THE ROYAL VISIT TO CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES. (Hansard, 3 May 1939)

§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (EARL STANHOPE)
My Lords, I beg to move to resolve, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, conveying to His Majesty, on the occasion of his departure for Canada and the United States of America, an assurance of the loyal affection of this House and of the deep interest with which it will follow the progress of His Majesty and Her Majesty the Queen, during their absence from this country.
No words of mine are necessary in order to win the unanimous approval of your Lordships for the Motion which I have placed upon the Paper. It is, I believe, without precedent in the annals of your Lordships' House. The occasion, however, is also without precedent, for I believe it is the first time that a reigning Sovereign has ever visited a self-governing Dominion. Their Majesties have so much made themselves a part of the life of this country that we cannot view without a pang their absence even for a few weeks from our midst. That feeling, however, is effaced by the knowledge of the tremendous welcome which awaits them in the Western hemisphere. From the moment that they approach that historic gateway of Canada at Quebec, through all the cities that they visit, across the Prairie Provinces, right through the Rockies down to the Pacific Coast, and on their return journey through the Maritime Provinces and in Newfoundland, they will be greeted with a fervent loyalty that they will never forget. Nor will Their Majesties' visit to the United States afford them a less tumultuous welcome from the warm-hearted people of that country with whom we have so much in common.
859 Yet it is no light task which the King and Queen are about to undertake. A journey of thousands of miles and a succession of public occasions necessarily must impose a heavy tax upon their strength. We shall watch the Royal progress with a profound interest. We respectfully wish them God-speed, and we look forward to welcoming them on their return, proud in the knowledge that our Sovereign and his gracious Consort will have won to themselves the hearts of all those with whom they come in contact throughout their visit to Canada and the United States and Newfoundland. I believe that this Resolution and a similar one which is being moved in another place truly give expression to thoughts which are in the minds of all the people of this country. I beg to move.
Moved to resolve, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, conveying to His Majesty, on the occasion of his departure for Canada and the United States of America, an assurance of the loyal affection of this House and of the deep interest with which it will follow the progress of His Majesty and Her Majesty the Queen, during their absence from this country.—(Earl Stanhope.)

§ LORD SNELL
My Lords, the terms of the Motion which the noble Earl has moved commend themselves without any need of support to the undivided appreciation of your Lordships' House. Comment upon this occasion must be appropriately brief, but personal feelings require that we should, however inadequately, clothe the somewhat formal words of the Motion with a spoken expression of warm human sentiment and of our appreciation and our hopes. The Motion gives to His Majesty the assurance of the loyal affection of this House. That is an assurance that all of us will willingly give. His Majesty was called upon unexpectedly, in an acute constitutional crisis, to assume his very heavy responsibilities, and as he sets out upon his journey, so full of promise and of significance, we should wish him to know and to feel that he takes with him the grateful admiration of all his people.
The Canadian people, without any distinction of race, class or Party, will welcome their King—the King of Canada— 860 with immense fervour and satisfaction. Their attachment to the British Commonwealth of Nations, of which they form so precious and distinguished a part, will be intensified, and they will get, we hope, a new inspiration from their contact with the Sovereign of the Commonwealth which will strengthen their attachment to the Mother Country.
Of the projected visit to America, I cannot adequately speak. It is an event of very great interest and of profound significance. The American people will give to the British Sovereign a generously abundant welcome. They will receive him, not as representing something strange and remote, but with the intimate and half-possessive feeling that he is the living symbol of that rich common heritage of freedom which is the pride of both nations. That, my Lords, will be no new attitude of the American nation to our own. They have always made the claim to share in the inspired traditions of our own land. Whittier, who was perhaps the most beloved of the New England poets, put this claim before our fathers, and the American people will remember it: O Englishmen! in thought and deed And blood and tongue our brothers: We, too, are heirs of Runnymede, And Shakespeare's fame and Cromwell's deed Are not alone our Mother's. It will be in the spirit of kinship in a common inheritance that Their Majesties will be welcomed both in Canada and in the United States, and we wish them complete happiness in their visit.

§ VISCOUNT SAMUEL
My Lords, as my noble friend the Marquess of Crewe is unavoidably absent, he has asked me to express on behalf of the noble Lords sitting on these Benches a cordial concurrence in the terms of the Motion that has been so felicitously proposed by the noble Earl and supported by the noble Lord who has just spoken. The nation already owes a deep debt of gratitude to Their Majesties, from their Accession and on every occasion that has happened since, for their services to the country. This visit across the Atlantic, which will undoubtedly be a happy one but which cannot fail, as the noble Earl who leads the House has said, to be a somewhat arduous one, is another reason why we 861 should express our deep and loyal thanks to Their Majesties for having undertaken such a duty.
It is the first time, as has been said, that a British Sovereign has visited a Dominion overseas. His Majesty goes to Canada, no longer a Colony but a Dominion, and no longer a Dominion such as it was in years gone by, but, since the enactment of the Statute of Westminster, a Dominion enjoying equal status with Great Britain under the Crown. We are happy also that Their Majesties will be able to visit Newfoundland, the oldest British Colony, and not least that they can accept the invitation of the President and people of the United States of America. There is throughout this land a deep feeling of friendship towards the people of the United States, and not merely of friendship but also of affection. Their Majesties, in visiting that country and in expressing that feeling, will be the emissaries and the spokesmen of a unanimous British people and a unanimous British Commonwealth.

THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
My Lords, I am sure that this Motion will commend itself to all sections of your Lordships' House. May I, in the briefest possible manner, support what has been so admirably said? I note that in the terms of the Motion the words "loyal affection" are used, and I am certain that we give our assent to that phrase in no formal manner. Nothing could be more remarkable than the way in which, during these early years of their reign, Their Majesties have already possessed the hearts of their people by their kindliness, by the simplicity and naturalness of their intercourse with all sorts and kinds of people, by their active interest in all the functions which they are called upon to fulfil, by the charm of their whole life, and by their unfailing sense of duty. Canada will rejoice in giving a welcome to one who is now in a special sense, as the noble Lord, Lord Snell, has reminded us, its own King; and Their Majesties' visit to the United States may well prove to be a landmark in the relations between this people and that of the United States, on which so much of the future of the world depends.