RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 101, 23 January 1936, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

King Edward the Eighth

(By

Kickshaws.)

Once upon a time there was a young prince who was voted by everyone a jolly good fellow and a thorough sport. This prince danced and rode and went to night clubs and travelled and became known as “Britain’s Smiling Ambassador” and “the Prince of Sales.” His wistful smile was something to be talked about. That same prince is now King Edward VIII of England. In the interval between the times mentipjned and yesterday a change has come over the Prince who is now our King. One day he was travelling in the northern part of his father’s realm. He displayed a troublesome habit of giving his bodyguard the slip in order to have a look at some mining cottages with his own eyes. When his retinue found him deep in earnest conversation with a miner they turned upon him with horror. The Prince retorted: “I wanted to see things for myself.” That is the Prince who is now King of England. For the last ten years he has being seeing things for himself. He has got behind the varnish which usually covers all things that a princely heir is permitted to see. Everywhere he has been seeing things and speaking his mind.

It took several years before people realised that the Prince who wanted tc see things for himself was a different Prince. Just in case there were still some people who did not realise that the new Prince appreciated the tremendous responsibilities that lay ahead and the fact that they would be approached in the modern manner, the Prince harangued the great ones to this effect: “To-day we are not the individuals we were in Victorian and Edwardian days. We are now living a life which is far more collective in principle than individualistic.” The new Prince trod the path of reality. Indeed for the last five years the man who is now King of England has been revealed as a reformer. He knows, moreover, what he is talking about, because he has seen things with his own eyes and is not afraid to talk about it. The King of England is a crusader against poverty. As a landlord he has led the way in the battle to eradicate slums. It is not easy for a king to break the shackles of tradition. In this case that occurred when he was Prince of Wales.

King Edward VIII is not a king who is afraid to speak his mind. In this he has something of Queen Victoria in his make up. His Ministers undoubtedly will be confronted with this characteristic. Not long ago he returned from a visit to industrial slumland in his father’s domains. There was no formality about his opinions. “I am appalled that such conditions can exist in a civilised country such as ours,” he said. The unemployed and the workless need have no fear that King Edward VIII is not their friend. He has studied their problems from every angle. He has already inspired the Jubilee Trust Fund to help the children of the unemployed. He roused a gathering of civic dignitaries to emotional fervour at a subsequent conference, when he said, “Let self help go hand-in-hand with mutual service. Let the State do its utmost by political and economic devices, but there is no remedy which will ever replace, or make obsolete, the way of fellowship.” That is what, the King thinks.

This eagerness to see things for himself has at times led the new King of England into many an amusing byway. During tire Great Strike of 1926, he dressed in an old overcoat and cap and, with a muffler round his neck, he set forth to see. things for himself. In the Harrow Road he called in at the police station. "Well, my lads,” said the policeman on duty, to the Prince and his equerry, “What can we do. for you?” “The Prince of Wales,” whispered the equerry. The policeman laughed. “Down the road on the left it is- But you can’t get a drink yet, it wants thirty minutes to opening time.” The man who is now King of England has drunk his mug in the Prince of Wales, he has sat in the modest kitchens of slumlaud, danced with his subjects in their halls, and he visualises u country where squalor will be impossible. Every year for the last ten years he has travelled thou-' sands of miles up and down Britain, seeing, suggesting, and coming back to see that something has been done. He has held out the band of fellowship iu the desolate areas that were especially struck by the slump, he has visited soup kitchens, social centres and the like, and lie lias seen for himself.

Not so long ago the King of England, when Prince of Wales, said: “No good can come to us by only patting ourselves on the back, and we shall celebrate our success only when we have seen and rectified our own faults.’’ One might go further and add that the Prince has never sheltered behind a smoke-screen of Royal etiquette. Indeed. he realises the shortcomings of the traditional etiquette that surrounds his high station. During one journey numerous official's came into the Prince's saloon to haven chat with him. A certain chief of the police was one of the informal visitors. Every time the Prince addressed the police chief he rose from his seat. "For the Lord’s sake,” said the Prince, ’’don’t keep bobbing up and down; you will spill your drink" "I am sorry, sir,” apologised the visitor, "but I am not very familiar with Court etiquette." “Halsey, Halsey 1” called the Prince, “come here—oh, do come here! Here's a man who is not familiar with Court etiquette. He ought to go down on bis knees and thank God.”

Perhaps the greatest unoiiicial honour that has ever been conferred upon King Edward VIII was when the Americans summed him up as a “regular fellow." it is well known that Americans have a blunt way of discussing royalty, both in their spoken word and in their magazines. The fact that he was under fire at an early age and met Hie soldiers fighting England's battles in the front line and in their camps may have had something to do witli this, hi his leisure moments lie is fond of boxing and plays a good game of squash. He is fond of motoring, but prefers driving to being driven by a chauffeur.As Prince of Wales he could be seen in the stalls of any West End picture house enjoying the thrills of the screen. Al home lie admits to a pemfliniit for "thrillers.” hut his grentesi hobby of recent years has been flying. The King of England that can drive his Own car and fly his own aeroplane has had no predecessor. It is indicative of the new era