BROADCAST BY KING AT CHRISTMAS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 308, 29 December 1937, Page 7

BROADCAST BY KING AT CHRISTMAS

SHOULD IT OCCUR ALWAYS? LONDON TIMES’ COMMENT Received Dec. 28, 6.40 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 28. The Times, in a leader, says: “The third sentence in the King’s Christmas Day broadcast must be interpreted to mean that the King will not broadcast every Christmas Day. “It is a wise decision—and, for that reason, perhaps better than any which lilial respect has allowed to be given. The King, we all pray, will reign many years, and so intimate and spontaneous a contact between him and his people should not be allowed to come within the danger of being taken as a matter of course. All will hope that when the occasion arises the King will broadcast on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, neither he nor his people will doubt that, broadcast or no, a true Christmas feeling will pass to and fro between them.”

His Majesty said in his message:— “Many of you will remember the Christmas broadcast of former years when my father spoke to his people at Home and overseas as the revered head of a great family. His words brought happiness into the homes and into the hearts of listeners all over the world. I cannot aspire to take his place, nor do I think that you would wish me to carry on unvaried a tradition so personal to him; but as this is the first Christmas since our Coronation the Queen and I feel that we want to send to you a further word of gratitude for the love and loyally you gave us from every quarter of the Empire during his unforgetable year now drawing to its end. We have promised to try and be worthy of your trust, and this is'a pledge that we shall always keep.”