PRIMATE SPEAKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22620, 7 January 1937, Page 9

PRIMATE SPEAKS

THE ABDICATION PATHOS AND TRAGEDY SOCIAL CIRCLE REBUKED NEW KING'S QUALITIES [from our own cor respondent] LONDON, Dec. 19 "Very rarely in the long course of its history has this nation passed through a week of such bewilderment, suspense, anxiety. Within 24 hours one King went and another King came. Yet there has been no confusion, no strife, no clash of parties." In these words the Archbishop of Canterbury began his address at a service broadcast by the 8.8.C. "Truly," he proceeded, "it has been a wonderful proof of the strength and stability of the Throne. It has been an even more striking proof of the steadiness of the people in this country and throughout the Empire. "It is right to be proud of the way in which the nation has stood the test. Yet let there be no boasting in our pride. Bather let it pass into humble and reverent thankfulness for this renewed token of the guidance of the nation's life by the over-ruling providence of our God. 248 Years Ago "What pathos, nay what tragedy, surrounds the central figure of these swiftly moving scenes! On the 11th day of December 218 years ago, King James 11. fled from Whitehall. By a strange coincidence, on the 11th day of December last week, King Edward VIII., after speaking his last words to his people, left Windsor Castle, the centre of all the splendid traditions of his ancestors and his Throne, and went out an exile. In the darkness he left these shores. "Seldom, if ever, has any British Sovereign come to the Throne with greater natural gifts for his Kingship. Seldom, if ever, has any Sovereign been welcomed by a more enthusiastic loyalty. From God he had received a high and sacred trust. Yet, by his own will, he. has abdicated—he has surrendered the trust. With characteristic frankness he has told us his motive. It was a craving for private happiness. "Strange and sad it must be that for such a motive, however strongly it pressed upon his heart, he should have disappointed hopes so high, and abandoned a trust so great. "Even more strange and sad it is that he should have sought his happiness in a manner inconsistent with the Christian principles of marriage, and within a social circle whose standards and ways of life are alien to all the best instincts and *' -traditions of his people. "" "They Stand Rebuked" "Let those who belong to this circle know that to-day they stand rebuked by the judgment of the nation which had loved King Edward. I have shrunk ' from saying these words, but I have felt compelled for the sake of sincerity and truth to say them. "Yet, for one who has known -him since his childhood, who has felt his charm and admired his gifts, these words cannot be the last. How can we forget the high hopes and promise of his youth, his most genuine care for the poor, the suffering, the unemployed, his years of eager service, both at home and across the seas? "It is the remembrance of these things that wrings from our heart the cry. 'The pity of it. 0 the pity of it!' To the infinite mercy and the protecting care of God we commit him now wherever he may be. "There are two other figures who will always stand out among the memories of these fateful days. One is our ever honoured and beloved Queen Mary. "During all the strain of tensa anxiety, deep as her distress has been, her wonderful calmness, self-control, steadiness of judgment have never failed. Gratitude to Premier "The thought of her reign by the side of her beloved husband for 25 years, of the sorrow which came to her when lie passed from her sight, and of the fresh sorrow which, within less than a year, she has had to bear, is a threefold cord which binds her fast to the hearts of her people. "The other person who has earned our gratitude and admiration is the Prime Minister. With great courage he took the whole burden on himself. "As one to whom throughout all these anxieties he has given his con- ' fidence, I can personally testify that he has combined, ns perhaps he only could, the Constitutional responsibility of a Minister, the human understanding of a man, and the faithfulness of a friend. "History will record that he was the pilot who, by God's help, steered the ship of State through difficult currents, through dangerous rocks and shoals, into the harbour where now it safely rests. A New Morning "So much for the past; and now the future. The darkness of an anxious time is over. A new morning has dawned. A new reign has begun. George VI. is King. "You can readily imagine what it means to him to be summoned so suddenly, so unexpectedly in circumstances so painful to himself —for he was bound to his brother by ties of closest affection —to face the .immense responsibilities of kingship. "What I shall venture to say of him will be no mere conventional eulogy. It will be said from the personal knowledge—l am sure he would allow mo to say—of many years of friendship. "In manner and speech he is more quiet and reserved than his brother—and here may 1 add a parenthesis which may not be unhelpful. When his people listen to him they will note an occasional and momentary hesitation in his speech. But he has brought it into full control, and to those who hear it need cause no sort of embarrassment for it causes none to him who speaks. The King's Special Care "He is frank, straightforward, unaffected. The 6000 boys from our public schools and from the homes of working folk whom, for the last 15 years, he had gathered in the comradeship of a summer camp, know that he has been himself a boy among them. "He has made the welfare of industrial workers his special care' and study. There is no branch of industry where he is not at home. In his visits with the Queen to Central Africa, to Australia and New Zealand, he has studied the peoples and the problems of the great Empire over which he is ncv called to rule. "He has high ideals of life and duty, and he will pursue them with a quiet steadfastness of will. He inherits the name, he will follow the example of King George V., to whose memorv let us offer now the homage of our undying affection and respect.. "No passage in the last message of the Duke of Windsor, as we must noi? learn to call our late King, was mora touching than that in which he of his brother's 'matchless blessing a happy home with wife and children. . a