KING EDWARD'S COURAGE

Evening Star, Issue 20422, 1 March 1930, Page 6

KING EDWARD'S COURAGE

In the ‘Dorset Yeax ; Book ’ Mr Newman Flower relates how Sir Frederick Treves sent him a manuscript of reminiscences containing rare material about King Edward’s-operation, showing him to be a great figure of courage, a man who fought his doctors to go to his Coronation, and so keep, faith with the British people. If ever the heroism of a British King was revealed, it was revealed in that manuscript (Mr Flower says). King Edward had hidden his malady in order that the public might not bo alarmed. The doctors and the nurses went to Windsor numbered, and not by name, so that the arrival of these medical people might not be known. Treves was “Number Six,” and he used to go to Windsor in a tweed cap and a tweed suit, and get off at a station before Windsor and walk the rest of the way. These were the instructions of a King to spare his people an iota of anxiety regarding the Coronation. When I read the manuscript 1 realised the pluck of the King who, against the advice of his doctors, came to London bowing in agony to the crowds that applauded him. 1 knew that these, words of Treves would show what a figure of courage the King had been. Then one morning my telephone rang violently. Answering it, I heard Treves’s voice at the other end. He said, “ Bring the manuscript at once ” (to a certain bank). I met him there. Ho snatched the manuscript out of my hands greedily. “ What are yon going to do with it?” I asked. “It shall never bo published,” he and locked up the manuscript in his private safe. It has never been published, and it will never be. Indeed, I believe it was destroyed long ago.