The Press WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1935. The King and Foreign Affairs

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21461, 1 May 1935, Page 10

The Press WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1935. The King and Foreign Affairs

M, Maurice Paleoiogue's statement, reported in the cable news, that King George to'id Prince Henry of Prussia in 1913 that Great Britain would come to the assistance of France in the event of a FrancoGerman war, is interesting but almost certainly untrue. For its origin it is 1 probably not necessary to search further than the inability of most Frenchmen to understand the place of the monarchy in the British constitution. There is a persistent legend in France, a legend which has crossed over to England, that the late King Edward played a large part in framing British foreign policy and that his many continental visits were fraught with immense political significance. It can, of course, be admitted that King Edward had a natural leaning towards diplomacy and that when he visited a European capital there was nothing he liked better than long and confidential discussions with Ministers and high officials. Yet Sir Sidney Lee's authoritative biography shows beyond reasonable doubt that tiiese discussions were not nearly as consequential as the newspaper correspondents believed, that in fact King Edward exercised very little influence on the course of European events, and that he did not interfere with his Ministers in the shaping of British foreign policy. Queen Victoria had been a power in British foreign policy because her family connexions with the European courts enabled her to influence the actions of foreign governments. By the time her son -came to the throne democracy had made so much progress on the continent that both the Kaiser and the Tsar were merely puppets in the hands of their governments. There is something almost pathetic in the persistence of King Edward's belief that demonstrations of personal affection between monarchs would bring the governments of the countries concerned closer together. King George, as Mr E. F. Benson points out in a recent number of the " Spectator," has never been under any illusions about his capacity to influence foreign governments and " occupied hi 3 "time for travelling to infinitely " greater advantage by visiting India "with the Queen in 1911 and mag"nificently demonstrating at the " Durbar the power and friendliness "of the Raj." In April, 1914, he went to Paris at the request of his Government to return M. Poincare's visit to London; but when the French President attempted to draw him into a discussion about a proposed naval agreement with Russia, his Majesty merely remarked that it would be necessary to consult Sir George Grey. Two months later the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was murdered in Serajevo; and the King wrote to the Tsar and the Kaiser, his first cousins, urging them to use their influence to promote peace. There is no evidence that he ever attempted to expound or interpret British foreign policy. On the contrary, there is evidence that he invariably refused, in the years immediately preceding the war, to have any political dealings with foreign governments or royalties.