THE PRINCE OF WALES

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 60

THE PRINCE OF WALES

A CHARACTER STUDY. (By "X.," in the Daily Mail.) A Prince to-day is handicapped rather than enriched by his birth. Every weakness is seized upon, every vulnerable point ruthlessly exposed. He has to stand before the bar of public opinion on his own merits. The trappings of rank or position will not' avail him one jot. They will enhance rather than hide, in popular estimation, any deficiency in character or disposition. Prom him to whom much has been given much is indeed expected. Only a disgruntled Bolshevist would, try to minimise or discount the value of the persona] triumph the Prince of. Wales has won. Granted that no man. without his advantages could have achieved so much at his age, it is none th<? less a remarkable tribute to his qualities that he has successfully surmounted the. innunierajble difficulties of his position..

' Much lias been made of the Prince's shyness. Well, shyness in 'the young- is often an engaging quality, although in the bearded and bald it may not be so attractive. But the Prince's shyness (which, by- the way, he is fast, overcoming) is not of an awkward nature. There 'is no gaucherie about it. Bather is it the evidence of a certain modesty and diffidence, a sense of responsibility. There is in him no sort of "swank," no standing upon his dignity, no trace of the idea of the divinity that. hedges kings. He is essentially democratic in the true sense of that much-abused word.' He meets and values men for what they are and what they have done, not for how they were born. He has winning manners. His smile is a great asset. It is not "the set, studied smile of the actress showing her teeth, and posing for the photographer. It is a Teal, genuine, natural smile, expressive of enjoyment and appreciation of the good things of life. It is a smile of sympathy, an understanding smile.

Court life, with it 3 artificial standards and rigid etiquette, tends to produce types. Royalties are turned to pattern. Tne Prince's personality has been too strong to retain, the pressure of the mould. He is essentially human. He is intensely interested in men and things. The war, as he said, himself, made a man of hirn. And he is clever. Not in the academic, dry-aa-dust sense of scholastic learning. But he is quick and sound in his judgments of people, mentally alert, and receptive and swift at sizing up a situation. He is a born leader of men. With a strong vein of sentiment in his nature, he knows by a happy instinct how to appeal to the sentiment in others.

It is supposed by many that the speeches and public utterances of royal personages ax« always prepared for them, that they are the mere mouthpieces of others. With the Prince this is not so. With -Charles. II he can say, "My words are my own." It would be absurd to believe that he never receives help in the preparation of his speeches. But the substance and much of the phrasing are his own. They bear upon them the freshness and grace of youth and the indelible , stamp of a truly charming personality.