Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 289, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1912 — ROYALTY WELCOMES THE AMERICAN SETTLER [ARTICLE]

ROYALTY WELCOMES THE AMERICAN SETTLER

HIB ROYAL HIGHNEBB, THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT, WELCOMEB AMERICANS TO CANADA. It was a happy speech, that on that beautiful October day, the Duke of Connaught, Governor-General of Canada* made at Macleod, Alberta. It was an opportune speech, heartful and resonant with good fellowship. And, as It was specially Intended for American ears, the audience,, comprised largely of so many American settlers In Canada, the time and place could not have been better chosen. It waa in reply to an address of welcome tendered to him at the pretty city of Macleod, with the of the Rockies as a setting, and the great wheat fields between, and in fact all around the place as the foreground, that His Highness, true to the best interests of the country and to those of the Americans who choose, to make Canada their home, said in part: “I am well aware that among those whom I am now addressing, there are a very great proportion who were not born under the British flag. Most of these will have realized by now that residence under that flag implies no disabilities. All we ask Is that the laws of Canada should be obeyed. “With this provision every one is free to come and go, to marry, to live and to die as seems best to him, and as it pleases Providence. “We bring: no pressure to bear on anyone to adopt the Canadian nationality, for we do not value citizenship which is obtained under compulsion. “Our American cousins are welcome from over the border. Thrice we welcome our Canadian and British brothers, who return to the Union Jack, after living under the Stars and Stripes. "History Is repeating itself. For many years hundreds of young Britishers have sought fortune in the western States. Time has brought about a change, and the tide has set in the other direction, bringing across the frontier numbers of our neighbors to whom we are glad to return hospitalities. “One of the chief dispensers of such hospitality In proportion to its population has, as we have said, changed its character from an Important cattle town to a thriving wheat producing area. “What It has lost from the picturesque point of view, it has gained in the material Aide, and I wish, in conclusion, to express the hope that the prosperity which has evinced Itself here for the past ten years, may continue unabated in the future.” There is no reason Why at a hundred places on this educative, instructive and Interesting trip of His Royal Highness he might not have expressed himself In the same terms, and on each occasion, addressed large gatherings of Americans who are now settled on the prairies of Western Can*da.—Advertisement