8th Parliament · 1st Session
The President (Senator the Hon. T. Givens) took the chair at 6.30 p.m., and read prayers.
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– I ask leave to move, without notice, a motion relative to the visit of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Leave granted.
– It is not my intention, in moving this motion, to say anything as to the’ circumstances which prevented its consideration at an earlier meeting of this Chamber; hut I think it only right to mention that, in my judgment, those circumstances were entirely beyond the control of the Senate. This is not the time, nor is it the occasion, to deal with them, but for the fair name of the Senate it should be stated that it was not due either to reluctance or to hesitation on the part of honorable senators that the motion was not adopted at an ordinary sitting of the Chamber last week. The motion that I propose is : -
That the following Address be presented to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales : -
To His Royal Highness Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester in the Peerage of England, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, and Baron of Renfrew, in the Peerage of Scotland, Lord of the Isles and Great Steward of Scotland, KG., P.C., G.M.M.G., G.M.B.E., M.C.
May it please Your Royal Highness :
We, the Senate of the Commonwealth of Australia in Parliament assembled, welcome Your Royal Highness with assurances of our devoted attachment to the person and Crown of our Most Gracious Sovereign.
We recall with pride the latest visit to Australia of His Majesty the King before his accession to the Throne, when he was graciously pleased to open in person the inaugural session of the Australian Parliament.
The abiding memories of that epochal event have proved a potent factor in strengthening the ties of kinship and affection which hold together the free nations of the British Empire in a union which war and danger only help to consolidate.
We therefore rejoice at the presence of Your Royal Highness, and we offer you a warm and loyal welcome, not only as Heir Apparent to the Throne and as our future Sovereign, but also as one who was hailed by our gallant Australian soldiers as a comrade on the field on which so many brave men fought and died in the sacred cause of freedom.
We congratulate Your Royal Highness upon the spirit you displayed in the great war now happily ended, and we feel that we may indulge a becoming pride in the thought that the high sense of duty and responsibility by which Your Royal Highness was animated was shared to the full by Australia’s sons and daughters, who by their valour and their sacrifices contributed a worthy part to the ultimate triumph of those principles which are the glory and the pride of the British name.
Your progress throughout the Commonwealth will afford Your Royal Highness an opportunity of observing the energy, enterprise, and character of our people in the pursuit of the arts of peace.
We earnestly trust thatyour visit to our shores may be fraught with happiness and pleasure to Your Royal Highness, and that your mission to our people may be blessed with an abundant measure of success to the present and enduring advantage of Australia and the Empire.
I submit that motion, believing that it calls for no words of commendation from me.
– I have very much plea- -sure in associating myself with what the Minister for Repatriation has said, in ‘ seconding the motion.
– I wish to ask why it is that from the list of titles of His Royal Highness that of the Duke of Cornwall is omitted? Seeing that the Prince is Duke of Cornwall, the title should have been mentioned.
– I understand the natural feeling of a Cornishman in this matter, and I hope that I may allay the perturbation of my honorable friend if I assure him’ that the omission is not intentional. I did not myself prepare the address.
– It has been done too hastily. The address should have been moved last week.
– Some one may have been remiss iri regard to the important particular to which the honorable senator has drawn attention-, but, if so, I am sure His Royal Highness will regard it as one of those accidents which will occur in even the best regulated circumstances.
Question resolved in the affirmative, senators rising in their places.
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Motion (by Senator Millen), by, leave, agreed to -
That the’ Senate, at its rising, adjourn until 3 p.m. on a date to be fixed by Mr. President, which day of meeting shall, be notified by Mr. President to each senator by telegram or letter.
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Motion (by Senator Millen), by leave, agreed to - =
That leave of absence be granted to every member of the Senate from -the determination of the sitting this day, to the 30th June, 1920.
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– I desire to intimate to honorable senators that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales will arrive at the Senate chamber at 1 o’clock, in order to receive the address which hasjust been resolved upon by the Senate. I think that it will meet with, the conveni- ence of honorable senators if I suspend the sitting until about two minutes before the hour.
Sitting suspended from 6.40 to 7.7 p.m.
The Usher of the Black Rod announced that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales was approaching tho Senate chamber.
His Royal Highness was conducted to the bar by the Bight Honorable the Prime Minister.
The PRIME MINISTER (the Bight Hon. W. M. Hughes).- I have the honour to announce His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS then entered the Senate chamber, and, having been conducted to the chair by Senator Millen, was welcomed to tho chamber by the President.
The PRESIDENT then read and presented to His Royal Highness a bound copy of’ the address which had been resolved upon by the Senate.
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS was pleased to make the following reply: - Mr.’ President and Gentlemen of the Senate, - I am deeply touched by your address. It means a great deal to me to be thus warmly welcomed by you, therepresentatives of all the States which form this splendid Commonwealth, and I shall be proud to convey your assurances of devotion to Throne and Empire to my father the King. His Majesty preserves the happiest memories of the day when he inaugurated the Australian Parliament, and no ohe has appreciated more whole-heartedly than he the gallant service rendered by the men and women of Australia during the great war.
I thank you, also, most sincerely for your more than generous references to my own modest service at the front. As a’ junior officer, I had no important duties to perform; but I shall never cease to value the opportunity which I then was given of learning to know my brother officers and men from all parts of the Empiro as comrades in arms. Through that comradeship I learned to know and appreciate the spirit of the Australian nation, and I am delighted now that I am about to see the men and women of Australia in their own land.
I greatly appreciate your good wishes, and I reciprocate them from the bottom of my heart.
Honorable senators,the clerks of the Senate, and the Hansard officers in attendance were presented by the President to His Royal Highness.
His Royal Highness then withdrew.
Senate adjourned at 7.15 p.m. .
Cite as: Australia, Senate, Debates, 27 May 1920, viewed 22 October 2017, <http://historichansard.net/senate/1920/19200527_senate_8_92/>.