Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-12-28
KING GREETS WILSON;
PRESIDENTS REPLY
Notably Historic Addresses De
livered at Royal Banquet
in London, Last Night.


first time, a President Of the United States
is our guest IN England
We welcome you to the country whence
came your ancestors and where stands
the homes of those from whom sprang
Washington and Lincoln. We welcome
you for yourself, as one whose insight,
calmncss, and dignity in the discharge
of his high duties we have watched with
admiration We see in you the happy
union of the gifts Of scholar with those
OF a statesman. You came from studious
academic quiet into the full stream of an
arduous public life, and your deliverances
have combined breadth of view and grasp
of world problems with the mastery of a
lofty diction recalling that of your great
orators of the past and OF our own.
You come as the official head and
spokesman of mighty commonwealth
bound to lis by the closest ties. Its people
speak the tongue of Shakespeare and
Milton Our literature is yours as yours
Is also ours, and men Of letters in both
countries have joined in maintaining its
Incompatible glories.
TO YOU, not less than to us. belong the
memories of our national heroes from King
Alfred down to the days of Philip Sidney
and Drake. of Raleigh and Blake, and
Fiampden and the days when the political
life Of the English stock IN America was
Just beginning You share with us the
traditions of free Self-goyernment as old
as the Magma Charta.
We recognize the bond of still deeper
significance in the common ideals which
our people cherish First among those
ideals YOU value and We value. freedom
and peace Privileged as We have been
to be the opponents and the examples in
national life of the principles Of popular
cf-govcrnmcnt based upon equal laws.
il now falls 10 both Of US alike to see how
these principles can be applied beyond
our own borders for the good Of the world
II was love Of liberty, respect for law.
good faith and the sacred rights Of hui
manuy that brought you To the Old
World To help IN saving il from the dam
gers that were threatening around, and
that arraigncd those soldier citizens of
yours, whose gallantry We have admired,
side by side with ours in the war.
You have now come to help in building
up new states amid the ruins of those that
the war has shattered and in laying the
solid foundations Of a settlement that
MAY stand firm because il Will rest upon
the consent Of the emancipated nation
alities You have cloquently expressed
tho hope Of the American people, as IT Is
our hope, that some plan may be devised
10 attain the end YOU have done so much
10 promote by which the risk Of future
wars may, II possible, be ayerted, relieving
the nations OF the intolerable burden
which fear of war has laid upon them.
The British Nation wishes all success
to the deliberations on which you and
we and the great free nations allied with
us are now 10 enter moved by disinterested
good will and sense Of duty commensu-
rate with the power which we hold as q
solemn trust.
The American and British peoples
have been brothers in arms, and their
arms haye been crowned with victory.
We thank with all our hearts your valiant
soldiers and sailors for their splendid part
in that victory, as we thank the American
people for their noble response to the
call Of civilization and humanity. May
the same brotherly spirit inspire and guide
our united efforts 10 secure for the world
the blessings OF an ordered freedom and
an enduring peace.
In asking YOU to JON with me IN drink
ing the health OF the President, | wish to
say with what pleasure we welcome Mrs.
Wilson TO this country
drink to the health Of the President
Of the United States and Mrs. Wilson and
10 the happiness and prosperity of the
great American nation.
PRESIDENT wilson's REPLY
President Wilson. in reply, said
am deeply conplimented by the
gracious words which you have uttered
The welcome which YOU have given me
and Mrs Wilson has been so warm, 50
natural, so evidently from the heart,
that VIC have been more than pleased
We have been touched by it, and believe
that correctly interpret that welcome as
cmbOdyIng not only your own generous
spirit toward US personally, but also as
expressing for yourself and the great ma
ton over which you preside that same
feeling for nv people, for the people of
the United States.
For you and |, siT-I temporarily
cmbodv the spirit Of two great nations,
and whatever strength ! have and what
ever authority, possess II only 50 long
and 50 far a. | express the spirit and pur-
pose Of the American people.
Every influence that the American
people have over the affairs of the world is
measured by their sympathy with the
aspirations OF frcemcn everywhere
America does love freedom and be-
licyc that she loves freedom unselfshly
But If she does not she will not and can
not help the influence to which she Justly
aSpires.
] have had the privilege, sir, Of con
ferrlng with the leaders Of your own
government and with the spokesmen Of
the governments Of France and of Italy,
and am glad TO say that have the same
conceptions that they have Of the sig
nifcance and scope Of the duty on which
We have met.
We have used great words, all Of us
have used the great words right and
Justice, and now We are TO prove wheth-
er or not we understand these words,
and how they arc to be applied to the
particular settlements which must con
clude this war And We must not only
understand them, but we must have the
courage to act upon our understanding.
Yet, after ] have uttered the word
courage il comes into my mind that
il would take more courage to resist the
great moral tide now running in the world
than 10 yield TO it, than TO obey it,
There is q great tide running in the
hearts Of men The hearts Of men have
never beaten 50 singularly in unison be-
fore Men have never before been SO
conscious Of their brotherhood. Men have
never before realized how little difference
there was between right and justice III
one latitude and III another, under ono
sovereignty and under another
And it will be our high privilege,
believe sir, not only to apply the moral
judgment Of the world TO the particular
settlements which we shall attempt, but
l., -c Al