PEOPLE'S PRINCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 30 January 1936, Page 8

PEOPLE'S PRINCE

CHARACTER SKETCH WEIGHT OF CITIZENSHIP IIIS FUTURE SECURE We discover the success of the present King and the success of the ITinee of Wales in a record of quiet, domestic virtue and of allegiance to duty, wrote Hector Rolitho, in an article published in the “New York Times” on the occasion of the Prince's oijth birthday. These may be dull virtues, blit they are the handmaidens of respectability, ami respectablility is the backbone of England. The Prince of Wales has played an astonishing role in the revival of British royal prestige and power. And with the temptations of a historian, 1 like to see a historical reason for this. The blood of the Coburgs is alive with the genius of adaptability. When Leopold went to rule Belgium he was able to forget his Lutheran upbringing and to become a Catholic and a liberal. Exactly what Belgium needed! When tlie Prince Consort came to England from Colnirg we needed a reformer. And he was a reformer: a Luther of politics and domestic irreproaclinbility. England needed such a man as “Albert the Good.” When Queen Victoria’s century passed we were a little tired of our national virtue. We needed a cosmopolitan figure to widen our horizon. King Edward was such a figure. THE YOUNG GALAHAD When the war came we needed a figure of solidity, a man of irreproachable ethics, a man who was, in some sense, the reincarnation of his grandfather. Then it was that King George became a focus for our loyalty, saving our equilibrium. When the war ended, we needed some emotional release. We wanted to turn from the trench and sec Galahad again, romantic, shining, upon the horizon. We turned and found the young Prince of Wales, young, charming, unassuming. ■.sensible, but definitely a romantic figure.

We have sobered up from our postwar sentimentality. Again we turn, and we find tlie Prince on the threshold of middle age; holding our respect where in the past, he held our imagination. We see the practical citizen emerging from the princely tradition. We see him as a man passionately interested in .industry and politics, a statesman without portfolio. The Prince is naturally prevented from expressing opinions too widely. But there is no touch of anaemia about iiis speeches when he does urge an idea upon us.

A NEW KIND OF PRINCE

The accusation most easily brought against him is that he is a figurehead. It is the favourite comment of Germans who regret the passing of tlieir own princes. Nothing could be less true. He is not a Prince in the German sense of the word. The German and the Russian princes used, their eminence as an excuse for avoiding the responsibilities of citizenship. That is why they fell to earth. The Prince of Wales has used his position only to increase the weight of citizenship upon his shoulders. Therein, I think, lies cine of the secrets of his power over us. He has become the focus of a great deal of our national emotion. But, more than this he lias astonished us on many occasions by a gift of prophecy. And this is the ingredient mostly lacking in our public men. The world must now cease to look upon the Prince as a young man full of charm and promise. He has lost a good deal of the spontaneity which made him ride on merry-go-rounds. The picture of Galahad has been taken out of the frame and we see a serious overworked, zealous man, whose eyes are filled with concern and thought. No nerve-torn, ambitions financier or statesman does more in his office than this astonishing young man, whose monotonous work, inside and out of St. James’ Palace, is nothing short of colossal. 1

POWER OF ADAPTATION Once I saw him address 2000 advertising experts, brought from all the corners .of the earth. They Avere selfdescribed as “hard-boiled.” Many of them Avere New York publicity men and they sat, hard upon their chairs, waiting for him to speak to them. I have, never been more thrilled in my life than by Avhat happened. When he finished, tlicy stood upon their chairs and howled Avitli delight. He had said nothing sensational. Indeed, I remember the speech as being more conventional than most that lie makes. But the single-minded sincerity had gripped them and converted them. People abroad worry a good deal about his future. I am asked again and again, in America and Germany, “Blit what will he he like Avlien lie is King?” I think lie Avill still ho a true Coburg, adapting himself to the demands of the time. He Avill belong to an age when England Avill need to throw her heart and soul into industry and, no doubt, in binding the Empire together with something more tangible than flags and oaths of allegiance. Then it Avill he that avo shall reap the benefit of his education. He Avill he the first King Avho belongs Avholly and completely to the people. Indeed, the excess of his democratic instincts has often been a thorn in the side of the older generation. He Avill he the fust King to know more of industry than of soldiering, and more of the Dominions than of Europe. TWO GOOD LEADERS Most great men achieve their object Avitli their minds. This tile Prince lias not done. He lias not great intellectual trappings to grapple Avitli situations. He is too single-minded and direct, too sincere to use them. He has made mistakes Avhicli a purely clever mail Avould never make. They have always been positive, and never negative, mistakes —the fruit of his spontaneity.

In England Ave have no great men to lead us, hut avc have tAvo good men, the King and the Prince oi Wales. And, however dull the virtue of goodness may he, it is sustaining us now, Avhen we are struggling, much harder than Avi> care to admit, to maintain our place among the nations of the Avorld.