The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1953. CORONATION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27055, 2 June 1953, Page 6

The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 1953. CORONATION

In an article in the approved Coronation programme Arthur Bryant, the historian, remarks that the Queen is the symbol both of a union in time and of a union in space. She is descended from a long line of those who have represented the unity of their country through every hour of its history; the Queen descends from every House which has occupied the Throne of England, from Wessex, Godwin, Normandy, Blois and Anjou, to the Tudors, Stuarts, and the Hanoverians. She is the symbol, as the oft-quoted preamble of the Statute of Westminster runs, “of the free association of the “British Commonwealth”—a great union embracing all the earth’s five continents. In London at the present time there are direct associations with both symbols. The actual place of the Coronation, Westminster Abbey, has a history of 900 years behind it; when Queen Elizabeth II is crowned in Westminster Abbey it will be the thirtyeighth Coronation of a reigning Sovereign to have taken place at Westminster since the Norman Conquest, and the twenty-eighth to have taken place within the existing Abbey church; the service which will be used in the Coronation descends directly from the service used at the Coronation of King Edgar at Bath in 973; some of the words of the Coronation service have come down unaltered from the time of William the Conqueror, if not earlier. Statesmen from the eight sovereign nations which form the Commonwealth and representatives from some 40 Colonial territories now gathered in London express in their persons the unity in space that the Queen symbolises. Also, among ..the crowds assembled in London to see Queen Elizabeth II go in procession to and from her Coronation there will, it is safe to say, be ordinary people from every one of the Queen’s realms. Dedication to Service

The Coronation rites by which the Queen of a world-embracing Commonwealth will be crowned are derived from a purely English tradition; indeed, in origin they do not even belong to all England, but to Wessex, a few Anglo-Saxon shires south of the Thames. The ancient forms are used with larger significance today; and the Queen is crowned for the whole Commonwealth and for all the Queen’s realms by the head of the Church of England. As the Archbishop of Canterbury has said, the Church of the English People, which was the “Ecclesia Anglican*” before there was a nation, acts “for all the “ peoples of Kingdom and Common“wealth, consecrates the Queen, by “ prayer and sacrament in the name “of God, to her lifelong service”. That the Queen’s must be a life of service, none will deny. Few who participate in the Coronation ceremony, directly or indirectly, will contemplate without emotion the thought of the young woman who dedicates herself to a life of unremitting duty. Those privileged by office and rank to pledge themselves at the Coronation to the service of the Queen will speak for millions of others who, though far away, will be no less determined to reciprocate the devotion to her people’s welfare which the Queen has already shown to be her guiding principle.

Since a queen last sat on the Throne, the monarchy has experienced the heavy stresses of changing times and circumstances. It has

survived them, triumphantly, through years when most other thrones have fallen. The credit is due in no small measure to succeeding monarchs who have accepted the conception of popular monarchy, and adapted themselves to it—at considerable personal cost If the brief reign ot King Edward VIH did nothing more, it illustrated the high personal price of popular monarchy, which King Edward Vm judged to be too high. The role of monarch is now concerned as much with the social as with the political structure. As Bagehot wrote in 1867, “We have come to “regard the Crown as the head of “ our morality and as Arthur Bryant says when he extends Bagehot’s theme to present times, “The Queen does not only sym“bolise our political union. She “symbolises our ideals. She repre“sents in her person the abiding “virtues—of hearth, home and of “ service—which are the foundation “of society”. Amid changing values, the Crown has become the symbol of stable values. The modern concept of monarchy imposes an extraordinarily heavy burden on the Royal Family; but by accepting the concept and developing it, the occupants of the Throne since Queen Victoria—most notably in the personal contributions of King George V and King George VI —have made the monarchy indeed become, far more widely than when Bagehot wrote, “the head of our “ morality ”, The Unseen Millions

When the first Elizabeth was crowned, it was the Coronation of the Sovereign of one nation. The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II is the Coronation of the Sovereign of many nations; and in this age of broadcasting and television more of the Crown’s subjects than ever before in the Commonwealth and throughout the Queen’s realms will share closely in the ceremonies. Millions will hear descriptions of the processions, the pageantry, and the solemn ritual and service. Even the Monarch’s responses to questions

and exhortations will be heard by people throughout the world whose clocks are chiming different hours from those of Big Ben. Thousands whose television receivers are within range will see the pageantry of the processions and some of the ceremonial in the Abbey itself. The sense of direct participation that is possible in this age of broadcasting was effectively expressed by a foreign journalist who was present in Westminster Abbey at the Coronation of King George VI. The journalist sensed the presence of unseen millions: “When the Arch- “ bishop of Canterbury placed the “ Crown on the King’s head, it was “ as though the hands of millions of “ British subjects throughout the "world held it”. Without doubt, the universality of the ceremony will be felt by the principal figure. The Queen’s father, King George VI, when he broadcast after his Coronation, said: “I felt this morn- “ ing that the whole Empire was in “very truth gathered within the “ walls of Westminster Abbey ”. On more than one occasion the Queen has said that she sees her office as a pact between herself and her people. The Queen’s will not be a lonely task if those to whom she dedicates herself are equally resolved to serve her. No-one doubts that the Queen to be crowned today will add to all the accumulated traditions of the past a distinct contribution of her own—perhaps giving to the whole world a new and significant conception of the place which the monarch may occupy in the modern State.