PUBLIC REACTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 3 June 1937, Page 9

PUBLIC REACTS.

DUKE'S "ISOLATION. WRITER'S TLEA FOR CHARITY. The isolation of the Duke of "Windsor from the Royal Family and the Church of England is becoming more marked as his marriage to Miss Wallis Warfield approaches, writes Mr George Malcolm Thomson in the London Daily Express. No members of the Royal Family will be present at the wedding; those in Royal employment who have been in'Vited .will' not attend; and the Church of England has forbidden one of its priests to attend the ceremony for the purpose of blessing the married pair. It is obvious, writes Mr Thompson, that such a situation raises a chain of questions in the public mind. "Will the ban bring a reaction in the Duke's favour, or is the Duke too unpopular for it to arouse public resentment?" his article goes on. "Is the Duke really unpopular? The Duke is unpopular, indeed, he may be forgiven his bewilderment as he looks at the chilly, unfamiliar world and remembers the frenzied plaudits of last year. , , "It may be said that the Duke, by stepping from the Throne, forfeited the adulation along with the limelight. Cheers were one of the perquisites of his office. But we have not accounted for the active character of his unpopularity. For that there are two outstanding reasons. The first is the wave of purity which condemns his marriage to a woman twice divorced, although she was twice the innocent party. "Tt would be a mistake to regard this Puritan sentiment as something engineered, something insincere. There is in the British people a persistent vein of moral earnestness which has both

good and loss good aspects. There is i no way of coping with it. I . ELEMENT OF RESENTMENT. "Secondly, there is the accusation that the Duke turned his back on the high duties for which his birth and long training had prepared him. and by so doing had 'let down' the whole show. There is indeed in the bitterness with which the Duke is regarded by many of the public an element of resentment. Against that there can be no argument. "There are those who set against his duty as inheritor of the Throne his duty to himself as a human being, with a claim to happiness. In what balance are we to weigh one duty or the other? There is no doubt that an immense portion of the public was influenced, either by a surge of puritan feeling, or by condemnation of his failure of duty, or both. . "So powerful and sweeping were these influences that they destroyed. almost at a blow, the Duke's popularity. Was there no source from which it might be hoped the Duke could, offset tuis disapproval? In his farewell broadcast the Duke spoke of 'the woman I love.' This must have made an appeal to almost every woman in the land. Yet one of the curious features of this romantic factor is that it failed completely to carry any weight with the public. Why? Miss Warfifeld does not make any appeal to popularity. If the public could have envisaged her in the role of Cinderella, their romantic impulses might have been stimulated. RESPONSIBILITY FOR MARRIAGE. "But there were disabilities. Miss Warfield was not a young girl and she had already had two romances. This is the situation in which limitations were imposed on the Duke's marriage ceremony, apparently with the approval of the public. "The decision that no member of the Royal Family should be present seems hard, and must inevitably convey a sense of ostracism. But that decision sp-Jnes from a desire to avoid responsibility for the marriage. It is a decision on policy which can be condemned only by those who are prepared to say that Royalty should assume responsibility for the marriage. "There is another question. What is to be the future status of the Duke of Windsor? The Government would not include him in the Civil List, although thev are parties to the arrangement under which the King gives him a grant. Tt was infinitely to be preferred that he should get it openly and directly from the Strte. in which case he would be n paid Civil Servant, like the Dukes of Gloucester and Kent, with a recognised, useful function. That' would be better than a mere dole with no duties. "The Duke of Windsor made a mistake. He has been guilty of misunderstandings, but should not his unpopularity be tempered by another sentiment? Is there no place for the practice of that cherishable virute of charity ?" . ' ; "