FRUSTRATED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 102, 1 May 1937, Page 26

FRUSTRATED

LIFE OF EDWARD VIII

TOO MUCH MOVEMENT

MR. BOLITHO'S BIOGRAPHY

(Written for the "Evening Post" by --' "" AM.) . ■ "Even in a palace life may be lived well." He \yho wrote this was the only king who has become famous as a | philosopher. The irony of Marcus Aurelius's saying is matched only by that of the once common comparison, "As happy as a king." It focuses attention on all the temptations and difficulties that meet kings and their families—the. snares of the flesh and of vanity; the tendency of men to speak nothing but smooth things; the loneliness; the pitfalls that are,unwittingly dug .by ; the ;best .of intentions. There never was a higher-minded father than the: Prince Consort, but. the educational regimen he designed for his eldest son is seen now to have been stupid. In the treatment pfv'h'is "children' Edward VII learnt a lessori.fronv'his "own boyhood, but for sorne.yearsGeorge V'was not the heir to thfe-throrie and was therefore able to 'seriously the career, of a naval officer.- VTo\this fact he owed a good;deal of .;his:: success as King. Edward VIH was heir from the first and was" treated as such. He was trained in-'the: Navy, but-not: allowed to stay,;there.'- He.was then sent to Oxford, :"and;:from:. there went to the Armyi-f ,-.Th'en'::came the war, which turned: hinv as.;it.. did tens of thousands of Mothers, frotn-a boy to a man.-After thewar-came/his succession of ambassadorial-, travels, more numerous and more'crowded than those of any prince in history. That these and other circumstances of his life as heir to the Throne; working on his character, produced his decision of abdication, is the contention of Mr. Hector Bolitho in his "Edward VIII, His Life and Reign" (Eyre and Spottiswoqde). A NEW ZEALANDER'S ANALYSIS. This book, begun long before the crisis; has "a special interest for this country, because it is written by a New Zealander.' Mr. Hector Bolitho's entry into'the English ' world of letters is one of the literary romances of our time. He lived for quite a while within a "charmed circle at Windsor; he was elected - a member of the famous and exclusive Athenaeum Club at an astonishingly early age; he did original work as a biograher of Royalty, and thereby established a reputation; and he must know a great deal that does not come* within the ken of :-the.: best-informed"'"outsider. He was therefore,particularly well fitted to write the biography of Edward of the high hopes arid brief-reign. He saw his subject, 'not with1-the- eyes of an Englishman trained in a.single tradition, hut with" those of a colonial who had superimposed a study of Englasad upon the ideas and ..ideals of new and less'Hrammeiled- societies.-: rlt. is sigr nificant that Mr.. Bolitlicy iii estimating;; the forces that moulded Edward, at taches a-good deal of-importance; to his contact with colonials Muring the war. His comments on the attitude of Englishmen towards . colonials may ruffle some -feelings in England . . i

"the stories of the gaucherie of Australian soldiers in London drawingrooms were told more often than the stories of their valour in the trenches."

