MONARCHY AND THE PRINCE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160639, 4 May 1920, Page 6

MONARCHY AND THE PRINCE.

PICTURES OP ROYAL LIFE.

At % lecture delivered a few days ago at New Plymouth, the Rev. J. Napier Milne, some interesting references were made to the King and Queen and New Zealand’s Royal visitor, the Prince of Wales. In the course of this lecture, which was entitled “The Heir to the British Throne: Shall the Prince Reign?”, the lecturer said: “The Monarchy has ceased to suggest tyranny license, arbitrary power; it has come to mean to our minds the untrammelled influence of goodness in an exalted place, ‘an Empire,’ as one has put it, ‘united round a centre and ■that centre a wise, patient, beneficent Sovereign, one who leads more than he rules, ono who grasps all that is best in the nation and sets it on his brow like a royal standard, that the nation in following him may follow only what is best.’ To-day, other classes and institutions may be in danger, but the Monarchy is safe because the Monarchy is established in the reverence and. affection of • his people. There is every prospect that our Royal visitor in the time appointed will sway our ancient sceptre amid the radiance of a people’s love and devotion. It is little that we know about our future ruler, but the little that we do know we like. It is said that when he was a tiny boy he was thinking very deeply one day as sometimes boys will concerning the wickedness that was in the world, and perhaps with his thoughts was merged something of the belief in the power of xnouarchs for good. Said his Royal Highness suddenly; ‘When I become King the first thing I shall do will be to stop sin.’ He will find it hard work, but his help will be simply invaluable, The Prince is 25 and unmarried. Like every true Britisher he is shy.

At Oxford ho led the life of an ordinary undergraduate and attended the lectures like the other men and wore the ordinary college gown. One college, it is said, resented with buckets of water the impertinence of a crowd that gathered about her gates to see the Prince on his way to a lecture. He took no commanding position during the war, but he was a familiar figure in the trenches for a whole spring, and many an unsuspecting private got a lift in his motor-car. He was once slightly gassed and once very unromantieally wounded by a flying splinter miles behind the firing-line. His friendships are not affected by social position, and his various public speeches, delivered with spirit and grace, show him to bo intensely sympathetic, and keenly alive to the welfare of the people he will one day be called upon to govern.

When we remember the kind of man his father is, and the sort of homo in which he has been brought up, we may dismiss every fear concerning our future ruler. King George is a deeplyreligious man. Let me tell you a story about him which you have never heard and which has never appeared in a newspaper. A minister in (the Old Country whom I have 'the privilege of knowing intimately, Chaplain-General the Rev. J. H. Bateson, C.M.G., was for some years chaplain to the troops in India. During his visits to that land the present occupant of the Throne honoured Mr Bateson on a number of occasions by giving him an audience. It was the King’s interest, not only in the military, but also in the moral welfare of the British soldier that gave Mr Bateson his opportunity. . He is a man who has an inimitable way of telling a story, and he has some thrilling and wonderful stories of redeeming grace to tell. The King having heard him once, wanted to hear him again. He would send for him and say: “Tell me about your converted Tommies.” And as Mr Bateson told about his converted Tommies, men, whom from being the despair and the disgrace of their regiments, had become their regiments’ hope and pride and joy, the King’s eyes filled with tears, court etiquette was forgotten, bath the ruled and the Euler felt they were in the presence of the King Immortal, Invisible.

King George is the first British monarch vho has dared to set at nought a foolish ecclesiastical law. He offended some bigots, but he pleased the vast majority of his subjects when he attended the great' Free Church thanksgiving service held, in the lloyal Albert nail. London, to commemorate the coming of peace. The King recognises that lie has no more loyal supporters and upholders of his ancient throne tnan tnose who are sometimes called "Nonconformists,” and his son, we may 1,0 oLire, will not be slow to follow the nan ms father has given. nor must it be lorgotten how the rung set an example to his people in the matter of abstinence from wine during the period of the war. For all time that will redound to his credit. Would that \ his Parliament and his army and his people generally had deemed his sacrifice of enjoyment and convenience worthy of emulation! What sorrow we should have been spared, what disaster, what prolonged agony of bloodshed and tears!

The Prince of Wales is coming to us from a home where there is a beautiful English family life. George the Fifth is in some respects a Victorian. He has revived the simplicity of the early Victorian Court, and faithfully observes the traditions of the great Queen. One of those traditions was purity. A young officer is said once to have amused the ladies-in-waiting with some story of the kind that perhaps we know too well. The Queen requested him to repeat it to her, and the unhappy man had to do so. No smile came to her face. She simply said she disapproved, and the life of that young man at Court was at an end.

People with doubtful reputations are making very little way with our King and Queen. The Eoyal favour is not for those who trifle with the sanotity of family ties. There is a decadence in this Empire of ours, but at heart it is sound, and it will always be found to respond to purity and soundness and righteousness in high places. For his own sake, for the sake of the man who is his father and the lady who is his mother, w© are going to welcome with hands and hearts and voices the heir to the British Throne. One and all we say; “God bless the Prince of Wales.”