THE CORONATION 'S INNER MEANINGS.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 97, 11 May 1937, Page 4

THE CORONATION 'S INNER MEANINGS.

The imposipg and impresgive ceremony that takes place in Westminster Abbey to-morrow and all its attendant outside display may be regarded from many points of view, In the firgt place, it marks the perpetuation of an institution that, with but o»e short break, has maintained itself in England for more than a thousand years and in the United Kingdpm for more than tbr.ee hundred. It will confirm, amidst the agclaim of the multitude, their faith in the system oi government under which they have so long lived— a limited hereditary monarchy as the beadpiece, with all real legislative, e^ecutjye and administrative authority vested in a repre* sentatjve body of the people'^ pwn free chojee, That in brief is the way in which the Mptherland and all her selfgoverning Dominipns are ruled. Tp-morrpw'js demonstra--tions will, in essence, be but a cpnvincing testimony to the faet that the vast majprlty of the people so governed are thoroughly content with it and, indeed, glory in it. I?or centuries the Crown to be placed to-morrow upon the head of George VI. as King of Great Britain, Ireland, and of the JBritish Dominions beyond the Seas, and as Emperor pf Indiaj, was the symbol of an actual sovereignty. To-day it is the symbol of the unity of a great Empire of many component peoples. It is in that the great significanee and gplemnity of to-morrow 's ceremony lie. To it have gathered representatives from all corners of the earth gladly and proudly paying obeisance not to the man on whom the Crown is bestowed but to- the ideal of government of which it is the emblem. To it, too, will honour be paid — in many cases no doubt with some touch of envy at the solidity and permanence tor which it stands— by practically all the nations of the world. The dictators of the day may well see something in all this that will give them cause for thought as to the certain evanescence of the kind of rule they have set up which must almost nece^sarily end with their own lives — and the lives of dictators are notoriously short. With Great Britain and her daughter nations the days of idolatory for a single despotic figure are long past. The crowning of their King with plandits is in effect but a mark of ready allegiance to a form of government that has been evolved and is still in process of evolution by and for themselves, There are no doubt many here who will think that there has been a great deal of unwarranted and useless extravag- - ance in the pomp and circumstance with which the Coronation is being surrounded-— something probably greater than has hitherto attended any like ceremonial. It has, however, to be borne in mind that somAhing of the kind is expected, almost demanded, on such occasion by the great mass of the people of the Old Country. Beyond this, too, and probably of greater importance in the minds of British statesmen, is the opportunity thus given for demonstrating to the outside world the solidarity and strength of the Empire. At no stage in its recent history has this been more needed, foi there can be little doubt that the events of the last few years have led other rulers and ofcher countries to the falss con«clusion that Great Britain is in some way decadent and was. . losing her place as an influence and a force to be reckoned with. As a matter of fact, this special parade at the Coronation may very well be taken as being a supplement, of relar tively small cost, to the programme of rearmament which Great Britain has undertaken. Both are designed to dispel any illusions which other Great Powers may fondly ent€rtain and at the same time help to make for the maintenance of the worid's peace. As for what the Coronation may mean to the peoples who live under the British flag, it will, in the first place, bring their representatives togetHer under the happiest auspices for the promotion of mutual understanding and good will at the Imperial Conference that is to follow immediatetly upon it. Every delegate there can scarcely but enter upon its deliberations with som6 new sense of the vastness and variety of the interests that are involved and of the need for Imperial rather than for individual thinking. Above all should the oversea delegates, ver^r much inclined to be blind to all but their own comparatively petty interests, gain some insight into the immense responsibilities that still and alwuys must rest upon the shoulders of British statesmen, whose eyes have to sweep and keep watch over all the earth 's continents and islands. For them the Coronation and the Conference should provide a school in which many lessons are to be learned, and perhaps among them a little less sense of self-importance.