NEWS OF THE WEEK ,
THE nation is as quick to share the sorrows as the joys of the Royal Family. The news of the King's illness stirs emotions as keen as the news of the birth of the King's grandson did, as keen too as the news of his father's still graver illness twenty years ago. How great the need for anxiety may be is not yet accurately known except by the King's doctors, but their advice that the Royal tour to Australia should be abandoned, since persistence in it might mean the loss of a limb, tells its own story. On the other hand it would seem that the dangers attaching to the presence of a clot of blood are not involved, and there is good reason to believe that with rest and skilled treatment the King may after no long delay be restored to normal health. This sudden arrest of his activities is an incidental and salutary reminder of •how numerous and how valuable those activities are. King George is beyond question a far harder worker than the average citizen among his subjects. All who have come in contact with him bear witness, as Mr. Churchill did in the House of Commons on Tuesday, to the conscientious diligence with which he follows public affairs and discharges the duty, which is often inevitably a drudgery, of reading innumerable State papers. Add to that the strain which perpetual ceremonial occasions impose, and it will be realised that only a man determined to keep physically fit could avoid a break- down in health as successfully as the King has hitherto avoided it. How far the present illness is the effect of physical strain can hardly be accurately measured, but that strain is at least a contributory factor is a reasonable assumption. Regret at the abandonment— which may after all be only a postponement of the Australian visit— is intensified by a realisation of the immense value of the tour in South Africa last year. Our kings serve far more than they rule.
