ABDICATION PROBLEMS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 8, 8 December 1936, Page 7

ABDICATION PROBLEMS.

THE LEGAL POSITION

LONDON, Dec. 6,

The Daily, Mail, discussing problems arising in the event of abdication, points out that Professor Arthur Berriedale Keith, lecturer at Edinburgh University on the Constitution of the British Empire, discussing the King's constitutional position in his book "The King and the Imperial Crcwn," expresses the opinion that abdication will probably be legally ineffective unless confirmed by an Act of Parliament and by legislation including the debarring of issue of a post-abdication marriage. Some legal experts think that neither the British nor the Dominion Governments need to be consulted .regarding abdication unless the King desires to surround the abdication with conditions requiring discussion while, in connection with the preamble to the Statute of Westminster, which demands that the Dominions concur in questions affecting the Throne, jurists declared that the preamble could not be quoted in a court of law, being only a series of assertions not legally binding. Another question is whether abdication can become a clear-cut issue for the electorate, which is impossible under the present laws unless a referendum is introduced, which would require special legislation.