I am happy to be in the capital of this great dominion and to bring to you the greetings and good wishes of the Government and people of India. During the past twelve months, it has been my privilege to be associated in important discussions with your Prime Minister and your Secretary of State. We have had to consider many difficult problems and I am revealing no secret when I say that our point of view and that of Canada were identical or very near to each other on almost every issue. In particular, I should like to refer to the spirit of understanding shown Prime Ministers, held in London last April, in the determination of our future relationship with the commonwealth. That spirit is in the great still with us. That tradition has been one of association with the Commonwealth in complete freedom, unfettered by any outside control. Canada has been a pioneer in the evolution of this relationship and as such, one of the builders of the Commonwealth as an association of free and equal nations. India, as you know, will soon become a republic but will remain a member of the Commonwealth. Our past co-operation will not, therefore, cease or alter with the change in our status. On the derives from a sense that it is inspired and sustained by the free will of free peoples. I am convinced that this development in the history of the Commonwealth, without parallel elsewhere or at any other time, is a significant step towards peace and co-operation in the world.
On even greater significance is the manner of its achievement. Only a few years age. India nationalism was in conflict with British imperialism and that conflict brought I its train ill-will, suspicion and bitterness, although because of the teaching of our great leader Mahatma Gandhi, there was far less ill-will than in any other nationalist struggle against foreign domination.
