3 APRIL 1953, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK - -IFIE nation, personified by the multitudes

who filed past the coffin in Westminster Hall on Monday and Tuesday, has said farewell to Queen Mary. All that is mortal of her lies beside her husband in St. George's Chapel. She goes, leaving a rich memory that will not quickly fade., Notable tributes have been paid to her in print and over the air, by men and women who knew her well and who knew her little, most striking among them perhaps the broad- cast, simple, intimate, beautiful, by the Dowager Lady Ampthill on Monday evening. Every phase of her life has been recalled, from childhood to the still fresh grave, and anyone Who sought to find ill in her would seek in vain. Rays of light -have been thrown on her personality from this source and from that. Her son, the Duke of- WinciSor, has mentioned that she never would use a telephone. Lady Ampthill ascribed to her shyness the fact that she never made a speech. Sir 'Leigh Ashton has borne testimony to her knowledge and her unerring judgement in the field of paintings and antiques. And rooted in the past though this lady, born when Queen Victoria had still more than thirty years to reign, might be thought to to be, the late Lord Chancellor has recalled her admonition to him, " We must move with the times." That she most resolutely and courageously did. Changing times brought ?hanging customs and changing duties; and every duty was most punctually ' and conscientiously performed. If one of the greatest services the Royal House can do to the nation is to set an example which every family and every member of it Will be the better for,_ then Queen Mary, must be adjudged to have performed that service almost flawlessly in the station to which it pleased Providence to call her. So We would mourn her, not as they That weep irreparable loss, but rather in deep thankfulness for a strong and gracious persOnality, set in a place where the light of her beneficent example could not be hid.