THE KING WE SALUTE
IN the person of a new King there ascends the I Throne an unknown quantity. That must nearly always-be so, for kingship is a unique office. In other capacities Edward VIII has, as Prince of Wales, been very much in the public eye: - Millions have seen him personally, -and everyone in the Empire knows his photographs. His doings have filled a considerable space in the newspapers for twenty years. For all that, anyone trying to estimate his qualities for his new task has little to go upon.
Some formal facts must, of course, be brought into account. As Prince, he has travelled widely, visited nearly every corner of the Empire, and in some— especially in Western Canada—spent considerable time. He has likewise visited the United States and South America. On the European Continent he has been in the habit of sojourning (unofficially) about as much as—not conspicuously more or less than—is usual with young men of means and leisure. Adding it all together, he is one of the world's most travelled personages, if mileage be the test. But is it ? Does it add much to equip the wearer of the Crown, that he has chased steers in Alberta, shot elephants in tropical Africa, played polo and squash rackets all over the world, or ridden point-to-point races on a great variety of occasions ? Yet these, apart from the performance of ceremonial functions, are the kinds of activity chiefly reported of the Prince of Wales during the post-War years. Blameless indeed, but irrelevant to his new career. What one would really have liked to know, was how far upon his rounds in the Empire he had used the opportunities given him for studying how it was governed—its vast, bewildering, yet absorbing variety of constitutions, political outlooks, traditional methods, and leading statesmen. That is the harvest of travel which, if lie has it, will be an asset to him now. We have little means of judging whether he has it or. not. The daily newspapers, that have talked so much gossip about him, have on these really important topics—perhaps necessarily—been silent.
It is the same with his earlier upbringing. We know' that during the War he was attached to the Staff at G.H.Q. ; that he previously spent some terms at Magdalen College, Oxford ; that earlier still he was a cadet at Dartmouth. We need not suppose any of these experiences valueless, but we can be quite certain that the Prince could not undergo them in the sense and in the way that any ordinary -person would. The inferences that might be drawn from them about anybody else, cannot be drawn in his case. That is no fault of his, but it is the fact. In one way his father was more fortunate ; he did not become Heir Presumptive till he was twenty-six,. and his experience of the Navy before that was genuinely professional. Edward VIII has been in the direct succession to the Crown since his birth.
What then is known of him ? Chiefly, perhaps, that he has " personality." And what, in a Royal personage, does ' personality mean ? It means that in sustaining his part he has been more than a lay figure ; that when people come into touch with him, they find him individual and arresting ; when they converse with him, he has something of interest to say. Here has been the secret of his world-wide popularity. It is not an easy accomplishment for persons so placed, nor is it at all common among them. His grandfather, Edward VII, had it in a conspicuous degree ; and there is no doubt that in this and some other characteristics the new King recalls his ever-popular namesake. It is a gift that will advance a King a very long way along the path of duties which pertain to the modern Head of the British Empire. But, like most gifts, it carries a risk—the temptation to rely on it too exclusively. It was a risk that Edward VII did not escape. Few criticised what he did or left undone, while he lived ; for his charm disabled criticism. But after his reign was over it was noted that the prerogatives and effective personal influence of the Monarch had diminished and not increased during its course. If Edward VIII—who has the advantage over his grandfather of ascending the throne much younger— is to profit fully by the lesson of his career, he will seek to combine with the qualities of that brilliant monarch some others that were more conspicuously displayed by Queen Victoria and by George V.
We have faith that he will rise to the height of his great calling. The last fault that anyone has ever charged him with hitherto is inertia. On the con- trary he has given at times—especially in the physical sphere—an impression of over-activity, of resting too little, of taking too incessant a toll of his nerves. But that, if it be so, is the defect of a warm and spirited, not of a weak or commonplace nature. And of kingship this is certain—that, if great qualities of character are there, it will find openings for them and call them out. Nothing eolim he further from the truth than to suppose the position of a British constitutional monarch a sort of gilded captivity. His opportunities and responsibilities are alike mag- nificent, and should make unfailing appeal to all the best that is in him. If this was the case before the passing of the Statute of Westminster, it is now doubly so. The theory whereby the King, as the sole formal element of unity in the British Common- wealth of Nations, is separately " advised " by six separate Governments, each for thc sphere of the nation that they govern, may, be accurately described as a fiction. But it is not necessarily the worse for that ; fictions honestly and ably adhered to have played a great part in the history of past progress. Nobody supposes that Edward VIII, any more than George V, will be able to keep himself acquainted in detail with the inner politics of five other nations besides Great Britain. But he may none the less make his moral headship a felt reality in each, and set an example of public spirit and adherence to duty that will not be lost on any of them.
Corresponding to the impartiality with which lie must be King of " all the Britains," and not of Great Britain merely, is his duty to be King of all classes, rich and poor, brain-workers and hand-workers alike. Here his course can never be easy ; but if he follows in his father's footsteps—as in his Accession statement he declared he would—it will be clear. We see no reason to doubt that he will, and that the special lustre with which history will on this. account crown George V's name, may in due course rest equally upon his son's name also.
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