OCR Text |
Show daily EMnrss Morethan4,000,000; S2le every day i gj 1 1 4 & J? s ! BRITAIN'S DAY OF GLORY rpHK f-kica were grey. The -- rain poured devn. But' unthin could qiieneh the spirit.s of the British. For they were on the top of Mount. Everest. And they were on top of the world. By u happy stroke of fortune the weather, which' forsook the crowds in London, had favoured a .small group of intrepid men in the heart Of Asia. And the conquest of the most forbidding peak on earth was laid amoiif? the. trophies before Queen Elizabeth'.-; throne on her Coronation morninir. It was a stroke in the true Elizabethan vein, aj reminder that the old1 adventurous, defiant heart - of the race remains i unchanged. j ' rruiE British are the people whose power in i the world cannot be measured in wealth or numbers. They are the nation that always surprisesand sur-prisesand never surprises more than when all the odds are firmly against them. Elizabeth is a young 'Queen, a woman of only 27. Yet even she remembers a year when the wise men in foreign lands, all the sage prophets,, were writing Britain off, in the days that followed Dunkirk. And here is Britain battered but in no way dismayed, and'-indeed re-invigorated re-invigorated .and standing for something that commands com-mands the respect and affection of all good men. rPHE first Elizabeth saw her subject Francis' Drake come back from sail ing round the world in the Golden Hind and knighted him on shipboard at Deptfo'd. Her successor hears of a feat equally gallant and determined, and may remember the precedent set by her great namesake. ' But Everest was conquered con-quered by a New Zealander ? What could be more joyfully appropriate than such a reminder that the spirit of old Britain has spread through the whole of the young Commonwealth Common-wealth i rpilE pageantry of yester--- rii.y in Westminster Abbey belonged to all the Queen's realms, and was seen for the first time by tens of millions of her subiects. And how moving it was on the television screen ! How chastening for all those unimaginative people whose opposition to the television project had to be overridden over-ridden I The solemnity and brilliance bril-liance were there but they could not conceal an inner meaning which was utterly simple. Here, the nation understood, was a young woman who found a heavyi burden laid upon her and sought God's help in bearing, it. ")FTEN during the hours " of yesterday Queen Elizabeth may have felt her hopes and anxieties turn into confidence. For. in the clamorous manifestations, mani-festations, there emerged a unity which transcends, all political divisions among: the British. There was too! the desire that the family! of nations over which the, Queen reigns should bej more glorious and more united. To achieve this purpo.sp. cheers and tears are not: enough. In the end, the; future of the Queen's: heritage (and ours) comesl down to a matter of vision! and of willingness to make, present sacrifices for long-j term gains. "V"OR can the cause of the;(" i.nited Empire triumph,; through its appeal to!7 self-interest alone. There: must be the overriding, ,v conviction that a strong.1, happy, prosperous Empire;' will serve righteous causes 1 throu.'hotit the world. ! '. Ttie ;'tri. of our hlood u nd SUitc'-Art SUitc'-Art shod iirs. not sal- i itttiutial things. i 1 S h a d o w s u n 1 e s s we.1 i commoners and Queer.:! liike, d.'rliiMle nur.-irlve.s to; high siims and purMio liicmi wilii tcnv'i'.uis jiurp."e. The A b b e y rite 0 f yesterday was held for all. ' |