VISIT OF KING AND QUEEN TO U.S.A.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 2, 4 January 1939, Page 9

VISIT OF KING AND QUEEN TO U.S.A.

GREAT INTEREST TO BE SHOWN AMERICAN SENTIMENT NEW YORK, Dec. 7. When President Roosevelt s wife remarked, after the King and Queen had accepted their invitation to visit the United States, that Americans were greatly interested in Royalty, and would take pride "in showing oil the King, as if he were an elder orother," she merely gave expression to a national sentiment that has been apparent in recent years—more so, since the rise of dictatorship, with its threat to democracy. The late King George had a deep personal interest in American affaiio and a sincere affection of the American people that were heartily reciprocated. At no time was this more manifest than on the occasion of his first broadcast to the Empire, on Christmas Day, 1932. It was estimated that he had fifty million listeners in the United States. Even before that historic incident, thoughtful Americans regarded him not only as the head o£ the British Commonwealth of Nations but as belonging to and shared by an English-speaking peoples. With what eagerness did tney listen to his voice! They were delighted to discover that it bore no distinct accent. The motion picture and radio fraternity were instructed to adopt this form of diction. It would not be difficult to prove that American speech has come nearer to the parent English as the result of his three appearances on the ah. President Roosevelt, a consistent admirer of King George, led the nation in expressing sympathy when his life “moved peacefully to its close.’’ Personification of the State In no part of the world are the varying classifications of liberty scanned more closely than in the United States. Rich educational endowments enable research to be carried on; in no sphere is it more searching than in the sphere of government. Americans watched with interest the decline of monarchies in Europe, and their replacement by dictatorships. Yet, at a time when there are fewer reigning monarchies in Europe than since the close of the Dark Ages, doubts are expressed of the efficacy of the republic—expresseu

by business men, teachers, workmen, who have been its staunch supporters. To them the monarchy found its highest expression in the person of the late King George. A constitutional authority Mr. Ralph Adams Gram, eloquently illustrates this sentiment among the American people. During KingGeorge's Jubilee, "all the magnificent and medieval panoply of high kingship was avidly, even enviously regarded by the citizenry of the United States. Somehow, behind the glittering show, men seemed to sense reality; there were stirrings of an older memory, for a few generations—they are hardly more than decades —could not wholly nullify the inheritance of five millenniums. After all, republicanism is a very bourgeois, nouveau riche affair.” Mr. Gram thinks the American system is seriously at fault, in that the President has political party affiliations, which the Constitution never contemplated. To release him from them would give iiim status as the personification of the State in the consciousness of the people. “The most vital factor in kingship is just this incarnation, in one visible individual, of the traditions of a people, their patriotism, their ideals and theii aspirations. This is why a King of today, like the King of England, is still, in the eyes of his people, the august personification of the State.”