PUBLIC REACTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 128, 1 June 1937, Page 7

PUBLIC REACTS.

DUKE'S ISOLATION.

Change of Feeling Following

Abdication.

WRITER'S PLEA FOR CHARITY.

LOXDOX, May 28.

The isolation of the Duke of Windsor from the Royal Family and the Church of England is becoming more marked as his marriage to Miss Wallis Warfield approaches, writes George Malcolm Thompson, in the "Daily Express." Xo members of the Royal Family will be present at the wedding; those in Royal employment who have been invited will not attend; and the Church of England has forbidden one of its priests to attend the ceremony for the purpose of blessing the married pair. It is obvious, writes Mr. Thompson, that such a situation raises a chain of questions in tlie public mind. "Will tlie ban bring a reaction in tlie Duke's favour, or is the Duke too unpopular for it to arouse public resentment?" his article goes on. "Is the Duke really unpopular? The Duke is unpopular. Indeed, lie may be forgiven his bewilderment as he looks at the chilly, unfamiliar world and remembers the frenzied plaudits of last year. "It may be said that the Duke, by stepping from the Throne, forfeited the adulation aioug with tlie limelight. Cheers were Dne of the perquisites of his office. But we have not accounted for the active character of his unpopularity. For that there are two outstanding reasons. "The first is the wave of purity which condemns his marriage to a woman twice divorced, although she was twice the innocent party. "It would be a mistake to regard this Puritan sentiment as something engineered, something insincere. "There is in the British people a persistent vein of moral earnestness which, lias both good and less good aspects. There is no way of coping with it. Public Element of Resentment. '"Secondly, there is tlie accusation that the Duke turned his back on the high duties for which his birth and long training had prepared him, and by so doing had "let down' the whole show. There is indeed in the bitterness with which the Duke is regarded by many of the public an element of resentment. Against that there can be no argument. "There are those who set against his duty as inheritor of the Throne his duty to himself as a human being, with a claim to happiness. In what balance are we to weigh one duty or the other? "There is no doubt that an immense portion of the public was influenced, either by a surge of puritan feeling or by condemnation of his failure of duty, or both. '"So powerful and sweeping were these influences that they destroyed, almost at a blow, the Duke's popularity. Was there no source from which it might be hoped the Duke could offset this disapproval ? "In his farewell broadcast the Duke spoke of "the woman I love.' This must have made an appeal to almost every woman in the land. Yet one of the * curious features of this romantic factor is that it failed completely to carry i any weight with the public. Why? Miss Warfield does not make any appeal to popularity. If the public could have envisaged her in the role of Cinderella, their romantic impulses might have been stimulated. Responsibility for Marriage. '"But there were disabilities. Miss Warfield was not a young girl and she had already had two romances. This is the situation in which limitations were I imposed oil the Duke's marriage ceremony, apparently with the approval of ! the public. "The decision that 110 member of the Royal Family should be present seems harsh, and must inevitably convey a sense of ostracism. But that decision springs from a desire to avoid responsibility for the marriage. It is a decision on ]>olicy which can be condemned only by those who are prepared to say that Royalty should assume responsibility for the marriage. "There is another question. What is to be the future status of the Duke of Windsor? The CJovernment would not include him in the Civil List, although they are parties to tlie arrangement under which the King gives him a grant. ""It was infinitely to l>e preferred that he should get it openly and directly from the State, in which case he would be a paid Civil Servant, like tlie Dukes of < Jloucester and Kent, with a recognised. useful function. That would be better than a mere dole with no duties. "The Duke of Windsor made a 1 mistake. He has been guilty of misunderstandings, but should not his unpopularity be tempered by another sentiment? Is there no place for the practice of that c-herishable virtue of charity?" GIFTS EXAMINED. y FREEDOM FROM DANGER. Hi (Received 12 noon.) t LOXDOX. May 31. I Examination of all wedding parcels t addressed to the Duke of Windsor or his n bride, to ensure freedom from personal danger, is conducted by the Duke's equerry. Mr. Dudley Forwond. states [ s the Tours correspondent of the "Daily I Mirror."