The Empire has been very much our minds this year. After the Great War our leaders made_praiseworthy efforts to sot an. example to the world in disarmament, The ides was that if the world would disarm differences could be settled by peaceful means, The ule of law was 10 prevail and not. the rule of might. Unfortunately this idea has proved failure "and nothing more than a dream of those who knew and had experienced the bitter sorrows of war.
We are told that the time has now come to put our defences in order 50 that we may be left in peace and in the hope that a strong British Empire may be the world's guarantee of peace. Then only a short two weeks We were joyfully celebrating the coronation of Klux George VI and Queen Elizabeth, The whole Empire Joined with us" in celebrating and Sending loyal messages to The! Majesties, Finally, to-day we have hada flag-raising ceremony at the Britith Consulate-General and now this service of prayer and thanks-lying for our Empire, The British Emplee sometimes wonder whether the average British boy or girl (or man or woman for that matter) really Pealises the extent and vanely of our it fg that part coloured red on the map. ven then we are apt to have regard only to the large red paris, stich as Canada, South Africa, India, "Ne Zealand and Australia, forgetting tirely those parts of the Empire which we find scattered all over the world and which the Colonial Office calls "Colonies, protectorates and ma dated" territories." We find these possessions in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, the West Indies "and the Pacific Tstands. Tu Europe we have Maha and Gibraltar of which you all know and also Cyprus.
In Asia we have, apart from India, which is one of the big bits of red, Hongkong, North Borneo, Straits Seltfemenis, many islands "and the mandates of Palestine and. Trans~ Jordan. In Afrien We have such colonies as the Gold Coast, Nigeri Rhodesia, 'Kenya, and many others. In America, our' possessions include Brilish Honduras and. the Falkland Islands. The West Indies include Jamatea, Trinidad and others of which you must know and the Pacifte Islands Include Fiji and the New Hebrides. Beside these, we have odd islands seatlered about the great oceans.
Among these for example is the font, island of Tristan da Cunha in the south Attantie Ocean which normally is visited by a ship only once a year. The settlement on this Island was founded in 1817 by a Corporal Glass and his wife who elected fo remain behind when the garrison was withdrawn, 'They were joined by {wo ex-navy men named Cotton and Mooney and later by certain. ship~ wrecked sailors who imported wives from St, Helena and so the communily was well established, Another is Pitcairn Island in the Pacific Ocean, half' way between Australia and America. This Island was settled by inuliners from H.M.S, Bounty. I am sure that many of you will have seen the film called the "Mutiny of the Bounty" some time ago and remember how, under the leadership Christian, the Cotony was settled, You will be interested to learn that tothe Chief Magistrate of the Island Me. P. R, Christian who must. be 1 descendant of the original leader, The Empire's Story could go on for hours telling you of the history of other parts of Empire. How, for example, Sierra Leone on the West Coast of Africa was formed originally for the purpose of providing a home for Afciteans Who had been released from slave ships during the time England was trying to abolish slavery through the world. How we acquired our possessions in the West Indies and of the visits there of that famous Devon sailor, Sir Francis, Drake. How Rhodesia was formed as a result of the vision and enthusiasm of Cecil Rhodes. The history of the formation and growth of our Empire 1s a fascinating one and T hope that every one of you will do your utmost to learn all you can about it.
have said enough I hope to impress on you the world wide extent of our Empire and if you will read Its history as T would like you to do you will find that it 4s not a thing Fapld' growth but of slow. development, not entirely the Yesult of war and aggression but mostly of peaceful feltlement, It ly the result of the patient Labour of countless men and women who have gone out from their own country to new countries. and have made those new countries their own Now this great Empire will soon bbe handed on to you the coming get eration, "It will be your duty to minister and rule It In order to do that work properly you must sce that you MU yourselves. for i Kipling Hounds a° warning n his preface to Land and Sea Tales". which you will find printed at the back of the order of service, when he says Notions have pose away and left no and'istory gives the naked cause of sion reason in all eases:
cease "their" people "were iret a chain les in is weakest nother seay of, saying" "the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.