The Press MONDAY, MAY 6, 1935. The King's Jubilee

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21465, 6 May 1935, Page 10

The Press MONDAY, MAY 6, 1935. The King's Jubilee

Many who watch the Jubilee procession in London to-day will be able to go back in memory to the Jubilees of 1887 and 1397; and even a superficial comparison of the three ceremonies will enable them to draw some very interesting conclusions about the development of the British monarchy. The central feature of the procession of 1887 was the brilliant bodyguard of Princes: sons, sons-in-law, grandsons, and cousins of the Queen, drawn from every court in Europe. At the Diamond Jubilee celebrations 10 years later the gathering of Royalties was even more spectacular and the military character of the procession even more pronounced; but a new and incongruous note was struck by the presence of a small group of blackcoated citizens. These were the Prime Ministers of the self-govern-ing Dominions, and their presence marked an important development in the functions and significance of the Crown. It cannot be said, however, that the importance of the development was fully comprehended then or m the next decade. Thougn Queen Victoria, thanks to the schooling of Disraeli, seems to have had some inkling of the possibilities of the Crown as an Imperial link, she remained, even in her last years, more interested in the doings of her cousins in Berlin and St. Petersburg than in the doings of her Ministers iin the Dominions. For various reasons there was little change in the years immediately following her death. The new King's education had been so much dominated by the Prince Consort, and he spent so much time in the company of his relatives in other courts, that it was only natural that he should become a European rather than an Imperial figure. Moreover, when he came to the Throne" the threat of war in Europe already constituted the British Government's main anxiety and the Foreign Office assiduously encouraged his visits to European capitals in the hope that they would ease the tension. But if King Edward's interest in the Empire was not very keen, his reaction against the narrow bookishness of his education was an important factor in preparing his son for the duties of an Imperial kingship. When he came to the Throne King George had never paid an official visit to a European capital and knew little oi European politics. On the other hand, he had seen 15 years service in the navy, had risen to the command of a battle cruiser, had written a memorandum on the pulicing of the seas which became part of the Fisher programme, and had visited India, Australia, Mew Zealand, and Canada. From first he showed no inclination to use his personal influence in European courts; his energies were directed towards making the Crown what a New Zealand Prime Minister so happily called it in 1917, " the kcy- " stone of the Imperial arch." The extent of the constitutional change which has taken place in the status of the Crown in the last 25 years is not sufficiently appreciated. Mr Duncan Hall, a Canadian constitu- I tional theorist, wrote in 1920: |

i At a moment when republicanism ! is steadily overthrowing the thrones I of Europe, the British monarchy not only stands firm, but actually seems to increase in prestige. But it is not really the British monarchy 1 which is increasing in prestige: left ! to itself it might not have survived i more than another generation. What j is increasing in prestige is the Im- | penal Crown, an institution from • which the British monarchy is quite distinct-in theory, but with the fortunes of which it is indissolubly united, by reason of the fact that the two institutions meet together in the body of a single person. The position of the Crown as a great bond uniting a society of free republics is, indeed, one of the most remarkable features of modern times.

Mr Hall's view that a purely British monarchy would have little chance of survival is very questionable, and possibly he would now be prepared to revise it. But h-> view that the Crown has been an important influence in creating the British Commonwealth of Nations, and that in its turn the British Commonwealth has added to the prestige and security of the Crown, is undoubtedly correct. It is important to remember that the emergence of the Imperial Crown is a development of the last 25 years, and that it is due in a 1 very large measure to the wisdom [and practical knowledge of the preI sent King. In the sphere of politics the King's freedom of action has become so severely circumscribed by constitutional conventions that many of his subjects tend to regard tiie monarchy more as a symbol than as an active force. Yet although King George lias always been j scrupulous in his regard for thesej conventions, it is apparent, when j the history of the Empire in the j last 25 years is considered, that his record has been one of creation and achievement. He has worked so quietly and so patiently that the sum i of his achievement tends to p'ass unnoticed. Not the least of the benefits uf the celebrations which beijin today will be a quickened appreciation by the British people of what they owe, not merely to the Crown, but to the present King. The disintegration of the Imperial constitution, which began after the war and reached its final stage in the Statute of Westminster, might easily have meant the disintegration of the Empire. As it happened, the Empire held together because, in proportion as the power of the British Parliament over the Parliaments of the Dominions decreased, the direct connexion between the Crown and the (Dominions became stronger. There was no inevitability about the proC("=« The nnwi«Hnni' nf a King de-

stroyed the first British Empire; and it is mainly the wisdom of a King that has preserved the second British Empire. In an address to the peoples of the Empire broadcast on Christmas Eve his Majesty asked to be regarded "as in some true " sense the head of this great and " widespread family, sharing in its "life and sustained by its affections." The Jubilee celebrations will, it must be hoped, show his Majesty that what he wishes to be so is indeed so.