QUEEN MARY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 46, 23 January 1936, Page 11

QUEEN MARY.

IDEAL HELP-MATE. CAREER OF UNSELFISHNESS. A world in mourning recalls a King’s lifetime of devotion to his people. It was lie who, while the greatest Empire ever known was passing through times of stress without precedent, stood firmly in his place—not only as a symbol of his people but as a statesman and a man.

At this sad time must our thoughts turn to her who stood by him—liis wife. Queen Mary of England. Through all the momentous happenings of his reign she was his courageous equal. From j the first moment of the war there was ' never any doubt of her place as the first woman of England. All that superb energy and queenly force she poured, with complete unselfishness, into the service of the hour. Four days after the outbreak of the war, she was at Tidworth, bidding farewell to her regiment, the 18th Royal Hussars, then on tJie, eve of sailing for France with the Expeditionary Force—a spontaneous action which is still remembered with gratitude by some who were present. But even before that she had already planned the great work of national service which, after nursing, was the most direct contribution made by the women of Britain to the war. “All that we women can do for them, our soldiers will need,” said Her Majesty. “We must have everything ready. I do not want to have that state of things which prevailed during the Boer War, with everybody just sending what they liked. without relation to the real needs of our soldiers, without organisation. It entails too much waste and too great a loss of time. Let us strive for central organisations from which to control and direct. Soon, too soon, there will bpthousands of women wanting to do something to help and not knowing what to do. Let us be ready for them.” SERVED HER PEOPLE.

The chief representative of the interests of the women of Great Britain, she has never for a moment allowed those interests to suffer through any failure of hers to do the utmost for them that the limitations of her position allow; in nursing, social welfare, professional and industrial employment., and education, her sex has received constantly her powerful support—it is not without significance that she was the first Queen of England to receive a University degree and to don the cap and gown at Oxford. And in the greatest of all women’s calling, Her Majesty has led

by right of example; her home and her nursery have been all that a noble woman can make them. Her children were brought up with Spartan simplicity. There is no waste, no disorder, no neglected corner in the home where the Queen of England reigns. There was a time when Buckingham Palace was a neglected rabbit-warren in the hands of servants. Under Queen Mary it became a palace worthy of a great Empire, with its stately rooms and priceless possessions arranged with the minutest care, under the Queen’s insistent supervision. It is the same with the other Royal palaces—Windsor and Holyrood. thanks to her tireless work and genius for order, are now a glory to behold. Her knowledge of history, of old furniture and pictures and china, has been learnt in performing that task, and they are based on wide sympathies, on a ijleep sense of reverence for whatever is worthy and of good report, and on an intense love.

Queen Mary has always proved hersalf to be intensely interested in the triumphs of political feminism. Her interest in the uplift of her sex has shown itself in a thousand ways during the quarter-century she has been Queen Consort. She has always stood for high ideals of conduct, and her own life has supplied a consistent example of time womanhood.

Queen Mary’s popularity reached its peak in December, 1928, when His Majesty became seriously ill after neglecting a chill he had taken at Sandringham. Soon a bulletin was issued saying that there was some congestion of the lungs and a decline in the strength of the heart. Anxiety developed into alarm, and crowds filed past the daily bulletins outside Buckingham Palace until darkness came. During the critical days the Queen maintained a constant vigil at the Palace. She by statute became a potential Queen Regent. She was also created a Privy Councillor and actually presided ov.er the sittings of the Privy Council in place of His Majesty. These were, hot innovations, but followed practice of immemorial usage in England where women have never been formally excluded from the Privy ■ Council. “EVERY INCH A QUEEN.” “Every inch a Queen,” is the expression most frequently heard in any assemblance of persons gathered to see Her radiant Majesty pass. Dignity in an age when dignity is at a discount is perhaps the outstanding public impression which the Queen creates, dignity and beauty, with that fair, delicate English beauty of white and gold so entrancing to all nonEnglish people who come within its radiance. And the dignity and grace are there at all times and not put off with the magnificent robes and costly

jewels of the elaborate ceremonial occasion. In the boudoir and the nursery, at the head of her table or bending over a sick child’s cot, assisting at the opening of a new building or caring for the comfort of a guest, that womanly dignity and rare poise never desert the Queen. The hearts of the women of every rank in the British Empire will go' out to the Queen in this hour of her deep sorrow.