Fiftieth birthday today of the Queen

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34133, 21 April 1976, Page 6

Fiftieth birthday today of the Queen

(By

PATRICK MASSEY,

through N.Z.PA.)

LONDON, April 20. As she turns the age of 50 tomorrow, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth can look back on a reign in which her monarchy has held intact through upheavals that might have toppled a weaker throne.

In the 24 years since she came to the Throne, the Queen has seen the downfall of many a foreign monarchy, from Egypt’s King Farouk to King Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. During that time the British Empire has been dismantled, the national treasure has drained away and economic crisis in Britain has become almost a way of life.

With her public air of slightly puzzled benevolence, the Queen has watched the land she knew as a girl transformed by social revolution and political flux. Through it all, in the opinion of most commentators, she has emerged with unblemished prestige. Even on the radical Left, it is hard to find any sustained criticism of the way she performs her role. The arrival of the Queen’s 50th birday inevitably renewed speculation that she might, before long, abdicate and pass the Crown to her 27-year-old son and heir, Prince Charles.

The Queen herself has given no public sign of having any such move in mind. In the view of some regular Royal observers, the Queen would prefer to wait until the Prince is married and possibly well into his 30s before handing over. The “New Statesman,” a leading Left-wing weekly, pronounced this a good idea. ‘The Prince will make a mor’ risk-free monarch if he comes to the Throne only after reaching the age of discretion and in the fullness of time,” the magazine said. The greatest risk a British Monarch could run would be to betray any hint of political partiality. Since the days of Queen Victoria the Crown has progressively withdrawn from any real political role. Nowadays the Monarch could be called on to exercise political discretion only in some rare constitutional crisis.

The Queen herself has displayed no trace of political preference. Her tastes in almost every other field are similarly masked from the public, apart from letting it be known that she likes dogs, horses, life in the country and watching television.

So far as fashion is concerned, the Queen contrives a neutral style which falls well behind the current modes without looking frumpish. In the changing social climate she is subjected to music hall jokes and satirical magazine discussion in a manner that would not have been thought acceptable in the early days of her reign. Most of the jokes concentrate on her lack of public animation and the bland tone of her speeches from which all provocative comment is excluded. Prince Charles, too, mostly confines his public utterances to such subjects as the desirability of more school playing fields and preservation of the countryside.

The Prince's most controversial recent remark was an admission that he did not think highly of the Women’s Liberation movement. His sister, Princess Anne, lets her comments range over a slightly larger field, ranging from advocacy of fox-hunting to denunciation of press photographers. The 25-year-old Princess cheerfully attends theatre shows which would have been banned as obscene in her mother’s younger days. Even among regular critics of Royalty as an institution, it is rare to hear any complaint about the Queen herself. In her public demeanour she lacks any trace of regal arrogance. Patiently she moves through public ceremonies with a dignified attentiveness touched with a trace of diffidence.

One occasion on which the Queen risks a measure of public disapproval is when the keepers of the Palace purse apply for more Treasury funds to prevent inflation dimming the splendour of the Royal style. This usually brings demands for a reduction in the number of Royal Palaces

and the servants who work in them. Discussing this, the “New Statesman” said: “What she cannot keep up with is inflation which threatens not so much the Royal living standards as that of the monstrous regiment. of old Etonians and liveried flunkeys who infest the Monarch’s inhabitation.”

: Throughout her reign the Queen has never completely ’ shed the slight aura of mys- ’ tique which her advisers ret gard as still essential to ; healthy maintenance of the } Crown. She has never emuJ lated the informality of ; bicfcle-riding Monarchs in other parts of Europe.

The ! ‘New Statesman” commented that the condition of other Royal houses demonstrated that "in an egalitarian age, riding bicycles is not enough.”