LOVED FOR HIMSELF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19785, 8 March 1927, Page 11

LOVED FOR HIMSELF

TRIBUTE TO THE PRINCE, GREATNESS OF GENERAL WOLFE One of the most remarkable speeches on record was made by Lord Bying of Vimy in toasting the Royal Family at the bicentenary dinner of the birth of General Wolfe, of Quebec fame. Addressing the Prince of Wales, he remarked : “I know you hate eulogy, but before sitting down I must say this: We respect you for your position, sir, and; damme, sir, we love you for yourself.’’ (Loud cheers). The Prince, in his reply, stated: “We are always inclined to be optimists in the first week of January, and, in spite of constant previous disappointments, wo go on thinking that the coming year is bound to be a hundred per cent, better than the last. But though lam well aware that New Year hopes are apt to fade as quickly as New Year resolutions, or to melt away as rapidly as I the more perishable forms of Christmas presents, still I cannot help feeling that this time we really have some grounds for expecting that 1927 will be a happier year for us all than 1926. At any rate, 1927 holds out to me very great hopes of revisiting Canada, which I love.”

The'toast of General Wolfe, said the Prince, was to be proposed by Sir Charles Warde, so he would not enlarge upon the topic. “Knowing and loving Canada as I do, and not having anything new or interesting to report of my family,” he added, “I hope you will allow me to forestall him a little.” The Prince described Wolfe as a type exactly like so many of the brilliant young soldiers who made a name for themselves in the late war, a soldier who put his whole life into his profession, yet was Always Full of New Ideas. and when the opportunity came of trying them out was not afraid to do so. The spirit 6f Wolfe, more perhaps than that of any other great soldier of the past, was very much alive among our regimental officers in the British expeditionary forces. It was rather, however, as a pioneer, as a creator, than as a soldier, that they think of Wolfe now. It was impossible to think of the beginnings of Canada without thinking of Wolfe. “Every British boy is brought up on the doings of heroes, and General James Wolfe ranks very high among heroes. The dramatic story of his death in the moment of victory is one of the first that stirs our imagination when we really begin to read British history.”

Mr, Churchhill observed that last year had witnessed a recognition—for he must not put it at more than a recognition—of a memorable change in the constitution of the British Empire. “It is a change of form rather than in spirit,” said Mr. Churchhill, “and, like so many of the great changes we make in our country, it is a change gradual, and not abrupt. But, nevertheless, it is a change of first-class importance, and what does it amount to? The age of control in Imperial relationships has ended; it has been formally closed. The age of control is gone; the age of comprehension has begun. The constitution of the British Empire depends now and henceforward solely upon good sense, goodwill, and loydlty to the Imperial Crown. We shall not be stultified in history if we hold firmly to the belief that out of perfect freedom, absolutely unfettered freedom, there should spring a more complete and practical unity than has ever been achieved by peoples and by States so numerous, so powerful, or so widely separated by salt water.”