Britain's Royalties.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1927, Page 4

Britain's Royalties.

The World's Hardest WorkersSacrifices in Public Interests. In view of the visit of tho Uuke and Duchess of York to New Zealand, this tribute by Mr. Ward Price—a distinguished .journalist who was llie official correspondent witli the Prince of Wales during his tour of South Africa—is of special interest. Mr. Ward Price declares that the members of the British Royal family form a steady mid unfailing bulwark against revolutionary movements bemuse of their amazing energy, cheerfulness, and self-sacrifice in the publicinterest. Despite, a world wide reputation for stolidity, the British nrc a warm-lionrted |teoplc. Not even their impulsive kinsmen of tin- United States have B<> many popular heroes. The devotion that these receive is cousUint and sincere. Millions of Kngliahmen would willingly go without their Sunday dinner to-day if they thought it would dn anv gixxl to Hobbs or Sutcliffe, and. were there to Ik; a national monument put up Ity universal suffrage to-morrow, there is no doubt as to whose statues would ap|>cnr on it. The tendency is noticeably increasing, however, to concentrate this popular enthusiasm more and more on the celebrities of our national s|H.rt». Leading actors are by no menus the idols they once were. Popular adulation, in <Inys when war was a remote and picturesque activity, used to surround Mich generals as Bobs ami Fighting Mae. and less than half a century ngo the nation felt real enthusi asm for statesmen like Gladstone and Disraeli. Since then we have come to know both our generals and our politicians too well. There is only one direction in which national regard is now given far more freely and spontaneously than ever l>efore. and that is towards the Royal Family. So strongly are the present King and Queen, together with their children, established in the j»ersonal affections of their people, that it seems almost inconceivable that any other relations should ever have existed between the nation and the Crown. Yet there are men still living who can remember when the Monarchy, however well founded as an institution, enjoyed very limited personal popularity in Britain. A whole generation of Britons grew up to whom Queen Victoria was a remote, unreal figure living surrounded by rather pompous mystery at Balmoral, Osborne, or Windsor, only approachable in a highly ceremonious manner by the highest in the land, and entirely cut off from |>ersonnl contact with the daily lives of the people at whose head she stood. As for the peoples of the Empire Overseas, the Queen was for them no more than an historical symbol of Britain's greatness, like Westminster Abbey or the Tower of London, with the only difference of

being fur less familiar to th<"ir To have "soon the Queen' , put the ordinary man or woman of those days in a class apart. To ha\c spoken ■with her was a distinction beyond the niuet romantic dreams of the average citizen. It is one «f the very valuable quaJiti>o of the British raw. however, thai it* institutions, move with the times. Like many other factors in the Commonwealth, the Throne has preserved il.s vitality by evolving no* functions oirre>poiiding to new conditions. With education rapidly reaching every ••lass, and the Press keeping the nation in daily touch with every a.s|«e«-t of pulilic life, our Monarchy easily have fallen into unpopularity and decay had the Grand Lama-like aloofness of the Victorian jteriod been maintained. The Link Which Holds the Empire Together. In order to retain the pre»tipp and |«»ition of a. leader of the nation the Sovereign inuft jieoessarilv take an active part in national affairs. It was Kin? Kdward who fir>t realised that the "majesty" of the Throne lia<l gruwn to lie more of a picturesque medieval tradition than a vital fact. Through the popularity of his pcr>onalit v. and l«y his efforts toward* the maintenance of international jH-aoe, he regained for the Crown more popularity and respect than it had enjoyed for many years. It has been left to the present Knyal Family not only to confirm and strengthen that prestige, but to add to it a ciiirvrc affection on tlie jiart <if ail classes of the puMic. v\hi«-ii ]ix> Ih-coiiic mi integral a part of our national (.•uipi-nnm-n? that the present yenerntion of Brilollis hardly realit-e how reoent is it* growth. History will do ju-ti«-c to llir t.a<-i. skill, and devotion which our K>>\:iMi<— lin\e shim H in adaptinp lhetiisel\eti to national condition* inliiiitely more difficult and exacting than those their predecessors had to face. In few things ha* Britain Iwen s-o fortunate as in the possession of a Hoy a I I'aiuilv whose claim to respect is founded on personal character as firmly as on the accident of birth. It needs little imagination to suggest what harm might have been wrought amid the complicated political circumstances of our time by an unamiable .Sovereign, to say nothing of a vicious one. In the curiously fortuitous constitution of our F.mpire the one link which holds the whole mesh together is the Crown, and we have never had more rca.son to be thankful that that link is without flaw. At a time when the monarchical principle nas been most violently attacked, the British Monarchy is more firmly established than ever, becaus* its foundations are now not merely force or tradition, but the consent and approval of the people. Pursued and pestered as they arc by professional propagandists of the "class war" and the ".Soviet Republic," 1 doubt whether more, than one per cent of the British working classes is anything but sincerely monarchical at hean. Not without pains has our splendid Royal Family achieved this sovereignty over the affections of their people. They hare worked

