Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellency, Mr Bailiff, States Members, ladies and gentlemen. On this, the seventy-seventh anniversary of our Liberation we come together to look back to the past and to thank God for our delivery from tyranny and oppression. Always remembering the courage of those who lived through the dark days of occupation and the sacrifice of those who gave their lives to give liberty to others. We also look to the present that we might use that hard won freedom to help and support those who today experience the despair of conflict and dictatorship. And in this year of the Platinum Jubilee of her Majesty the Queen we pledge our commitment for tomorrow to the cause of justice, equality and peace in our nation and Island community, that we might be agents of reconciliation and hope in a fractured world. [Approbation]

2. HRH The Earl of Wessex will deliver a loyal address from Her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of the 77th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Island

2.1 HRH The Earl of Wessex:

Good morning, everyone. I have a message from Windsor Castle.

On the occasion of the Seventy-Seventh Anniversary of your Liberation from occupation, I send you my warmest greetings. As you remember the trials and hardship that the people of Jersey endured during the occupation in the Second World War, we are reminded of the courage and sacrifice of those who remained; those who were deported or evacuated from the Island; and those served in the Armed Forces. Today, as you come together to give thanks for the Liberation of the Island, I am delighted that The Earl and Countess of Wessex have had the opportunity to travel to Jersey to represent me on this special occasion. I recall my own visits with fondness and pleasure, and you always extended such a warm welcome. In my Platinum Jubilee year, I continue to cherish our close and long-lasting ties, founded on the loyalty that the people of Jersey have shown. My thoughts and prayers remain with my most loyal Members of the States and the people of Jersey for your continued happiness and prosperity. [Approbation]

3. The Bailiff will deliver a loyal response on the occasion of the 77th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Island

3.1 The Bailiff

Your Royal Highnesses it is a great honour and privilege for me, on behalf of the States and people of Jersey to extend to you the warmest welcomes to this, the most southerly of the British Isles and to respond to the message that you have kindly delivered to us on behalf of her Majesty the Queen. It is also an enormous pleasure on this Liberation Day to welcome back her Royal Highness the Countess of Wessex who joined us for our Liberation celebrations in 2015. It is all the more significant to have you here in Jersey in this special year in the long and peaceful reign of Her Majesty the Queen who has been, and continues to be, a model to us all of steadfastness, duty, and promises kept. We have, as an island and as a people, flourished during her Majesty’s reign and we look forward very much to the celebration in June of her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee. You will know what this date signifies and why it is important to the people of Jersey. On the 9th of May 1945 the armed forces of your Royal Highnesses grandfather his Majesty King George VI liberated the Island from five years of occupation. Today, seventy-seven years later, we join together free of the restrictions that have prevented us from doing so over the last two years, to celebrate once again, the joyous and momentous occasion. For those involved in the occupation, it altered their lives. Some were evacuated from the Island in 1940 leaving behind family and friends. Subsequently some were deported to Germany where between 1942 and 1945 where they were interred. Those who stayed here suffered privation and endured the loss of liberty of an occupied people. Over time their suffering increased, to the point of near starvation, until relieved by the Red Cross, and then, on that day in 1945 they were liberated by the armed forces of the Crown, in which many Islanders were then serving. Your Royal Highnesses and Members of the States of Jersey, Jurats and Members of the Royal Court who are seated here in the very square which commemorates Liberation, and all the people of Jersey, are grateful to you for your visit, adding as it does, lustre to the celebrations of the seventy seventh anniversary of our Liberation. We are proud to be able, through you to reaffirm our allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen whose visits to us we remember fondly and with the greatest pleasure. We take this opportunity also to express through you our deep and constant affection for her Majesty and of reaffirming our loyalty and respect for her and all that she has done. [Approbation]

The Bailiff:

That concludes the business of this special sitting of the States Assembly on Liberation Day and formally the Assembly stands adjourned until the new Assembly is convened in June.

ADJOURNMENT

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