The Press Monday, November 23, 1925. The Queen Mother.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18546, 23 November 1925, Page 8

The Press Monday, November 23, 1925. The Queen Mother.

There is genuine sorrow in the Empire to-day over the death of Jhe Queen Mother, and it is sorrow unmixed with any baser sentiment. For the. Queen Mother had long ceased to be a political figure, directly or indirectly. Twenty years ago she was a part of the machinery of Government, an active though not obtrusive influence by the side of a remarkable King. When she died she was merely a very old and very weary woman whose work was done. Her Consort had been dead for fifteen years; her son had grown grey on his father's throne; her grandson was thirty years of age, and had become already an international figure. All that was left to her as an individual was the gratitude of a nation and the affection of relatives and friends; nil that remained to her as Queen was the memory of a splendid past. It is true that she continued, almost to the end, to participate in movements the object of which was the alleviation Of suffering. What she did for the sick and wounded in the Great War she went on doing when the war had ended, and it seems safe to say that no other individual in the whole Empire, and perhaps in the whole world, has so far; done so much. For children also, and for dumb animals, she showed a lifelong and active sympathy which was not relaxed even in her very old age. But the fact that good works remained when everything else had been lost, that she remained a real Queen in character and womanly influence to her last day and hour, does not alter the main fact that the person of whom most p'enple will think to-day is the Queen of twenty years ago, if not the Princess of fifty or sixty years ago. They will think of the young girl who came across the seas to attempt the almost impossible task of pleasing a foreign nation. They will think of the mother who lost her son and of the devoted Queen who lost her husband without losing her courage, or her dignity, or her simplicity. They will remember the days when what Alexandra did every English woman either did or wanted to do, so completely had she become English herself and captured the heart of England. And some at least will remember that when King Edward died, and her second great trial began, Alexandra did not- leave England, as so many supposed she might, but remained with the nation that had so completely adopted her, and came through the terrible war with them, and nOw has died among them. It was not perhaps so remarkable that'she captured England when, she was a mere girl, and had Edward by her side, and the aid of her arresting beauty. But it was an astonishing achievement to remain as completely England's after Edward had passed away, and a new generation had grown up, and the mood of England and of the whole Empire had hardened against European marriages as the cause of European entanglements. No one could possibly have achieved that who was not good, and gracious, and sincere in all her ways, and it is the fact that Alexandra achieved it which will keep her longest in the nation's memory.

The Dominions and the Pact.

One of our cable messages to-day says that "a unique and delicate problem "of constitutional etiquette" is exercising Downing Street. Because New Zealand is the only Dominion whose " long and ready acquiescence in Great "Britain's lead'' allows the Imperial Government to presume that it will j ratify the Pact, the Imperial Government is uncertain about inviting the Dominions to attend " the historic "ceremony on December Ist" for the formal signing. The message says that it would be "an anomalous position" if New Zealand were the only Dominion attending. It would certainly be an unusual position, although it would be perfectly correct for New Zealand to attend if New Zealand had already made up its mind to sign. But it is, of course, quite impossible that either New Zealand, Australia, or Canada should have ratified before December Ist, and "anomalous" therefore that any Dominion should attend on December Ist except as an interested spectator ; for the only Dominion in a position to consider the, matter within the next few days is South Africa, and it is quite certain that South Africa will not ratify in haste. But the real anomaly is not the possible presence of one Dominion and not of the others, curious though that would be. It is the fact that Britain herself should be signing without the rest of the Empire, and that we should all be calmly contemplating a situation,' and acquiescing in an urangement, the consequences of which, if we could conceive of its being carried out to its full logical limit, might easily be the wrecking of the Empire. The fact' that our own Government has given the Imperial Government carte blanche to negotiate the Pact has seemed to some people to be a surrender of our new status of separate nationhood. But the alternative to such an attitude would carry us a good deal further in isolation than we desire to go, and it is not at all certain that the other Dominions achieve anything by their more independent attitude except the embarrassment of the Imperial Government. Unless we are prepared to say as Dominions that we shall resist any European agreements, or international commitments of any kind, into which we cannot all enter whole-heartedly, it is really a good deal more anomalous to hold aloof from the Pact than to agree to the Imperial Government's conclusion of it without our active co-operation. Yet it is an extraordinary position in which we now find ourselves all over the Empire as a result of what the Imperial Government has done. Unless we all feel certain in our hearts that we would pull together if trouble ' came, the other

Dominions Lave achieved nothing: but the conclusion ot' an arrangement which either cannot be carried out at all or can be carried out only by dissolving the Empire temporarily, and probably permanently. It is not wise to say or suggest anything alarmist about the Pact. But it is obvious that the Empire remains an Empire only so long as :t holds together in jjeace and in war, and that to conclude an international treaty (possibly involving war) which contemplates or at least permits piecemeal snd not united action, is to risk the Empire's existence. r lhc only safeguard in such a situation surely is that the Imperial Government would not in any circumstances go to war without being assured in advance thafc every .Dominion would be -with it, and that really means that 41 the historic ccre"monv on December Ist" might in certain circumstances turn out to have been a solemn sham. Perhaps that as well as the death of the Queen Mother explains why " the elaborate eeremi.ny •' and programme of festivities ar- (• rajl CTed " ITia y now h 0 abandoned.