The Dominion. FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1910. THE KING ON PEACE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 757, 4 March 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1910. THE KING ON PEACE.

, v A London cablegram which we print to-day supplies a further extract from his Majesty the King's reply to the Anglican embassy of homage to his efforts to maintain the peace of the world. "Barely in history," so runs his Majesty's striking state-' ment, '"has the idea .of war seemed more repulsive or the desire for peace more widely cherished throughout the Empire." On the lips of any other'man,' even of the ■Minister for Foreign Affairs or of the Prime Minister, this utterance would attract no attention and would be accorded no significance. There are some truths, however, even truths so well known and universally admitted as to require description as commonplaces, which the King cannot utter, in his official capacity unless he is desirous of making known his wishes or of announcing a policy.. That his, Majesty's strong insistence, not only on tho misery of war, but on the altogether exceptional desire of {Jie present age for peace, will be deeply pondered and made tho subject of careful discus-' sion and hopeful speculation by the publicists of Europe and America, is open to no doubt. Readers of the. Letters of Queen Victoria must all have been struck by the deep sincerity 'of the hopes and prayers for peace which were uttered by her Majesty throughout her long reign, and by the pain and sorrow with which she followed the fortunes of her arms when war could not be avoided. Wc do not remember, however, that her Majesty ever, even in these private letters, gave, to the popular opinion of her age the solemn recognition that it has received from her successor.

' Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor— this is the character that a cynical age regards as normal in a monarch in his relations with his fellow rulers. "They all see the beauties of peace, and they all profess a hatred of disturbing the calm of the world, but in practice they are quite ready to make war without any scruples." To realise that this is the common belief one has only to remember with what incredulous amusement the British people receive the Emperor of Germany's periodical announcements of his concern for the maintenance of peace. No doubt this unbelief of the peoples, which is a natural reflection of'the mutual distrust of the Foreign Offices, is in some measure due to the stiff formality of royalty's pacific utterances. Simple and'unaffected phrases, with a human ring in them, or plain truths unofficially put, would go far towards encouraging a popular belief in the genuineness of royal, anxieties for friendliness amongst the nations. His Majesty's reply to the Anglican embassy has this simplicity and this contact with actual facts and the realities of the world, and it is in this that its importance and value lies. A desire for peace does not necessarily imply any sympathy with the policy of disarmament, with which, as a monarch of sound common sense, the King cannot possibly agree. As Grand Admiral von Koester, the President of the German Navy League, Baid the other day, there is "nothing in the least degree practical in all the talk about disarmament." Ho said what seems to us at the moment to be the final word on the subject when he pointed out that "international disarmament could mean nothing excepting the paralysing of free development." Britain must keep on building the while she hopes and labours for peace. The Letters of Queen Victoria are full of proofs that tho Sovereign can exert enormous personal influence in keeping the peace or making war. Can anybody doubt that when the letters of Kino Edward are published it will be found that again and again in tho past decade he has successfully checked, without the public knowing anything of it, a strong drift towards war between some of tho Powers}