NEW FRENCH MINISTER PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO GOVERNOR-GENERAL

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 June 1949, Page 7

NEW FRENCH MINISTER PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO GOVERNOR-GENERAL

WELLINGTON, (PA). The Governer-General, Sir Bernard Freyberg, today received the letters of credence of the newly-appointed Minister of France to New Zealand, M. Emmanuel Lancial. “In the position which I am called upon to occupy, present conditions of the world and also the particularly cordial relations which unite New Zealand and France outline my course,’’ said M. Lancial when presenting his credentials. “The old European nations and the young European countries beyond the sea have inherited civilisation based on liberty and justice. In this respect we have common values to defend, and in a world full of menaces to our ideal we can defend them only by an increasingly closer union and understanding. As the Minister of France in New Zealand I shall devote my every effort towards this goal, he said. “On behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand, who will deeply appreciate the message you bring, I desire .to extend to you a most cordial welcome to this country,” said the Governor-General. You come to us, Mr. Minister, as representative of a nation which we in New Zealand hold in the highest esteem and with which our country is both proud and happy to be linked by ties of amity and goodwill,’ he said. “Our common interests in the Pacific provide a further basis for that spirit of mutual understanding and harmony which is so essential, as you have emphasised, for the preservation of our ideals, and indeed our civilisation."