KEEN CONCERN IN EUROPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20137, 24 December 1928, Page 9

KEEN CONCERN IN EUROPE.

POPULARITY OF KING. ! FRENCH APPRECIATION. DEVOTION TO HIS DUTY. MONARCH'S HOLD ON PEOPLE. Australian and N. 7.. Press Association. (Received December 2:?, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 22. An outstanding feature of the anxiety over the illness of the King is the way in which tho whole of Europe has reacted to if. Prance, particularly, has taken almost as vital an interest in it as has tho Empire. An attempt to analyse the popularity of King George has been made by the famous publicist " Pertinax," in to day's L'Echo do Paris. The writer says: " Until now the King's popularity has been latent, and unsuspected by the most, observant among tho British people. It is not due to any individual action, ns was the case with Queen Victoria and King Edward tho Seventh. King George has not intervened in publie affairs with a vigour which oven approaches that of his predecessors, but fatmore than they ho has mingled with the masses of tho people. He has a strict sense of his duty on all occasions, and has never missed an opening of Parliament. " Tho King is a classical example of tho English country gentleman, with little predilection cither for literature or art. He is a good shot and fond of horses—a man who is simple and kindly, tho very type of a good fellow. He is vividly conscious of his duties and carries them out scrupulously. Nevertheless, it must not be coneluded tliat the King is self-effacing or lacking in energy. Tho Princo of Wales has said that if his father had reigned in another age ho would have believed in tho divine right of kings. " On two occasions where the utmost delicacy and tact were needed, the first when the Parliament Act was passed, tho second during thp first Labour Government, the King acquitted himself without room for criticism. As a result Republican sentiment failed to develop in England at a time when circumstances were in its favour, and to-day it is practically non-existent." The writer who uses the pseudonym " Pertmax" is M. Giraud, L'Echo de Paris is one of the leading French daiiy newspapers. It is on the " Right" group oi' politics, tho more conservative side.