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Show Toasts to Two Flags TO THE UNION JACK On July 4, 1003, at a dinner in Shanghai, the British consul toasted the British Hag. He said: "Gentlemen, here's to the Union Jack, the flag of flags, the flag that's floated on every sea for a thousand years, the flag on which the sun has never set." It was a strong sentiment and the Americans were just a little awed until Mr. Eli Perkins was called to toast the Stars and Stripes. Looking into the proud faces of the Englishmen, he said: TO THE STARS AND STRIPES "Gentlemen, here is to the Stars and Stripes of the new republic. When the setting sun lights up her golden stars in the ice-bound regions of Alaska, the rising sun salutes sal-utes her on the rock-bound coast of Maine. It is the flag of Liberty, never lowered to a foe, and the only flag which has ever whipped that 'flag on which the sun never sets.' And may the Stars and Stripes and the Red Cross of Britannia Bri-tannia never clash again in mortal strife, but together, floating over millions of the same blood, form the bulwark of the world's hope, and dictate peace to the warring powers pow-ers of all Christendom for all time to come." |