Patron of ESU Queensland 2010. Governor of Queensland, Her Excellency Penelope Wensley OA
“I express my hope that the English Speaking Union will be a strong and active organization, pursuing in ever-more creative and imaginative ways its admirable goals of promoting global understanding and international friendship, through the shared use of the English language. As someone whose entire working life, as a diplomat, has been dedicated to the promotion of global understanding, the management of international relations and the improvement of international cooperation, I obviously applaud organizations that support these important goals. Governments cannot do it alone – the challenges are too great. So NGO’s that help to develop ‘people-to-people’ links and which work actively and in practical ways to enhance contact and understanding between the peoples of different countries and cultures are a great asset and should themselves be supported and encouraged in every way possible. … our ESU President, Prince Philip, in a speech to the English Speaking Union World Branches Conference in Edinburgh – where he cautions against any nationalistic triumphalism over English becoming the dominant language: “English has long ceased to be a purely national language. This may be a good or bad thing. But the fact remains that it is used by too many nations to be considered the exclusive property of any one of them.” The West Indian poet and Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott also addressed this issue of ownership of the language, observing: “The English language is nobody’s property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.”