THE WAR—AND AFTER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 84, 21 January 1936, Page 6

THE WAR—AND AFTER.

VAST POLITICAL CHANGES. SERIOUS ILLNESS RECALLED. For four years, shortly after the King’s accession, the Empire had to fio-ht for its very existence in the most dreadful war the world has seen. It was in those years that the King descended from his Throne into the lives of the people; his demeanour in this period of trial made it easy and natural for his people who suffered to identify their grief with that of this man who walked with them step by step. ■ In every way, then, the King 1 and Queen did what they could for the na-

tion; and when the war was over, the nation said “well done.” It was that thought which brought thousands surging to the gates of Buckingham Palace on November 11, 11)18. It was that thought that led to the tumultuous reception given the King and Queen as they rode through the different parts of London ill the days immediately after the war. Perhaps the last act of the war, was when, on November 11 j 1929, the Kino stood in Westminster Abbey as duel mourner before the grave of the Unknown Soldier, a man unknown, whom they buried among the kings because thousands such had done great good for the people. The war ended; but the aftermath was in some respects as bad, if not Worse than the actual conflict. The Treaty of Versailles concluded peace; hut it opened the way for many another problem, national, social, economic and military. The League of Nations, at once sponsored by Britain, has done much more than it is commonly given credit for. 'Disarmament conferences haye struggled on. Then in 1931 the King himself opened the abortive World Economic Conference in London. Through all this tangled skein the King wished for a just and honourable peace, for economic stability among the nations. The closing days of 1928 saw a great shadow hang over the British Empire. The King, his frame wasted by a devastating illness, lay fighting for his life, a fight that for many days seemed to be ci losing one. In every corner of the globe, his subjects prayed that lie might be spared to them. _ The shadow lilted. The King was recovering and the people were united in thanksgiving, as they had been in anxiety and sympathy. There could'have been no greater test of h people’s devotion to their monarch. There have been more spectacular figures as Kings of England than King George but in those days of his illness, that all-reaching bond of sympathy showed that he held # a place in the hearts of his people such as has been given to few of the rulers of men.