A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE Prime Minister's broadcast on the King George VI Memorial campaign was both stimulating and reassuring. There was some reason for anxiety as to what form the memorial should take. There always is in such cases. There always is, that is to say, when it is a question of first deciding that something must be done and then thinking what to do. A statue goes without saying. There is, I think, somewhere in London a statue of every Eng- lish monarch from Henry VIII onwards except Mary and Edward VIII. Manifestly our late King must be added to the series. But that will make very small inroads into the fund it is intended to raise. As to the disposal of the rest it is difficult to think of any better decision than the decision that has actually been taken. The King, as Mr. Churchill recalled, had a very special interest in youth. He continued what was long known as the Duke of York's camp after he came to the throne, till the war put an end to it all (I attended one of the later camps as a guest and saw the King thoroughly soaked as he landed on Southwold beach in sweater and shorts from a rowing-boat which conveyed him from the royal yacht). Nothing could be more fitting than that half the fund should be devoted to improving youth's chances in life, unless it were that the other half should be used for smoothing the path of the aged. I use the word half in a broad sense; I have no knowledge how the fund will be apportioned preCisely between youth and age. Probably no one does yet.
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