The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1928. THE KING’S HEALTH.

Evening Star, Issue 20033, 26 November 1928, Page 6

The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1928. THE KING’S HEALTH.

Reukk will be felt throughout his wide dominions that the King’s health has improved so lar as to give no fuitliCl cause for any immediate anxiety, iho nearest friends of Jones aro not perturbed when they hear that Jones has a cold. Knowing that no one has any interest in making his ailment appear either better or worse than it is, they feel thankful that it is only a common complaint bv which he is troubled, and have no doubt that be will recover from it as they have done themselves. Hut a King’s cold, ollicially reported by his physicians, is a different matter. The suspicion is natural that it it were oul'y a cold it would not be reported, even with the addition that it was “accompanied by some fever,” which was the first official announcement in this instance. When subsequent bulletins vary with different degrees of seriousness and of reassurance concern inevitably increases. It is Mt that the reassurances may lie magnified so as not to cause avoidable alarm. After some days during which his malady has had time to develop, and after an X-ray examination, w© know now the worst of the King’s indisposition, and it is not bad enough to be disturbing. Ho has been suffering from congestion of .the lungs, associated with pleurisy. Ho is now better, and his physicians are convinced that ho has weathered the storm. Nevertheless, a moral has been revealed.

The King sticks too closely to his work. He does not take the holidays which every business man takes, who goes oil- for at least a fortnight every voar to some place where all his worries can be forgotten in the refreshment of new company, a completely changed environment, different air. And<at the time of fife which the King is reaching lie cannot do without those opportunities for recreation. Ft is obvious how ho has denied them to himself till now. A few years ago, when his health was causing anxiety, ho wont off on a brief sea cruise from wbich it benefited, but that was not followed by any annual vacation. Queen Victoria, once she had emerged from the seclusion which, for many years offended her subjects, paid repeated visits to foreign countries. King Edward could not have worked ImlAo hard as he did if it had not been for the annual visits to Biarritz and other places, by which ins health was refreshed. Both these rulers travelled frequently, and travelled most often incognito, that they might bo more free from cures. But King Gcorgo has given himself the least respite from routine since ho ascended the Throne, How exacting that routine can he can very easily bo imagined from descriptions of His Majesty’s normal working day which have been published Irom time to time, in justice to Jus subjects and himself the King must take more holidays in the future. His illness has showui again the rare esteem and afiection in which ho is held by his subjects. The crowds "waiting for bulletins outside Buoklughapi Palace, and concern felt throughout the Empire at his indisposition, have made that affection plain. But this illness was not needed to reveal it. it has been felt throughout his reign, the attachment due to a Xing who has always placed his duty before all other objects. It was felt no less for bis immediate predecessors, who made a new tradition of kingship after the contempt that was justly lolt for Victoria’s uncles, “the nasty old men, debauched and selfish, pig-headed and ridiculous, with their perpetual burden of debts, confusions, and disreputabilities.” Tennyson has described the feeling of England when the King’s father, while still Prince of Wales, first appeared in public following a dangerous illness, And iiOiidoii roiled one tide of joy through ail Her trebled millions, and loud leagues of man. The same joy and the same relief will be felt for his son’s recovery.