TWO TRAITOROUS BRITISH DUKES.

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 839, 4 August 1916, Page 8

TWO TRAITOROUS BRITISH DUKES.

A Crying Scandal. "SN the personal column of this week's. 1 Free Lance appear some curiously interesting details as to the position of two British dukes, the dukes of Cumberland and . Albany. For some time past there has been considerable comment in the English press upon the fact that two members of the British House of Peers should actually be in

arms against Great Britain and her Allies.. As the Government persisted in taking no steps in the matter, Mr. J. Swift MacNeill, M.P., who is also a K.C-i formally questioned the Prime Minister on the subject, but Mr. Asquith for a time ingeniously fenced all such questions. Now, however, so it would seem by a cablegram received the other day, the British Prime' Minister has announced in the House of Com-, mons that "the King would be advised to take steps regarding the honours held by the Dukes of Cumberland and Albany and by Prince Albeit of Schles-wig-Holstein."

Mr. Asquith, cunning master of Parliamentary evasion as Tie is, has evidently been compelled by the force of ail outraged public opinion, to move in the matter, and although for family reasons His. Majesty may at first be disinclined to interfere, he, too, will be wise if he puts such reasons on one side and ends what is at once a crying scandal and an insult to the British ppople. After allj His Majesty has formally degraded • one relative from English orders previously held and but long ago dishonoured Iby the ArchAssassin of Europe, and if'he can expel one he can expel other royal relations, even if nominally they-be still British dukes. x\.s a matter of- fact, any royal family connections between England and Germany must be considered permanently and irrevocably dissolved by the disgusting actions of tlie Kaiser, and, necessarily, those who serve under that monarch, no matter how highly placed, must share the same excommunioation. As for the future, no British prince must be allowed to wed with a German woman, nor should. British royalty ever disgrace itself by the acceptance of a Hun's hand for one of it-* - princesses. Meanwhile, even whilstawaiting Boyal action in the matter, it seems to us most curious, and not-a., little disgraceful, that,the House of Lords has not already passed a resolution expelling these men C|, om even nominal membership of the hereditary branch of the British legislature.