LIFE OF KING EDWARD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 66, 19 March 1937, Page 7

LIFE OF KING EDWARD

BOOK BY A NEW ZEALANDER SLOW DISINTEGRATION OF CHARACTER iIAPPY WITH MR - SIMPSON’ SOLACE FROM BONDED CIRCUMSTANCE (By Telegraph— Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 17. In a volume entitled “Edward Vlll —His Life and Reign,” the New Zealander, Mr Hector Bolitho, says: “With all the tumult of affection George V’. enjoyed in the last year of his life, private grief made him an unhappy and disappointed man. lie saw his eldest son retreating to a wilderness in which he could not help him. Edward was uncertain or varues in living and confused over the strength and weakness of human nature. He was bitterly resentful of all interference and even affectionate advice. He became a law unto himself, and built up the usual defences of a lonely man uncertain of his own strength. He became increasingly stubborn and conceited over his popularity. His natural graces seemed to sour within him. Consideration for his servants changed to pettiness. His troubled spirit found its focus in the introduction of Mrs Simpson, who gave him a contentment unknown before.

“The friendship was a perpetual grief to his father, who called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to help in trying to persuade Edward from his error. The Prince rejected the advice of both.

“Upon his father’s death Edward apparently suffered no self-reproach in going to Fort Belvedere and staying away from his mother in the hours when his place was beside her.”

Tracing the changes in Edward’s character, Mr Bolitho says that he was never a liberal spender, and, with the acquisition of great lands and a fortune, he became curiously parsimonious. He dismissed old servants at Sandringham and pared the expenses. He became a piteous figure as he estranged himself from those who had served and respected him. Some murmured that there was fault in his reason, and wondered how rar he would bring the country into peril Some said that he imagined a state of a Royal dictatorship without a constitution, but it is doubtful if he came so near to the megalomania on wnich dictators thrive. He assumed the Crown with a Prime Minister who stood for safety, apathy which he could neither respect nor endure, and with an Archbishop to whom he was hostile.

Dealing with the yachting cruise in 1936, Mr Bolitho says: “Everywhere Mrs Simpson was beside the King. There is no denying that he was supremely happy, whatever the tide of criticism welling up against him. The King’s courage was not at fault, though he was incapable of conquest within himself. He did not avoid frightening interviews with Mr Baldwin and his mother and brothers. He blundered on, fiercely loyal to his poor ideal. For him to imagine that the traditions of British respectability could withstand the union he proposed showed how far he had wandered from the knowledge of his people. “Future authors will not write upon the romantic theme of a King wno gave up his throne for love, so much as upon the theme of a man of promise who came to disaster through the slow disintegration of his character, hastened by perpetual irustration.” DUKE OF WINDSOR VISIT TO JEWELLERS VIENNA, March 17. The Duke of Windsor visited jewellers and examined rings and brooches. DATE OF THE WEDDING rwo WEEKS AFTER CORONATION MORNING POST’S INFORMATION Received Zvlarch 19, 12.45 a.m. LONDON, March 18. The Morning Post’s Vienna correspondent says that, according to reliable information, it is now definitely settled that the Duke of Windsor’s wedding will occur at the British Legation chapel in Vienna two weeks after the Coronation. The exact date has not yet been determined. Mrs Simpson will take up residence in Vienna for a few days before the wedding.