THE LATE KING

Manawatu Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 4601, 25 January 1936, Page 3

THE LATE KING

ROYAL FUNERAL. NO DAY OF MOURNING. TWjO MINUTES’ SILENCE. The Mayor (Mr M. E. Perreau) has received the following telegram from the Prime Minister relative to the funeral ceremony:— “In view of the wishes expressed by His Majesty King Edward the Eighth, the funeral of His late Majesty will be marked in New Zealand hy the observance of two minutes’ silence at 11 a.m. on Tuesday next, the 28th instant. All requests for the suspension of business on that day are therefore cancelled. I shall be glad if you will take action in your district to request public adopt this course. It is desired, however, that on Sunday next, the 26th instant, individual churches should hold appropriate services as already requested in the order in council of the 21st instant. (Signed) M. J. Savage, Prime Minister.”

FUNERAL SERVICE TO BE BROADCAST.

London, January 23. The British Broadcasting Corporation announces that the funeral service at Windsor on January 28 is being relayed throughout the Empire. The Royal Standard was flown at St. James’ Palace for the first time for 99 years, while the Queen’s household flag was hoisted at Buckingham Palace.

ARCHBISHOP’S MOVING

TRIBUTE.

London, January 22. Among the most moving tributes to King George was a speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had closer contact with his Majesty during his last illness than, anybody else except the Queen and the medical advisers. King’s medical advisers, said: “For nearly 40 years King Geoi’ge permitted me to regard him as a very dear friend, and memories are still fresh in my heart of the last two days of his life which I spent with him as he lay in weakness, and especially, if I may say so, of the moment in which I prayed with him and gave him my blessing, 1 and in which I commended his soul as it was passing to our lov'ing, merciful God. 'When yesterday morning I looked for the last time upon his face I saw in its beautiful tranquility a symbol of that peace which we pray God will give him now and for ever. “King George’s religioq,” he pro - ceeded,. “was a simple and most real use of the name of God in his public utterances. It was for him not a mere convention, but an expression of the simple, reverent, deep sense of his own. responsibilities to God.” Referring to the Queen, he said he could bear witness to the truly noble fortitude with which she had borne the anxiety of these last days. To all around her she had been a veritable rock, of calmness and courage. , Sir Walford Davies, Master of the King’s Musick, in a broadcast address, said that King Edward insisted that the National Anthem be played slowly because it was a prayer. When a command concert was given at the Albert Hall last May King George insisted that “Jerusalem” be sung, and said: “If they don’t sing it I’ll go and whistle it.” The King once said about some 'hymns that they were either of too many syllables for the notes or there were too many notes for the syllables.

Mr Marshead, librarian at Windi sor iCastle, in a broadcast to schools, said that King George used sometimes to tell the children when they came to Sandringham House for a special prize how when he was a boy his grand mother, Queen Vic- ■ toria, gave him a Bible. She advised him to read a chapter every night. “I have always done it wherever I have been,” said the King, “except during that bad illness. I could not do it then. Now, you do as you like, but if you make that a rule of life I don’t think you will regret it when you come to my age, and you have a long way to go.” Then he would burst into his great boyish laugh. Mr Marshead told of King George’s last appearance'out of doors when he rode his little fat white pony Jock through the sunny woodlands and dismounted at the garden gates close to the little church where he is now lying. Jock rubbed his head against his master for the carrots which he knew were coming. Mr Marshead met the King there and had brought for him the original handwritten document from which the girl Queen Victoria had read her speech to the Privy Council on the day after William TV’s death. The manuscript had strayed into private hands, and the owner asked Mi" Marshead to offer it to his Majesty. “As we walked to the house,” x he said, “his Majesty told me of the insupportable emotion with which v he himself had confronted the Privy Council and of how he. had been up all night and could hardly snatch time to jot down notes. He despaired in his grief of being able to give utterance to bis thoughts.” Mi: Marshead added that only a week ago Mr Bernard Shaw, before sailing to the West Indies, said that King George was one of the finest broadcasters and that his sincere ' humility and whole attitude made us say, “A man. God bless him.” Hr.* ffertz, the. Chief Rabbi, has sent to the Queen a message expressing the sympathy of the Jewish communities of the Empire, “whose souls overflow with gratitude to Almighty God for the noble example bequeathed in the life ot King George.”

When he ascended the Throne the late King Edward resigned the Grand Mastership of the United Grand Lodge and became Protector of the Order of Freemasons. If precedent is followed Edward VHI will resign the Provincial Grand Mastership of Surrey and assume the same title. King Edward was also to have been installed as Grand Master Mason of Scotland. The London “Sketch” says that at the Queen’s express request and with King Edward’s sympathetic approval, the room in which King George died and in which he uttered the words that will ring through history, “How is the Empire?” ,is to remain unaltered. Not a chair or book will be moved and only the Queen, other members of the Royal Family, and members of the staff who do the cleaning, will be allowed to enter. EDWARD VHI. REIGN'S. King Edward VIH. .reigns. The Empire mourns its King and at the same moment salutes its new Monarch.'The hand of death, has transferred kingship from worthy father to worthy son. The House of Windsor, guardian of the British Constitution, marches on at the head of the nation. - There is nothing unbecoming, nothing unthoughtful, in the fact that while the nation mourns its. dead Monarch and offers its profound sympathy to the Queen and the Royal Family, it should feel deep satisfaction that to the Throne has come - a Prince so fitted for kingship,, a Prince who through all the days of his strenuous manhood has been true to the motto. “Ich Dien” —“I serve,” a badge of true nobility that betokens a regal manhood. Thus, while the nation mourns its beloved Monarch, it hails 'his son with equal sincerity with “Long Live the King.” Prince Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David was born on June 23, 1894, .at White Lodge, Richmond Park, in the 58th year of the reign of Queen Victoria, who then had the unique experience of having, beside her son, a grandson and a great-grandson, all in direct line of succession to her throne.

The “pet,” or family, name the little Prince received was “David,” and “David” he has remained in the family and among his intimate friends, although “Edward P.” is the familiar signature. 'The babe wailed lustily when he was baptised with water from the River Jordan by the Archbishop of (Concluded on page 4.)