THE PRINCE OF WALES.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18703, 1 August 1932, Page 3

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

FULFILLED HIS PROMISE. V NEW ZEALAND WRITER’S TRIBUTE. i I i Mr Hector Bolitho, the New Zealand author, writes as follows in the London Daily Mail — Eleven years ago I stood upon a whanf in New Zealand and saw the Prince of Wales walk down the gangway to step, for the first time, upon the soil of our proud Dominion. He was young, 'his smile was disarming, and his air was that of a young soldier. He had stood before kitchener, in Whitehall, in the early days of the war, begging him to allow him to go to France. He had said: “I have brothers. . . it does not matter if I am killed." He had been to France, and he had proved himself valiant, compassionate, and democratic. Appeal to New Zealanders. But he was young, and his appejal to the million New Zealanders was that of a boy, a Prince in whom we saw the romance of history and the curious and passionate- appeal to our imagination, an appeal which we needed as part of the abnormal state of war. Since then the Prince has grown to manhood, and to-day he celebrates his thirty-eighth birthday. We are obliged, therefore, to dismiss the more sentimental picture of (Talahad and examine his achievements as a man. The picture is less romantic, its lines are more serious and grim, but it is not less amazing and inspiring to us as a people. The limelight thrown upon princes is ruthless. In spite of this searching examination to which the Prince of Wales has always been subjected it can be said that no public man alive to-day has been more unselfish, more considerate, more imaginative and practical in doing his work. There has been nobility of purpose shining in every service he has done the oountry. England threw away a great opportunity after the war. The loyalty of the people had not been tested since the Napoleonic wars, and there was no reason to suppose that the British people in remote places, many of whom had never seen England, should come thundering across the seas to give everything they had of spirit, strength, and kind to a cause with which they were but remotely connected. They did it. The sword had not rusted since Napoleon’s day. An Opportunity Missed. But they were allowed to go back, when the war was over, and nobody seemed to realise that Australians and New Zealanders and Canadians and South Africans, who would give their blood for the Empire, would perhaps give also those services which would bind us into an economio unity. Years were allowed to pass, the fine passion of loyalty to fade when it had no alien dangers to inspire it and keep it alive.' The Prince of Wales was the first public man to realise that this service of blood, given so valiantly in war, could also be the Inspiration of what we are now trying to achieve with conferences and politics. He saw that It was magnificent to die for the parent England, but that it'was as great a service to live for it. This was the inspiration of his Dominion tours. Through all the apathy of anaemic British Governments the Dominions have (remembered him. For them he is the Gibraltar in the sea of jealousies and political humbug. If ever Great Britain fell a viotim to the Bolshevist menace it would not be because of the discontent of the more humble people, but because of the apathy of the rich and what we call the upper classes. The passions of citizenship are richest in the middle class and working people. It is to these that the Prince of Wales has always made his greatest appeal,_ because they see in him the industry,’ the sincerity and the nobility of purpose which, in brief, is the strength of our national character. Mission of Tenderness. When he went to the unhappy mining areas some years ago he touched those of us who observe the growth of his character in a way which oannot be written about. 1 Free of sentimentality, his missions of_ tenderness among poor people wear the touch of nobility and of religion translated into action. We can never compare ourselves, as a people, with any of the other European nations. What happened to Russia and Germany with the revolutions after the war oame to us with Cromwell. So It is that our Rpyal Family live in a different relationship with their people from that of any other. They are the symbol of our home life. The Emperors of Germany and Austria used to be painted as figures of power, and it was with the panoply of power that they were represented in the prints and piotures which were hung in the oottages and inns of their countries. It was as a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother that' Queen Victoria was represented In the simple picture ‘‘The Four Generations” which was hung in every inn and many cottages at the end of last century. Atmosphere of a Home. This atmosphere of a home rather than that of a palace surrounds the Royal Family still. In a moment of deep national feeling Londoners press themselves against the railings of Buckingham Palace, seeking some kind of strength from the bare face of stone which hides their ruler from them. They do not think of a sovereign ruler remote from them Jn Instincts and circumstances. To a London crowd, staring past the railings of the palace on an armistice night or at a time when we were afraid our King might die, the King is head of a family which is an example to every mansion or cottage in the country. This simplicity descends to the Prince, and he is one with us in all that we feel and know; In all anxiety and in all conquest. It is easy to pour praise upon meretricious celebrities. We live in an age of adjectives and superlatives. Faced with a man whose sincerity is thrilling to us, we are prone to remain silent. But an occasion such as a birthday is one upon which we relax our English reserve and renew our expressions of loyalty and affection, especially when they arc for a man who has fulfilled his promise.