The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1938. QUEEN MARY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 122, 26 May 1938, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1938. QUEEN MARY

TN the welter o£ change which has marked the movement ot 1 recent years, one figure stands out dominant on the British scene. That figure is to-day somewhat lonely, but she retains all that is regal in her bearing, and sustains all that is dignified to the extent expected of those who are born to royal rank. That lonely figure is Queen Mary. Her position in English society has ever been a sure one; for with the closing of the Edwardian reign a change came over England—perhaps it would be better to say that the change imposed itself on the world. The Edwardian era was a period wherein life was good, prosperous, very comfortable, and without major disturbances. The Georgian period was an era of change, of disturbance, and an effort at reconstruction. Naturally the world looks back with wistful eye:, to the days of the Edwardians, with their country house parties, with delightful music, good plays, and colourful pageantry throughout the English cities and towns. But something more has been required to be reconstructed in this post-war world, and that was the spiritual outlook. Edwardianism was not definitely latitudinarian but it was accommodating. As such it took the edge off many harshnesses which the world had inherited from the Victorian era, but there was a decline in values which did not help in the period of shock which was to follow. The major shock- eame in the form of the World War: but that shock was not a blow from the outside; rather was it a crashing of the structure under stress because the structure could not make the necessary accommodations. The great depression of 1929 onward was also a crashing of the structure in the economic sense. War is the pursuing of political ideas by military means. The depression was made more acute because polities, which is the name for the art whereby men govern themselves and each other, was unable to stand up to the realities of the world situation, and kept putting off, by any means available, the fundamental issues which were presenting themselves for solution. When the situation would bear delay no longer the minds and spirits of men were sorely tried. From these great problems to the personality of royalty may seem a long step, and so it is in the world of action. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that English society’s behaviour is fashioned on emulation of royal behaviours, just as that royal behaviour conforms more or less to the prevailing conventions of the day. The two interact on each other and. together, they mould the standards of individuals, and it is these standards of individuals which determine the actions and reactions of the public toward the great questions of the day. A nation which has at its head men and women of dignity, who represent the virtues of probity and restraint, and consideration for others, cannot lay aside altogether those virtues when approaching international and national problems. With those high examples before them it is not easy to depart therefrom, and even though a departure is made it is of a temporary nature. Queen Mary has been of great help in these troubled clays notwithstanding her limited sphere of action, and the British people, wherever they may be, from London to the least last lump of coral in the Southern Pacific, will rejoice that she has to-day attained to her seventy-first birthday, healthy in body, and happily circumstanced in the evening of her life, and secure in the affections of the nation.