05/11/2004 00:00
TW
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by RAY FLEMING
QUEEN Elizabeth's choice of clothes for her State Visit to Germany this week may have left something to be desired (although it has apparently drawn praise from her hosts) but her choice of words has been excellent. Yesterday, speaking in Dusseldorf, she spoke of her “renewed confidence in the deep friendship between our two countries”. Those listening to her words will have known very well that the timing of her speech was 60 years to the day that allied bombing raids devastated Dusseldorf. The diversionary controversy over whether the Queen should apologise for the loss of life and destruction caused by those raids and others on Hamburg, Dresden and Brunswick has fortunately been forgotten. Instead the gala concert attended by the Queen in Berlin to raise funds for the restoration of Dresden's Frauenkirke, wrecked in the Allied raids on the city in which 35'000 people lost their lives, has been seen as an appropriately measured recognition of Britain's regret that the raids were ever necessary.

FOR the most part the Queen has focussed on the future in what she has said. In an important passage of her speech at the State Banquet in Berlin she said: “We recognise how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945 in Nato and the European Union. We owe it to those who built that partnership to continue the process into the 21st century; to learn from history, not to be obsessed with it; to look beyond simplistic stereotypes to realise how often we share the same outlook.” And she emphasized that latter point by saying, “Stereotypes wither when human contacts flourish” and urging that young people should be encouraged to get to know more about each others' countries.

Wise and welcome words from Queen Elizabeth.