The Dominion THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1922. THE ROYAL WEDDING

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 134, 2 March 1922, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1922. THE ROYAL WEDDING

0 Many good reasons are to be found for the enthusiasm awakened in Great Britain and throughout the Empire by the marriage of Princess Mary to an Englishman, the man of her own unfettered choice. It has been said justly , that the wedding is an event of Imperial significance. It breaks a tradition of old standing under which the King’s daughter, instead of remaining at home among her own folk, would have married a foreign Prince, and become thereby an exile from the country of her birth; but such traditions are well broken. In all British countries, hearts will be touched by Princess Mary’s expression of thankfulness that she is remaining in her own native land. There is no exaggeration in the statement that an Empire-wide moral is contained in this unstudied expression of human thankfulness. The new and broadened outlook which has made it possible for Princess Mary to enter on her married life in conditions allowing free play to natural good feeling 'and love of country is of deep significance as it bears on the expanding life of the nation. The marriage of an English Princess to an Englishman means, it may be hoped, that so far as the British Empire is concerned the days when Royal marriages were regarded as a means of forming or strengthening foreign alliances are finally at an end. This, indeed, is to be taken for granted. The wedding of the Princess makes its strongest appeal to public sentiment throughout the Empire in helping to bring home the fact that the British Monarchy is in the most definite sense a national institution owing nothing to> outworn traditions or external associations. In British countries an appreciation of the place the Monarchy occupies in the life of the nation has been immensely quickened by war and after-war events. Awakened to a new sense of individual responsibility, the self-governing States of the Empire have found 'in common loyalty to the Throne the means of preserving Imperial unity and maintaining an Imperial outlook. As it stands to-day, not merely unshaken, but strengthened, by the developments which in other countries have overthrown dynasties and emptied Thrones, the British Monarchy is a practical expression of what is most effective in the political genius of the nation. With a Monarchy thus constituted, any justification that ever existed for requiring members of the Royal Family to enter into matrimonial alliances with members of foreign dynasties has completely disappeared. The perpetuation of this custom would not only be repugnant to national sentiment, but would imply a false conception of the relationship between the Monarchy and the nation. Its • abandonment is from every point of view a matter for congratulation.

While the marriage of Princess Mary to an Englishman has its bearing on the unfolding political life of the Empire, it is approved not least on account of the regard inspired by her charming personality and the earnest desire she has shown to forward social movements and better the lot of those who stand most in need of help. People all over the Empire will share the thankfulness the Princess has herself expressed that she is remaining in her own native land, and will whole-heartedly wish her joy and happiness in her married life.