Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

“ All these nations have helped to create our Commonwealth, and all are equally concerned to maintain, develop and defend it against any challenge that may come.
As I travel across the world today I am ever more deeply impressed with the achievement and the opportunity which the modern Commonwealth presents.
Like New Zealand, from whose North Island I am speaking, every one of its nations can be justly proud of what it has built for itself on its own soil. ”

“ To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself heart and soul every day of my life.
I wished to speak of it from New Zealand this Christmas Day because we are celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace, who preached the brotherhood of man.
May that brotherhood be furthered by all our thoughts and deeds from year to year. In pursuit of that supreme ideal the Commonwealth is moving steadily towards greater harmony between its many creeds, colours and races despite the imperfections by which, like every human institution, it is beset. ”

“ But their greatest achievement, I suggest, is the Commonwealth itself, and that owes much to all of them. Thus formed, the Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the Empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception, built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty and the desire for freedom and peace. ”