The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1920. THE PRINCE’S VISIT

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14348, 27 April 1920, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1920. THE PRINCE’S VISIT

This is indeed a red letter day in the annals of Hamilton, for to-day a Prince of the Royal Blood, the HeirApparent to Britain's Throne, traversed our streets and received the plaudits and the honour of those who, in the days that lie ahead, will, in all human probability, hail him as their King and greet him as their Sovereign. In these democratic times much of the awe and dazzle previously associated with Kings and Princes has passed away; the sitters on thrones, the wearers of crowns and the wiclders of sceptres have been bereft of many of their erstwhile prerogatives, and the power once exercised by them is now vested in others. There are few subscribers to the doctrine of “The Divine Right of Kings," and the creed that “The King can do no wrong” will find no adherents; indeed public sentiment appears to have veered almost to the other extreme, and views and opinions are publicly expressed in our streets regarding Kings and their office which had they been “thought aloud” m the not remote past would have meant trouble for those who had the temerity to think them. The world to-day has no time for autocracy, the last vestige of which disappeared as the result of the recent war, when thrones turrfbled like ninepins, and fzars, Kaisers, Emperors and Sultans became fugitives from the wrath of their erstwhile subjects and exiles from the countries over which they ruled. Britain’s throne, however, was by tlie same process strengthened and more firmly established. We make bold to assert that a Crown was never more secure on the head of a monarch than is that of Britain to-day, and never was it more widely or more generally recognised that the destiny of the Empire is inextricably associated with the future of the dynasty. The war in other lands dissevered monarch and subject; in the case of Britain it has drawn King and people into closer union. It has forcibly demonstrated that the keystone of our widely-divided Empire is the Throne, and that Britons, though sundered far, are united in loyalty to him who, in his own person, represents the Majesty of Empire. It may be “only a sentiment,” but sentiment is essential to concord, and it must receive expression in a tangible and ®ersonal form. For that reason, the ctlstence of an Empire sucli as ours mtaus a visible overlord is unthinkable, for we are a company of nations, a coter.e of self-governing peoples, each independent of the other so far as internal administration is concerned, but united withal in one grand whole, and the only visible tie that binds—the keystone to the grand edifice—ls The King. The King dethroned would therefore mean a scattering, a dispersal, of the unit;, and our Empire, as an Empire, would be no more. Such a development, however, is amongst the most remote of rem6te possibilities; .t would, indeed, be a sad and gloomy day were it ever to eventuate. Men may profess to

deride the Imperial spirit of Britain, but in that spirit, rightly directed, lies, as the recent great struggle demonstrated, the hope of civilisation and the welfare of all peoples. It was the rallying of Britons, at the call of Britain’s King, to the support of the British cause that saved the world from thraldom and vassalage, and had it not been for the Imperial tie that rallying would not have eventuated. The average Briton will have no hesitation in re-echoing the memorable words of the Bon. W. Young, “Loyalty to the Throne! Love of British institutions—they are engrafted in cur very nature; and we can no more tear them from our hearts (even if we would, and lacerate all its fibres) than we could sever limbs from our bodies.” This sentiment is the explanation of th? enthusiastic reception accorded to the Prince on his landing on these shores, and which has this day been so vigorously reiterated in our own streets. That the Prince is personally popular admits of no doubt, but it is not the personal popularity of the young man that has so moved the multitudes; it is that in him Britons recognise the embodiment of the fact that though sundered by miles of space they arc truly a people, having one flag and a common destiny. As the Prince pursues his tour that truth wiil increasingly grip the people amongst whom he moves, and thus will he perform a great mission by stimulating the spirit of true patriotism amongst them, and revivifying that love and allegiance for the Throne which are essential elements to the maintenance of Imperial unity. That love may in some cases be dormant, but it is latent in alk and only requires such an occasion as that which we celebrate to-day to arouse it into enthusiastic expression.