the British Empire. During these years the world has been transformed. Its problems and its conditions have changed. Its opportunities have changed. We are now living in a world which has increasing need of the spirit of our Empire—championship of liberty, respect for the individual and pursuit of world peace.” The Prime Minister said that the idea of a British Commonwealth of Nations was the idea of the League of Nations and was the only way of salvation for the world and its civilisation. The last quarter of a century had seen a transformation, but, he added: “ We now find ourselves providentially able to look forward with more grounds for hope.”