THE KING’S HOLIDAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22957, 12 August 1936, Page 8

THE KING’S HOLIDAY

His Majesty’s subjects in every part of the world will wish King Edward a pleasant and profitable holiday aboard the luxury yacht Nahlin. in which, with a group of friends, he has commenced a brief cruise in the Adriatic. A royal holiday is, or should be, a homely thing to contemplate. It suggests that even a King can be near to his people in appreciation of the simpler pleasures of life. His Majesty’s father, King George, was accustomed to take his ease on one or another of his country estates, where his indefatigable interest in rural pursuits could find full satisfaction. King George, however, except for his visits to the battle fronts of France and Belgium during the Great War, never left his realm. No other King of England took his royal duties more seriously, or applied himself more assiduously to the tremendous affairs of State that were continuously embraced within his purview. King Edward brings a different type of mind to bear on the problems associated with his high office. None will be neglected. That much at least is certain. Nevertheless, it is characteristic of this amazingly zealous yet independent-minded monarch that he should elect to seek relaxation in travel, and that he should be unwilling to co'nform, as yet, to the quieter habit of life preferred by his father. His Majesty has an exhilarating interest in countries other than his own. He is already familiar with the peoples of many lands. The ever-changing European scene has always attracted him, and he travels hopefully, never with boredom for a companion. He has a first-hand knowledge of the world of a quality unique in a British monarch, and to that will be added, as the years progress, an over-riding knowledge of world, and especially European, politics that should prove of inestimable value to himself and to the Empire over which he rules. His influence in the absorbing sphere of foreign affairs may yet outrival that exerted by his famous grandfather, Edward VII, who was himself familiarly known in' the capitals of Europe. Viewed in that light, the holiday cruise, with its delightful insistence on the incognito, assumes something more than a holiday significance. His Majesty will doubtless return to his capital refreshed both in mind and in body, but he is a too earnest student of men and affairs, and too vividly aware of his kingly'responsibilities, not to extract from his cruise much profit as well as pleasure.