EDWARD VIII.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 18 March 1937, Page 5

EDWARD VIII.

A LONELY MAN. UNCERTAIN OF HIS OWN STRENGTH. (By Telegraph-Press Assn.--Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, March 17. In a volume entitled. "Edward Bth's Life and Reign," the New Zealander, Hector Bolitho, says that Edward, uncertain of values in living, was confused over the strength and weakness of the human nature and was bitterly resentful of all interference. Even affectionate advice became a law unto himself and he built up the usual defences of a lonely man, uncertain of his own strength. He became increasingly stubborn and conceited over his popularity. Natural graces seemed to sour within him and his troubled spirit found its focus in his introduction to Mrs. Simpson, who gave him contentment unknown before. His friendship was a perpetual grief to his father, and upon his father's death Edward apparently suffered no self reproach for going to Fort Belvedere and staying away from his mother in the hours when his place was beside her. Tracing the changes in Edward's character, Bolitho says he was never a. liberal spender and with the acquisition of great lands to his fortune he became curiouslyparsimonious, dismissed old servants from Sandringham and pared expenses. He became a piteous figure as he estranged himself from those who had served and respected him. Dealing with his yachting cruise of 1936, Bolitho says that everywhere Mrs. Simpson was beside the King and there was no denying that he was supremely happy, whatever tide of criticism was welling up against him. For him to imagine that the traditions of British respectability could withstand the union he proposed, showed how far he wandered from the * knowledge of his people.