A GREAT PEOPLE

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1788, 29 July 1926, Page 3

A GREAT PEOPLE

SCOTSMEN AND THE EMPIRE. When he took the chair at (the dinner of the Highland (Society of London. the Prince of Wales, who is Duke of Rothesay as well as president of the society, wore a kilt of the Royal (Stuart tartan. He was preceded into the banqueting hall of the Hotel, Victoria by a piper of the Scots Guards playing the air; “Highland Laddie.” In the course of his speech the Prince sakl: “Now everybody knows Highlanders are a people of great pride and spirit, a race of great antiquity, a martial race with a romantic history, full of stirring deeds and incidents very often somewhat blood-thirsty. But I don’t intend to dwell (upon the dark and doubtful side of the picture. I prefer to think of the chivalry and loyalty of Scotsmen —their deep attachment and devotion to their country one of the main features of the Scottish and the Highland spirit is the record of the Highland and Lowland regiments. As colonel-in'-chief of the Seaforth Highlanders, and the Royal Scots Fusiliers, this is a point on which I might dwell. Referring to his travels, he added that he had alwayss found Scotsmen in the forefront of overseas (settlement and development. There ■ were no better settlers. But they took their country with them. Such is the appeal of Highland dregs that I found, a kilted regiment among the troops of the chief of Bechuanaland, and though when crossing the Andes at a time when most of you were, on the moors, there were no grouse to be seen, I came across many highland names in Chile, the westernmost point of my travels. On my ranch in Canad I have 4000 acres, and you will be surprised to hear that I have only four hands, and those four hands are all Scotsmen. All over the countries I have visited I have found the Scottish element I have been met by pipe hands all over the United States of America, and the dirk that I am wearing to-night was given to me by Scotsmen and women in Buenos Aires, in Argentina.