Lord Tweedsmuir on Empire Lord Tweedsmuir was given a farewell
luncheon by the Royal Empire Society last week in view of his approaching departure for Canada to take up the Covernor-Generalship. He spoke of the various phases through which the British Empire has passed, the present being that of an alliance of independent sovereign peoples—a phase which in his opinion is passing. He believes that it is approaching a new phase, one in which. the alliance will develop into something more—a working executive partnership with a common policy for all that concerns the Empire, the inspiring spirit within it being not nationalism, but patriotism in the fullest sense of the term. It is only in proportion as Lord Tweedsmuir's ideal is fulfilled that the Empire can continue to be an example to the League of Nations. Such a wider sense of obligation is facilitated in the case of the Empire by community of ancestry, speech, custom and morality, to which must be added the will to unity as evinced by leaders at home and in the Dominions. The latter is something which may be encouraged. and developed. The historic sense—con- spicuous in Lord Tweedsmuir himself—playS no small part in Imperial unity.
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