THE PRINCE OF WALES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3131, 21 August 1922, Page 2

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

(Uy Sir Philip Gibbs).

WHAT HE TYPIFIES.

Fine weather, the beautiful countryside. the fixed belief that they are pulling away from the black days, buoy Tip the British with more optimism than I have know among them during i,ho last two years. They are getting the holiday spirit and don’t want to bo bothered with serious problems, such as future war or international finance. . „ The homecoming of the 1 mice of Wales is one cause of cheerfulness and satisfaction to all classes in English life; to foreigners it may seem absurd to say the return of the Boy Prince should bo a source of happiness and peace of mind to millions of humble men and women in mean streets and small villages who have never seen him. Yet 1 think it is true that just this welcome back to the Prince who lias been travelling in the Far East, lias uplifted the spirit of men going to city offices and women putting their children to bed, young girls tapping over typewriters—all manner of men and women of high and low degree. One may scoff at that as exactly the sentiment of the British people for royalty, or jeer at it as the sob instinct of race. But I think there is more in it than that. The Prince ot Wales by his name and title stands certainly for the old traditions of splendor, power, romance, which belonged for centuries to British folk and «aiuiot be forgotten so long as they read the plays of Shakespeare, the chronicles of Froissart and the hero of old tales of their history. Those traditions seemed threatened lately. The Prince himself on this journey of his to India and the. East has had to face threats dangerous to his life and menacing to the Empire. There were times lately when ugly messages, or at least messages containing hints of sinister happenings, came from the correspondents in Indian cities so that people at home were afraid of “accidents” to that boy who went unarmed except by a cheery smile through cities in revolt. Reading between the lines there was not, a soul in England who did not realise that rebellion on a great scale in India was possible, that the loss of India would be the beginning of the breaking up of the Empire itself. With Ireland demanding a republic, fighting murderously between North and South; with England drained in blood and treasure after the enormous devastating warfare, there was apprehension that the old tradition of power which gathered round the name of the Prince of Wales in history might be passing, like so many other things, in the aftermath of Armageddon. Those thoughts, vague and unconscious in the popular mind, account not a little for the sigh of relief that comes from the British people because lie came back again without hurt and left behind him good will wherever he went in his jauntv way. But more than that is in the persona! manner which calls out vast crowds to greet Vivm. He, in n particular way, is our own hoy. Ho represents in the searchlight thrown on him in his supreme youth those very qualities of boyhood which all the world loves. He is the very type of all those legions of English boys who went out to war in France and I*Hinders, as he went with them. It he were better than they he would not lie liked half so well. If he were nobler he would not be so much in the home circle of people’s hearts. It might he good for the Untish Empire if he were a brainy, studious youth like Queen Victoria s 1 nme Consort, hut nobody suspects the Prince of Wales of being passionately devoted to scholarship. _ He might he of an exalted spiritual type, earnestly engaged in the prayer that he may fulfil his high destinv and lead his people to a now light/But one look at the cheery lace in street or movies is enough to dispel any idea like that. He is not intensely spiritual or in any way exalted/ He is always ready to give place to a pretty girl, he is keen at any kind of outdoor game. He is euoimously bored with the ceremony and ritual ol royalty. . , lie fidgets about on Ins feet when he is called upon to make a speech, he blushes like a schoolgirl when any solemn homage is paid tii mm, be savs “Hell” in an undertone when ms boredom becomes intolerable. 'hit he isn’t in the very least bored when there is something to laugh at. something to see, something with since oi usk He is a second lieutenant, “the mm pip child,” as we called his type in the war He has a touch of the nava middy about »m which is a very good touch. He is breezy, lull ol pluck, out for a lark every time. He is a hov. And lie is to every mothei ot men in England, every lather o sodier sous, just one of those lads, thou 1 hv chance Prince of them, who I ought the Flanders mud, keeping up us best might he, though their youth was cut down in sheaves. . I saw him out there many times, l saw him when he first came out, with one star, or “pip.” mi *"* shouldci ctrap I remember one day when lie law * his first battle. It was an affair below Mean ties Ridge in B>lo, when oui 'Minpower was very weak, before it became very strong, and our men. defended onlv by shrapnel, had to advance to the German trenches nuclei hiidi explosives. The Prince came up a little hill called Bhcrpeuherg, which was crowded with generals watching the attack under the shadow of an old windmill. i . i n As a simple lieutenant he saluted all those high officers, who just nodded hack to him ; hut I thought then, and think now, it would have made a good picture. For Edward Prince of Wales ivas standing on ground where once stood another Prince of Wales, live hundred years before, and not tar from the ground where Henry—alstalt s prince of Wales—advanced to the battle of Agincourt on St. Crispin’s Day. Afterwards 1 saw the Prince in queer places, where is was not at all sale to ho. He used to motor around with a hunch of young Guards officers and leave Ins car under shelter oi a hit of ruin, thou go walking into places “taped out,” as v.c called it, by the German gunners no health resorts. One day as we walked into Hie dirty ruin called Vermelles. one ol the unholicst spots on the British front, a high explosive shell came along am blew his chauffeur’s head oil. Obit didn’t stop his adventures in shell hit. Orders !rum home came, hut he played truant maiiv times for the front line stunt. When the King came out the second time the Prince went on Messines Ridge, which was just captured, and when the Germans started their usual morning hate the Prince was wandering around a patch ot earth which was unpleasantly within their line of lire. He didn’t stop, ho didn’t show by the flicker of an eyelid that this shell lire disturbed his peace of mind; be prodded around foi relics of (uvrman occupation. There was a dav at the Iront when he was deeply disturbed. It was when the King was thrown from Ins horse, and dropped in the greasy mud of a Flanders field during a review of the Guards. He was standing immediately opposite the King when he fell under

the horse, and when he was picked up by Generals, who ran to him, he looked badly hurt, as indeed he was. 1 saw him carried away in an ambulance next day like an orduugy casualty, and there were only a lev who knew how ill he was. For a little while the young Prince of Wales, who s-uv the shadow of the crown creeping upon him, was desperately anxious. l Hc was no mere joy rider at the trout or onlooker at other men's service tic held a job with the Guards, given him in the Quartermasters' Dctpartmcntj, and did it very well. I heard him mice ordering supplies. He afwajs had a S"or his fellow-officers, and one day toward the end of the war when dynasties were falling like a pack of cards he came down to breakfast in the Guards' mess with the cheery remark "Well, gentlemen, crowns aie tneap to Since"then he is older in years, and knowledge, responsibilities have sharpened the lines on his face He is not always in the merry mood or boyish-ness-"ho has been touched by the greatproblems which he had already had to face There is steel in him, as well as a laughing spirit. He is learning Hie duality of command, as well as comradeship. T have written about him because this boy, the Prince of Wales, is to some extent typic, the symbol ot that English youth which will be called upon to face the unknown future, not without many lurking perils ill its mvstery, not without a challenge to the supremacy of the race, but lull ot promise if British youth plays up to its chances, going ahead With courage, nob afraid to change to the new ideas, yet not forgetting the heritage ot the old past, with its quality and character of adventure. Foreigners may think this "Prince stuff" hopelessly out ot date, but they cannot understand England if they don't see m this periodical homage of people to the "leading boy" a sentiment bound up with old romance and history, intensified by the. character of that lad who is not extraordinary or "endowed with unusual qualities," but is most liked because he is as ordinary, natural and jolly as the best type of boy produced by "British stock.