I I quote this comment purposely-^it occurs in a paragraph, of I think dubious political wisdom—because there may be a tendency here to consider Mr. Bolitho as one who is more English than the English. The book, indeed, has had an unfortunate introduction to New Zealand in the shape of cabled extracts taken from their context, which seem to have led a good many people to believe that the biography is an attack on Edward VIII. It is dangerous to judge a book by a few passages. Mr. Bolitho's book is not an attack on Edward, but an explanation of his decision to renounce the Throne. Mr. Bolitho tells the story of Edward's life, with repeated emphasis on his many good qualities and warm recognition of his great services to Britain and the Empire, and "in this story he claims to find the key to the abdication. NO SCANDAL. There is no scandal in this book. The tale is told discreetly. There is little that is not already widely known. Far more about Edward's private life was published in the English Press before he became King than is set forth here. The value of Mr. Bolitho's book lies in the skill and sympathy with which he has retold.the story of the Prince's boyhood and manhood —the demands made upon him, the things denied him, the effect of the war upon him, and the tremendous programme of ambassadorialwork he was asked, to undertake. Mr. Bolitho's theory is that Edward was the victim of frustration and an overcrowded official life. In several respects Edward was like his grandfather. Both liked people rather than ideas. It is said that Edward VII never read a book after he left school. His grandson' was more studious, but he sought experience. in society far more than in books. A competent biographer writes of Edward VII that as Prince of Wales he collected round him. a company of lively people, few of whom would have been received by his father, and that he asked of society nothing more than that it should amuse him. The grandson developed a similar trait. He did his duty magnificently in official hours, but his diversions were light, and his friends were of the lighter sort. Neither had much' interest in the past. But the first Edward lived- in a world' that seemed stable. He did not serve in the greatest and most unsettling of wars; he was not subjected to years of travel in the services of the State; and, .more important than all, he married early and always had home life as a retreat from business and pleasure. . . . FRUSTRATED WISHES. Edward VIII was—excuse the tense —a man of keen and restless temperament who-found himself over and over again stopped from doing ;the things he wanted to do. At least, so Mr. Bolitho says. He wanted to make the Navy a career; he wanted to serve as an ordinary soldier in the World War; he wanted to pilot his own aeroplane. Instead he was put on the round; of education- deemed necessary for the Heir-Apparent; he was allowed to go to the war, but not as a trench combatant; he was forbidden to risk his life in the air—George V, we are told, was nervous about flying; public apprehension put a stop to his hunting and steeplechasing, and, finally, he found his wishes for the social amelioration of his people metby the apathy of old statesmen. The war affected him, as it affected thousands of others; they came back highly critical of their elders. Several times Mr. Bolitho cites the war as an important influence on the Prince's character. "The war created a wide gap between the generations, and it was exemplified in the differences of character in King George and his son It was not consoling to be told that this was an inevitable state after war. It did not make King George's problem as .a father any less menacing, nor could v console him or any other parent in the land.for the fact that the'young were lost to the old as no generation had been before." The Prince proceeded to live his own life, and championed the cause of the servicemen. _ The younger generation looked to him as their leader. Then came the long succession of Empire and foreign tours How successful these were we all know, but it is Mr. Bolitho's argument that they were bad for the Prince in that they prolonged and accentuated the restlessness of his- life,made it more difficult for him to establish real friendships, and gave him too exalted an idea of his own popularity, an idea which played him false last year. As we read of these tours in their order—it is perhaps "a fault that Mr. Bolitho recounts them in too much detail—we wonder again how any man could endure so much even in the way °"It Uhas been said that the Prince was sometimes deceived as to the value of his success: that he mistook the gay accident of popularity for calm esteem, and that his self-confidence nourished accordingly. If this be true, he cannot be blamed, for the tumult in which he was forced to live was beyond human endurance, and an.old cynical philosopher could not have passed through . similar experiences without over-valuing his own talents and success." , DANGER REALISED. It is most interesting to read that this danger was realised by the Prince's parents, and that before the Indian tour Queen Mary spoke to the Government once more, but "policy and political usage could not wait upon the subtleties of a growing character." So the Prince travelled and travelled, moving rapidly through countries, and from country to country, his days filled with work, his extraordinary vitality seeking diversion at the end of the longest and hardest. New scenes, new

faces passed him daily. He charmed all, but he made no lasting valuable friendships. ' Can he ,be greatly blamed? He had been given no profession save that of Royal handyman; he had no fast anchorages. Mr. Bolitho says that when the crisis came last year, he had no friends in the best sense of the word. He became King "surrounded by old and comparatively tired men; with a Prime Minister who stood for safety and apathy which he could neither respect nor endure, and with an Archbishop to whom he was hostile." There were no contemporaries in the Cabinet who could act as advisers and intimates. THE LAST SCENE. All this —what Edward had missed as well as what he had experiencedhad caused a certain deterioration of character by the time Edward came to the Throne. There had been estrangement between himself and his father. The possibility of abdication was in the minds of people in Court and Government circles. It is a measure of Edward's lack, of judgment that he thought the nation would accept his marriage. Mr. Bolitho stresses the importance Edward attached to speedy alleviation of distress among the people. "Many members of the Government resented his campaigns among the poor. They found his eagerness discomforting, since it exposed the methods of the authorities and proved their work in the distressed areas to be slow and blighted by caution." But Mr. Bolitho gives no support to the idea that abdication was forced on Edward; the Government could take no other course than it did, and the ultimate responsibility lay with the King. It is a moving drama, as told here, and the King's interest in the poor makes it all the more moving. Men felt that they were losing not only a king but a leader. It moved to its end, and Mr. Bolitho does riot unnecessarily underline the obvious. About the future he makes only one remark: "For his busy mind and his interest in life, his sympathy and his training as a prince, will never-fit into a little space of desire." THE MONARCHY. If Mr. Bolitho criticises at times, he also praises generously. His theory is plausible, and it is set forth with understanding and sympathy. A later generation will be better able to judge how far innate weaknesses contributed to the result. One thing is certain. Opinion differs as to whether the reticence of the English Press bsfore the crisis was justifiable. It will be more difficult in the future to conceal such things, more difficult to create a legend about Royalty. We may go back to the greater freedom of the Victorians. And what will be the effect on the Monarchy? It has been said by an observer in London that Edward did more damage to the Throne than could have been done by fifty years of republican agitation. We shall see. The Throne has suffered declines in popularity, but has recovered. Queen Victoria saved the monarchy, yet in the earlier years of her widowhood republicanism was openly advocated in England. When the Prince of Wales was involved in the baccarat scandal, it was prophesied that the monarchy would not last another thirty years. It is said that Edward VII himself pointed to the future Edward VIII as the last King c[ England. But when George V died the Crown stood firmer in the respect and affection of the people than ever before." We. may leave it at that.