QUEEN AS WIFE AND MOTHER

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 104, 4 May 1935, Page 20

QUEEN AS WIFE AND MOTHER

So closely has Queen Mary associated herself with the work of the King for his Empire that in the minds and hearts of their peoples they are always linked together. When her Majesty, at a recent Empire religious congress, was cited as the true pattern of the Empire's womanhood, the model for all to imitate, that was a tribute which would be truly welcome to her feelings. It is as wife and, mother, as homekeeper, that she, wins her fame.

PATTERN OF EMPIRE'S WOMANHOOD

R has been singular good fortune to the British Empire that, in the life of a generation which has had to pass through the severest strains ever known to civilisation, Doth King and Queen have been standard-bearers for those who believe in duty, in kindliness, in the dignity of honourable work. Those impatiences, fripperies, impertinences, which come like little fevers to vex a people convalescent after a shattering struggle, have never

had any countenance from the Throne. By word and example they have said always—"Steady." THE TRUE BRITANNIA. The homakeeper, first of the Empire's housewives, that chiefly; but as Queen and Empress always a perfect exemplar of grace and dignity. In the spring of 1914 the King ana Queen visited Paris. The impression made by her Majesty on the French people was notable. The "man. (and the woman) in the street" pronounced her "splendid." A * French "artist of note commented to the writer at the Opera gala night: "She is, in very fact. Britannia, your British Queen, absolutely comme il faut." It was the just phrase. .Visiting a foreign Court;. or taking the King's place, as she has been sometimes called upcm to do on a Royal occasion; or sharing with him the ceremonial of the Court of St. James, the Queen shows one aspect of her personality; and: yet another when she is seen as a tender nurse by the bedside of the sick and wounded; as the mother' of a family maintaining an affectionate discipline; as a prudent and thrifty, housekeeper .setting an example of wise management to aIL There are no homes in the Empire more carefully! and decorously ruled than the Royal palaces, and in every detail of their rule-she is'^the guiding spirit r > », <4jp<. i \ WORK DURING WAR. During the World" War the Queen gave devoted care t© the interests of the wounded, and -to the encouragement of the women engaged in war work. As a special mark of her appreciation of those women who re^ lieved the armed Services from some essential but not military, tasks, she became .Conimander-in-Ghief of Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps,': which did such splendid-service at the Home Base and on Lines of Communication of the Annies abroad.

- An instance of the Queen's Interest In every activity of our Empire was her naming with her own name, in 1934, of the new Cunard-White Star liner which will uphold on the seas the supremacy of the British Mercantile Marine.

In matters of dress: and social'cus. torn, observers of the Court know thai the Queen is conservative in the sense that she discountenances modernism in any of .its extravagant manifestations. Like the King, as Moderator and Exemplar, not attempting to be Dictator, she lets it be known that dignity rather. than "smartness" is the better standard for gentlewomen. It is no secret of State thai' the Queen did not welcome a recent craze, now obsolescent, for: women to approximate to men's' customs in hair dressing. That fashions should' remain rigid is, of course, not her ,yiew, but.. no whim of fashion which? is indecorous is tolerated. In thematter of ftoyal hospitality, the Queen's custom is to take every opportunity to extend this to the whole Empire; the Royal Garden Parties, for example, are truly Empire ceremonies. -