EX-KING'S CASE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22611, 26 December 1936, Page 12

EX-KING'S CASE

AMERICAN ATTITUDE CRITICISM OF CABINET RESENTMENT AT RESTRAINTS [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Dec. r> For the past threo months the American press has devoted an extraordinary amount of space to the King s private affairs, wrote the Washington correspondent of tho Morning Post on December 3. Even during the height of the Presidential election political news took second place to "news" from Buckingham Palace. Tho American public have been told at length of the reputed difference of opinion between tho King and the Cabinet on the subject of his intimate circle of friends. The King, according to the picture presented in the American press, is an extremely modern young man, fond of modern dances and forms of entertainment, and friendly with people I whatever their rank or nationality, provided that they are witty and amusing. This new group of acquaintances, according to the American press, did not meet with the approval of Cabinet Ministers. The latter were especially worried over the King's close friendship with Mrs. Wallis Simpson. "Too Democratic to Suit" Tho Scripps Howard newspaper chain carries the following editorial comment: "We think much of the opposition to tho King, if it could really be traced to its origin, would be found running much deeper than the Simpson issue. Both the King and our President were irritating, because in social and economic affairs they did not see the status quo as the best possible. "After his father died the King started cleaning out some of the old retainers and putting younger men around him. That generated a lot of resentment in high places. That, it seems, was 'not done.' And lie did not want a flock of bodyguards around wherever he went, or policemen stamping their hobnail boots up and down the street. A lot of little jjersonal incidents in his daily life were just 'too democratic to suit.' Then the Simpson affair came along and made a target on which the opposition r-ould draw a bead. And now it is at the crisis .stage." King's Liberty The matter might best be summed up by saying that tho King is felt over here to have behaved, far more democratically than any of his Ministers. .Americans believe that tho Cabinet used their influence to prevent any news of what the trouble was from reaching the British public, while at the same time they brought every possible pressure to bear, on the grounds that they were the mouthpieces of the British public, to direct the King's personal life into channels which they felt to be more suitable.

This view, that the opposition to the King's personal friends has come from a small old-fashioned clique who resent the fact that their influence with the Court is not so great now as it once was. has been fostered by interviews with Left wing members of the Opposition published here, approving the King's conduct, and stating that in their view the King should not only choose his own friends, but marry whoever he wished.

"Infuriated the Upper Classes" An editorial in the New York Evening News, widely reproduced throughout the United States, is headed, "The Ladv: the King: ihe Nobles: and the Commons." Its thesis is that thp possibility of the King marrying a commoner has infuriated the upper classes. It states: "It might as well be said in public, too. that most of the nobles of England feel that no American is good enough for the King to marry, just as they feel that it is beneath a British noble's dignity to marry an American girl for any reason except her money. Nothing like it has been seen in recent British history since Henry VIII. outraged the nobles and the Church. But probably he pleased the commoners with his democratic ideas about marriage more than he displeased them." Papers here resent the strictures nowappearing in the British press for their treatment of the subject, and seek to justify their invasion of the King's personal affairs and private life with the allegation that the initial interference come from the British Government. Popularity in the United States The King, long before his accession to the Throne, had been an extremely popular figure in the United States. He is felt to have more colour and glamour than all his Cabinet advisers put together. No member of the present British Government has succeeded in firing American imagination, with the exception of Mr. Anthony Eden for a brief period during the Ethiopian crisis According to American views and standards there is nothing particularly reprehensible in the fact that the King should prefer somewhat gayer companions after his public duties are performed than were seen in Court circles during the time of his predecessor. It is felt natural that the son's friends should not be the same as his father's. The editorial commentator for the Hearst Press, Mr. Arthur Brisbane, whose views are also syndicated in over 200 other papers throughout the country, writes to-day: "Future historians will wonder at the attack of middle class hysteria now trying to rule the ruler of the British Empire. An agreeable young man who happens to wear a crown and the title of King wishes to marry an estimable young woman who would make his life happy in a perfectly respectable way, making it unnecessary for him to imitate some of his not far-off ancestors.

"Middle Class Hypocrisy" " It will be interesting to see what Edward of England will do in this emergency. Some Kings of England would have said: ' Mr. Stanley Baldwin, 1 am King of England, and ishall show you what your duties are; also that the rights of a King include the right to marry as he pleases regardless of middle class hypocrisy.' " Romance touches the heart of any country. Romance which is beset with difficulties rouses sympathy, and the fact that one of the figures in the romance was born in America adds enormously to the interest. In American eyes childhood stories of the Princo and the beggar-maid are coining true. It is perhaps significant that this view of the situation prevails despite well-intended efforts of the American press to show that there could be no objection to Mrs. Simpson on account of birth by tracing her ancestry back to the ancient Danish Koynl line or the Dukes of Normandy. ' The manager of the Eour Marx Brothers, the famous American comevSiins, was asked why no allusions were made to Mrs. Simpson. He replied: "She is associated with a figure beloved by the American people. It would be professional suicide for a comedian to make a national hero the subject of any joke." Whatever the future may hold in store, the King's popularity in the United States-is not likely to be shaken.