A THRONE AND SPORT

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 148, 10 July 1937, Page 16

A THRONE AND SPORT

they are strikingly akin BACRIFICE TO THE CALL OF DUTY

gLAYING FOR THE TEAM ALL THE TIME

In this straigM-from-tlie-sho'ulder article, Bill Cunningham, iports "writer oi the Boston Post (U.S.A.) pays a tribute to H.jf. King Georgei VI., and deals with the similar fundamentala tffording basis to the spirit of sport and to the duty of whoever occupies a throne. This is an unusual Coronation arjticle Irom the Ameriean standpoint. It is reprinted here merely to alford insight to the minds of many Americans who * appreciate self-sacrifiee in the canse of duty.

It way teem a iar cry from the lald of blood, sweat and leather to Coronation of the Monarchs of a .vorld-wide Empire, but it isn't so fax ,vben the score is added up. The rules }t the game, no matter what the ranoa, are only the xules of living, ifter all, and sports don't justify themselves unless they buiid into the more abundant life. It's my profound belief after aome quarter of a century aa a player and a professional obnerver that they do just that, and all Ht that. V The code of the sportsman, when reduoed to the residuum, is the code of liryw and fairer living. It's stated in 'dlfferent words, perhaps, but it means exactiy the same. The sportsman says, "Give the opponent an even break. Never take an unfair advantage." And thi law of living is really the Golden Rule, which says, "Do unto others as you would have others unto you." There isn't any differ^nce. V The aecret of success in sports is coqper&tion, co-ordination, the acceptanoe of leadership, sacrifice for an ide&L That's likewise the secret of the success of an organisation, a comcommunity, a State or a nation. Without those things no team goes any--.vhere, and without them no nation -aQ go anywhere, either. flalute the King! r*This k Coronation Week (the article was written then) in the British Empire, and through the troubled trail that has led to this solemn and gllttering ceremony we've had an example of fealty, and the lack of it, that comes exactiy home to the sport-

Every sportsnwn in the world, regardless of his of how the affairs of the world should be run, instinctively comes to his feet °S- e Zoung man they hre Towning King George VI. He has stuck by his team. He has ruly kept the faith. The job he's accepting is one of the . Tost exacting on earth. There's no un to be had in it. He has certain physical and spiriual limitations that make it the ;arder. Accepts His Duty Bravely. Yet it's his job. It's his duty. And bravely, courageously, he accepts it. He takes the solemn oath to do the best he can with it. And he 'will. That's the true sportsman's way, and true sportsmen the world over give him the- salute of a noble fratemity. _He rates a double measure of admiration because the job didn't figure to be his in the beginning and because .t caught him more or less unprejiared. Everything of charm, of poise, of physical perfection and popularity that seemed to have been denied him by Nature had gone to the elder brother, in whom the future of Empire wa s supposed to be. resting. But when the test came, it was the favoured brother who proved the weakling, and -the weakiing brother who proved to be the man. Sports offer frequent examples of that.phenomenon, too. But here it was in life, magnified to a size seldom hitherto beheld because the crisis was so tremendous. It's well enough for the international cocktaii set, the typical brain pan of which is about as deep as a pie plate in a Shirley Temple doll set, to hail the Duke of Windsor's defection as a triumph of true love. It's all part of an understandable scenario for the papers to print pictures of Eddle and Wally ho'lding hands and tipping highballs, and to go into stitch by stitch description of her "Wally blue tro'usseau." Certainly that's newa. t

But so was the three-point landing of the original Beelzebub. So was the matrimonial eccentricities of Daddy Browning. So. are the amorous affairs of the late WiUiam Desmond Taylor. The trouble is that most stories stop there, and the after ehapters are seldom made part of the record. It is extremely doubtful if anybody who ever deliberately funked a responsibility they were born and bred to do ever found a suitable substitute. The most cruel fate that can befall them is merely to keep on living. History is filled with examples of charmers, fair and otherwise, who weaned men away from the tasks they were born to* take up. History is likewise filled with the tragedies of what happened to them afterward. Most Hated Women in World. Some were ambitious and lost their heads. Some were %ruly in love and merely lost ariy suggestion of the bliss they thought they foresaw. -No woman in her right mind would want the career of the future Duchess of Windsor. There's been a palpable resraint on all sides in ' discussing her case, but the cold truth of the matter is that she's the most hated woman in the world at the moment. Assassinaion is a large possibiliy in her future and snubs. of the most open and deliberate will be her lot to the end of her days. The story now is that she still has her eye on the throne, and expects the popularity of her Boysey to bring some aort of revolution, bloody, or otherwise, that will seat him in the famous chair with her beside him.

TJiis seems to be the most fantastic misreading of the minds of a people since another famous girl friend said! Let 'em eat cake." The British Empire may end, and there may be revolution. Nobody but a fool would predict anything in these times, but from all present appearances, the celebrated Unicorn will walk on his hands up the side of Buckingham Palace before this specimen of sOlf-improving feminine merchandise even sits on the steps of the palace sentry-box. And can you picture the life of the Duke and Duchess when those family spats start, as family spats will, and where is the family without them? "I gave up the throne for you," the husband will thunder. "Oh, yeah, and so what?" thc lady will say. Echo will have to answer so what. The guy who's been pensioned by his land to make love while children starve in the coalfields of Wales and hungry bread-earners count their ha'pennies in Whitechapel and wonder if they can afford a pint of milk for the kid in the cradle, will have to take his misery to the other end of the room. Duty First, Self laat. Even if they'rp happy in the company of each other, there can be no real happiness if their hearts and souls are genuine. There are many things that are big and compelling in this life, but duty comes first. And in he life of a man who's been reared to be a King, along with duty, comes dignity, decency, self-sacrifice, if necessary. Self comes last. And so it does in sports. And so it has with the sportsman who has accepted the job under the least auspicious of circumstances. Shy, retiring, hampered by an impediment in his speech, he was content — even happy — to rernain in the background. and leave the huzzas to his more -favoured brother. Yet, when thc unbclievablc crl^is came, he nio *-

sured up like a man and like a sportsman. It may well be that the solidity and sanity of the entire world was saved when he volunteered for the job he didn't expect and. nevdr considered he'd have. It's not so far away from us. The world is small these days. It's not fawning to say that we hail his Coronation. The world needs strength there as it needs it here. It needs the tradition of decency, of dignity, of determination upheld, and upheld by a man who measured four square. It's not up to us to intone "God Save the King," but it's not beyond us to hail the crowning of a man who has shown the willingness to accept a king' responsibilities in a nation whose friendship and whose understanding we need and vice versa, and for whom we pray that the God of all nations will give strength and intelligence to the end that peace and joy and. a greater and fuller prosperity may bc vouchsal'od to all thc people of all thc cai'th,