A Royal Betrothal

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21256, 30 August 1934, Page 8

A Royal Betrothal

The announcement of the betrothal of Prince George to Princess Marina, daughter of Prince and Princess Nicolas of Greece, will be received with pleasure throughout the Empire, no less in those parts of it in which he has yet to make himself personally known than in those where his duty and his kindness have familiarised him to the eye and fixed his place in the heart of the people. This pleasure, to the petty sort of cynics, may seem ridiculous. Those who think more wisely and widely will know that it springs naturally from the same deep sources as the loyal affection which supports the Throne and is, at last, the Empire's sole unchangeable bond and security. The Statute of Westminster is a form of words in which, in one sense or another, jurists find the system of the British Empire set forth. But the life in the system, the fact which makes it organic,"is nowhere mentioned in the statute, but only assumed. That is the peculiar strength of the monarchy, which is as clearly attested by popular interest in the marriage of a prince as by devotion to his reigning parents. Prince George's betrothal will not, perhaps, be considered as such affairs once used to be, as of first-rate international importance. It will not be made the subject of inferences about the swing of foreign policy this way or that, or about the possibility of fresh treaties and alliances. Royalty has won a certain freedom of its own, i while it has seen freedom widen about it. But if this means that

Prince George's forthcoming marriage is without the speculative, political importance of older times, it means also that it is one in which his personal happiness is more completely engaged and in which the good wishes of the people may follow him as confidently as they do freely. New Zealand will regret only that their warmth cannot so soon be directly shown to him as his projected tour would have allowed.