Facts of King Edward’s Personality

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 139, 7 March 1936, Page 18

Facts of King Edward’s Personality

4 4 y E turn to our new ruler,” says Mr. John Drinkwater, writing % W / in the "Evening Standard,” “with confident homage. In a la/a / speech he once said : V V “ ’The Crown stands above all distinctions of country, race and party, and serves to make a unity wherein all such differences are transcended. - “ ‘lf some day it should fall to my lot to assume that high responsi bility, 1 trust I may be found worthy of it.’ . "We. who are now his subjects, are accustomed to the note from another voice. With no less faith than it then stirred in us we look unitedly to his leadership.” "If the candour of the Prince of Wales was not crystal-clear he might at times have been suspected of something like studied shyness.’ writes .Sir George Arthur in the "Evening News” of London. "Hew to reconcile, otherwise, it might be thought, the delicate fingers adjusting the perfectly-tied tie on public occasions, the little nervous laugh, the anxiety to escape from the photographer’s searchlight, with the perfectlybalanced phrases, the steadily-marshalled thoughts, the entire clarity of diction which mark his speeches, whether delivered us an ambassador of Empire, as the guest of honour at a great banquet, or as the host at a rollicking farmers’ dinner? But the explanation' is not difficult to find. "Eager and impetuous as the Prince may seem, he is seldom if ever propelled l-y sudden impulse or swayed by strong emotion. Tlie spoken word, no less than the kindly act. is always of set purpose and deliberate intent, ami the l’";le tricks which suggest embarrassment or hesitation in oratory are wholly superficial, though never in any sort artificial, while wholly genuine is the ripple of pleasure which obviously washes over the speaker when a trenchant remark has gone home or n friendly jest has not miscarried." "Since he is a bachelor,” says Mr. G. Ward Price in the “Daily Mail," "the new King will have no successor to that title of Prince of Wales

by which he is so well known throughout the world. The question of marriage is one upon which he has always been adamant. "His public duties he is prepared to fulfil without stint, but from the first he has maintained that the question of marriage is a personal and private one for his own decision, since the succession to the Throne is well provided for by his brothers and their children. "It is a •well-known story how he himself summed up his own career in a retort to the remark once shouted to him by someone in a crowd: ‘There goes one of the idle rich 1’ which received the quick reply, ‘Rich, if you like. imt. hang it all, not idle! ” “Onlooker,” in the “Daily Mail,” tells the following;— “The Prince hud been inspecting some new workmen’s dwellings in Newcastle, and suddenly asked, ‘Can’t I see some of the places these people ci.me from?’ “The Prince went into one of the squalid tenements alone. When be came out he remarked that he had-seen slums'in other cities, but never one so bad. Then, three days later, he referred to his visit to that shun dwelling again. ’The air in there was so bad,’ he .said, ‘that I lit a cigarette, and there is one tiling that worries me—l forgot to ask the woman living I here if she minded my smoking. Ido hope her feelings were not hurt by realising that I could not stand the atmosphere.’ “The Prince lias a capacity for caustic comment if lie thinks that ’unity or pushfulness calls for it. Once, inspecting a new Roman Catholic school, lie complimented the priest in charge on its arrangements and asked what it had cost. ‘Fifteen pounds per pupil,' was the reply. “ 'I could show your Royal Highness a finer school that we have inst built which cost £4O per pupil,’ intervened u local mayor who was present. “ ‘Really?’ replied the Prince. ‘lt makes you wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to spend the difference on education, doesn't it?’ ”