Noble qualities passed down the generations?

Press, 24 April 1984, Page 38

Noble qualities passed down the generations?

NZPA-PA London Inherited qualities of mind and body which made the kings, princes, and dukes of historic times are still at work in their descendants, producing the presidents of modem democratic states, according to Burke’s “Peerage.” That is why it is considering having a section on the royal and noble ancestry of present national leaders in the forthcoming edition of the “Peerage,” says Harold Brooks-Baker, Burke’s publishing director. “We have already established links between several modem leaders and kings of the past,” he said. “The apostles of equality of today will probably condemn me as a fascist for saying this, but the genes which produced the really first-rate leaders of the past must have been handed down, ready to produce first-rate people of today. “They are still likely to come out on top, even if hampered by democratic processes which, generally, tend to choose the second-

rate to lead us. It is high time that Americans, French, and others with royal links appeared in what is the most select record of the aristocracy.” Recent research by Burke’s genealogists into President Reagan’s ancestry, in connection with his Irish tour, has turned up links with past Irish royalty. Another president thought to have an impeccable aristocratic ancestry is Francois Mitterrand, the Socialist French President. “It would be fascinating, if we were allowed to do so, to research Gregorii Romanov, one of the contenders for the succession to President Chernenko of the Soviet Union,” said Mr Brooks-Baker. “He comes from Leningrad, formerly St Petersburg, the capital in Tsarist times. He could be even more of a Romanov than the last, rather futile Tsars — who were probably bastard descendants of Catherine, a German, not by her Romanov husband but by her lovers.”

Plans are well under way to republish Burke’s “Peerage” next year, the first edition since 1970. It had been thought it might never be published again, because of the cost of revising it with all the births and deaths since then. Modern technology has come to the rescue. It is all being done by computer. “There are 30,000 names of living people in Burke’s,” said Lord Erroll, Burke’s own noble computer programmer, “and at least 10 times as many dead. It has by far the biggest character list of any book published. Even the dead have to be checked and revised occasionally but, of course it is the living, who die, and the new living, freshly born, who cause us the work. “Once you could rely on an army of low-paid Bob Cratchits to do the job, but not now. Instead we have worked out a programme which enables us to punch any changes straight into the computer store of the whole of Burke’s, so at any moment it is ready to be set

electronically in type. It is there for ever, always up-to-date and could be published annually if we wished.” Lord Erroil, named Merhn after the Arthurian wizard, has been a professional practitioner of the modem wizardry of computers for eight years. He Has a rare distinction among British nobility of out-ranking his own father, Sir lain Moncreiffe of that Hk, a mere baronet. He is the twenty-fourth Earl and the twenty-eighth hereditary Lord High Constable of Scotland, titles which descended to him through his mother. The future of Burke’s has been assured by a £500,000 ($NZl,085,000) investment by Ravendale Bexfund Two, an approved business expansion scheme. “Burke’s, now 150 years old, is set for at least another 150 years and could outlast the House of Lords itself — if Labour has its way,” said Mr BrooksBaker.