The Ensign . WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1913. THE ASSASSINATED KING.

Mataura Ensign, 19 March 1913, Page 4

The Ensign . WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1913. THE ASSASSINATED KING.

The news of tie assassination of the King of the Hellenes —brother of our Queen-Mother —will l>e received with horror and the deepest regret throughout the British Empire. He • was emphatically a strong man and all his power was faithfully exerted to uphold the monarchy and the traditions of th* historic and turbulent country over which he had ruled for nearly 50 years, a longer reign than that of any other European monarch, save the Emperor of Austria. At the ago of 18, an inexperienced youth with no ambition beyond the narrow bounds of his father's kingdom of Denmark, he was suddenly called upon to rule over a race, the most individual and critical of all the races in history. Ho had before him the fate of King Otho, who had been driven from the country by his rebellious subjects, and the knowledge that the \instable crown of Greece had been rejected by older and more ambitious men. The fact that he has borne the burden for half a century is proof of his manly qualities and of his courage and prudence as a ruler.* He will be deeply mourned by his people, who came to him with their grievances as children to a father- and who always left the royal presence soothed. He was the most democratic and accessible of monarchs, who knew his people as intimate friends and who has been struck down at a time when his country needed him most. '