Speech made at the banquet to honour H. M. Queen Elizabeth II & H. R. H. Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh on the occasion of the golden jubilee of their wedding Holyrood Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland at the Commonwealth Conference – 20th November 1997
Your Majesty
Your Royal Highness
Your Excellencies
My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen
The Banquet traditionally offered by Her Majesty the Queen to Heads and Special Envoys of Commonwealth Governments is a particularly vivid
symbol of our association. This year, it has the added aura of a Golden Jubilee, in more than one sense. I, therefore, feel especially privileged to have the opportunity of addressing Her Majesty this evening on behalf of all the Commonwealth Governments.
It was fifty years ago, that the process of transforming the British Empire into the evolving Commonwealth of Nations commenced, with the gaining of Independence by India & Pakistan. That momentous beginning provided both an inspiration and an impetus for the world – wide process of decolonization, which we witnessed in the ensuing years. That we in the Commonwealth are today a microcosm of that larger world is merely illustrative of the scale of an empire on which the sun supposedly never set.