EMPIRE WAITS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 292, 9 December 1936, Page 8

EMPIRE WAITS.

PRESS OPINIONS. Constitutional Crisis Reviewed. EFFECT OF KING'S DECISION. The crisis Which lias" arisen in London lias been commented .upon by the newspapers of the. Dominion With a full sense of its serious import to the Empire, and with the restraint which follows that realisation. Below we give excerpts from the leading journals of New Zealand. "A morganatic marriage would not be possible without special legislation, and that legislation the House of Commons will not pass," stated the Wellington "Dominion." "All manner of embarrassing and possibly unpleasant complications would arise if the King's wife were not Queen. The Empire would welcome a Queen capable of filling the part. as it should be filled—as it was filled so admirably by Queen Mary for the 25 years of King George's reign. Mrs. Simpson could not do that. She is not a suitable person to be Queen — to enjov, as Mr. Baldwin puts it, 'all the status and rights and privileges which both by positive law and by custom are attached to the position with which we are familiar in the cases of Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary.' The objection is not that Mrs. Simpson was born and brought up an American citizen; it has nothing to do with nationality; it is personal. . . . American, British commoner or foreign princess, the .lady whom he proposes to make Queen and Empress must be acceptable to his subjects. . . . Many men before to-day have had to choose between public duty and what they imagine to be private happiness. Some choose wisely; others find later that they have taken the husk anct left the corn; but each has to decide for himself. So much King Edward."

"Decision Rests With King." The "Evening Post". (Wellington) stated last night that "no precedent is so far. discoverable in history governing the points raised by Mr. Churchill and others in criticism of the British Government." The paper said thot inAhe statement of 2tlr. Baldwin as cablea it could find no suggestion that Mr. Baldwin's Cabinet had called on the King to abdicate. The decision as between legislation and abdication rested with the King. What had happened vas that the Government had advised that it would not legislate. The paper pointed out the necessity of striving at textual accuracy and complete clarity, stating that "the people of the Empire lipid the largest interest in.questions of Ttingship and government; and the people of the Empire, or any empire; will not find it 'easy to'separate the head and the/heart. The world that 'loves a, lover' is the world that lives and loves through the blessings, of good government#', not .through the divorce court alone. The 'people .should not /be invitfe/L.to throw away<®fche substance for --the sake ;'ot romance; the heart so governs . the. head in most people's thinking, that a wrong decision may easily be arrived at in the popular mind if a right decision by the Baldwin Government is presented in words capable of misunderstanding . . •

"It would-be stating the issue fairly— in the light, of present public knowledge —to ask whether Mrs. Simpson's circumstances are or are not of sufficient political importance to entitle Cabinet to refuse the legislation," added, the "Post;" "After making every concession to tl'.2 heart as well.as to the head, the answer is,' Yes.' At-the same time it lias to be expected that, in the words of the 'Daily Telegraph, false sentiment' 'as.well as real sentiment will intervene, and there will be those who 'will not, or cannot, view the Crown apart from its wearer, and the sole link of the Empire apart from the well-loved person of the present King. Tribute to Mr. Baldwin. In another article the "Post" paid a tribute to tlie manner in which Mr. Baldwin had borne himself in a most distressing ordeal; his character as tlie typical Englishman, a family man, and a wise and sympathetic mentor, had emerged "with high honour. The Christchurch "Star-Sun" wrote. The newspaper accounts of theepisoc c are too contradictory to be reliable. The inference is that at some stage of the discussion the King foi egis a tion vthat would enable him to make what would be equivalent to a morganatic marriage and that Cabinet refuser the request. It any ultimatum followed it must have come from His Majesty and not from the Ministers, since Cabinet has clearly no power to force the King ■ to abdicate. Indeed, no law altering the succession to the Throne would be valid without statutory confirmation by all the Parliaments of the Dominions. The Ministers may tender advice to the King and :f it is refused they may resign, but there is no precedent for such a crisis as the present one on a personal ■issue. The King is not required to take the advice of his Ministers on the question of his marriage, but if lie made an unpopular choice the House of Commons might take the extreme course of refusing supplies. At the moment all the "efforts of those immediately concerned in the discussions seem to be aimed ,at the sole object of postponing an irrevocable decision and gaining time for a fuller consideration of the issues. The "Otago Daily Times" said the marriage which His proposes to ' contract is cue of a description that has not been known in British history for more than four centuries. It is widely felt that it would not .be a suitable mar-riao-c. The objection to it is not based on "the fact that the lady happens to be an American. There might be no substance in any such objection. But this lady-has'already had two husbands, fi-om each of whom she has obtained a divorce. Tlie first divorce was secured in an American court upon a ground that does not constitute a justification under the Briti.ih law for a dissolution of the marriage tie. The second divorce was obtained on evidence of a kind which, because it is so often suggestive of a collusive divorce, the British courts o-enerally view with suspicion. The elevation of a lady with antecedents such as those of this lady to the rank and dignity of Que&n would affront a powerful section of the British peoples throughout the Empire. The prestige of the British Throne has been raised to a , level which, to the pride of British peoples everywhere, has made it incoinparably the most .illustrious and tlie 1 most free from the breath of scandal ill I the whole world.