for it as no princes have {Mr ; worked iicforp *w. vc*r> end to year> end th< ? P u«. f ar mov ~J°* attention and pelf-KacrtfuT i,, heir .*. nine-tenths of ijjcjr suVi<-<:.- „,„„, tl j w v Mil! under the irnt-of>ix<-].ii,.Ti -, h;,s ihr lif<. <,f *** personage nmM he a ~*,}, • ,. IIM . ;md w There i« not only ru. million, „ ~,„,„, of in BriUin .«^ e y, bu, ~., ■„,,,„,,, wmifci Jg citizen. m.J -~. ~,.r1. :r v . mMI ie "* (•mplormrnt. who. if hr I ••. *> Ihe d-uu] <,f tb e kZ; doin and w!f-d<-nial mln.h ■ ur im i},,, ~™4 - ^t tE" ihc days of a pro,,,,*„■;• „.„,,„. , lf « Kojal an<l had U, ~.,..„. ~,,1 v 1o "** bi««.lk in W« witi , j ~;., «-,th nc« iound mum,,!,- ~, • ,„. . Ulll()T) in b<. can U- bis c«n a«.i*:. •,: ~ , ■„,„ in lcliino. Si3am That Kciti Relaxes. ibpTc ~ n<. nwr v],,, 1, ( ~l u Ilir B , w Qu.vr. <,r Prinoc- of U.lr . ■~, . ;llfl rpquir 2* Ine iV.r liv M uftdcr c tt,.lm ~..,. ..) st)f . }j (!oDti MTUtint. Uiflt. quiU- it.r;,:h. i-,.x c.nnci <ail] wmj!(« liinr o-«n. }or T.- , ;,.. ~.,, muhU , T ,. veß . tbeir own cinoikeis. Wn H t-u.M of -,„. j t doeß mailer, k> Ion? a« v<. do .mi (,«y' e w«r\. vbclior wo do it Willi » M-owl or a •.,,: . It, tll( . <alße . Iho Rnyal Family (h<. , la iion j,., . f .,m, r ] ook affalulilT and U-< n nji-t'-M a v i), f -i in variable aooi. As humon bcin;?. it is iivt itnltlc ih ß l xhem «LobH now and ibcn l.c d«><. when iw Ko\«lii w tJun? b»H aflaHc end nil. r<-i,.d. 3hil ] vil] m,dev Lake Ih«T Umtp arr i, rv f.w T « ..,.),. v }„, hav* <a.nglt one of them in t\<-r\ »n imuluxitarr revelation «| weariness or indifference. All humeri inlrrcm]!>p i« ir hotnt , a mcnl«.l end ii is \},,- duly of niembere ef rhff Koyal Family » ponslant fi-fishnee jn an anoca-sin? rrjmi mon of vtmisiciAs with itoorile who are k<>y<*d ii}. io mod iVm on one Kinrie oocAbion. No m<'iil.aJ strain is pvater lliilti I,ba.t ft it- notorious thai the Prwidienry of tic fnitod Statei. by the domandf il tnakos upon •vilaj shortens tic days of ilf- holder. But vhile lli# **rvcs. only four ycern. otir Royalties bave a lif<"-fs<.nt«ncip to fulfil. From Ihc time they leave iho nursery Jo the time they are oa.rrjpd to their last rcsting-plaoc tiaey are daily utider the jnillioneyed scrutiny of the nation. They are never entirely their own master*. Even with the most intimiti parts of their lives g-oiship it» always busy. aa indiscretion the most trusted friend might set a etarr jioing which would harm thrm, not only in thei , priratc capacity, but in their public utility to tie nation. Only tboM? who have men a little of tie life of a popular Royalty from the winge, a 6 i znyeelf dii during tbe long tour of the Prince of Wa.l«s last year, can realise how constant and related, evea up to the linait* of phyeical endiiraaec itself, ie tbt strain which niodcrn public life puts upon i3tom who are born to the throne of Britain. •■%