| Popis: |
It is a great privilege for me to have to propose the toast of our guests, though I am very sorry that the time has come to do it, for it means that our celebrations are coming to an end. But fortunately we do not have to say good-bye to all our guests. After all, some of them live almost next door, within the sound of Big Ben, and they are here as the representatives of our own Government, of our friends in this City, or as the representatives of whole nations. We are greatly honoured to have the Ambassadors of so many countries and it would cause us not merely sorrow but consternation if we thought that any of them had to contemplate an immediate departure. ‘But some of our guests must leave us soon to get back home and they live so far away that the journey may take them thousands of miles in space and quite a few hours in time. They have come as the representatives of only one section of their people but it is the one we are proud to belong to ourselves, for we naturally regard it as the most intelligent and the most progressive. In fact they are the delegates of the Universities and Scientific Academies of the world: and they are the guests who have had to stand up to the full impact of our celebrations. They have made us very happy and we have worked them very hard. We have made them go to lectures and laboratories and museums, we have sent them on long journeys into the country and we have shown them why we are so continuously interested in the weather and the London traffic. It is time the Royal Society thanked them for making our celebrations such an international event. |
