KING AND THE WAR

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1929, Page 2

KING AND THE WAR

RISKS THAT WERE TAKEN

AN UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT

In a recent article in the New York Times, Sir Philip Gibbs speaks of the sacrifices made and the risks taken during the war by King George. »Sir Philip writes: —

“ Your King and Country need you.” No one perhaps will ever know, or faintly guess, the strain to the mind and heart of the man, who through the years of-desperate .conflict followed the fate of all those millions of young soldiers who answered that call. r I he fighting men —the- follows in the trenches —did not think often perhaps of the King. Even England seemed a world away as they, stared across No Man’s Land, waiting for the next attack or cursing the barrage fire. Behind the lines, now and then, in battalion messes, an officer rose and said: ‘‘Gentlemen, tbe King!” and glasses were raised. In tin* trenches and the shell craters there was no remembrance or consciousness of things like that. Death was very close. But the King was thinking oi them. That was his promise at the beginning. When they first Expeditionary Force —the old B.E.F.—went out to France the King sent a message to his troops expressing his confidence in them and praying God to guard them. “Your welfare will never be absent .from my thoughts.” be wrote. He wanted to 'share dangers, but a King is not master of his own life, and he had to be content with those brief visits. The first visit was on November 30, 1914. and lasted a,week, when he inspected masses of troops paraded behind tlic lines.

Almost a year passed before the King paid his second visit to the front. That was from October 22 to November 7, 1915, in dismal weather, and still at a time before the British armies in France had reached their full strength and power. On October 28 an unfortunate accident happened of which I chanced to be an eye-witness only a few yards away. It was when tbe King was thrown from bis horse by no fault of bis own. Tbe King kept his seat perfectly, but the poor animal slipped in the greasy mud and fell over on to tbe King’s body. Generals jumped from their horses and tbe King was picked up and carried to a motor car. Standing close to him I could sec that he was seriously hurt, though quite conscious. Further down the road the men cheered again as he passed in lus car, not realising that any accident had 1m ppened. On the following day an ambulance passed through the little town of Billers on the way to a hospital train. It was one of the ordinary ambulances in which there was a daily traffic of wounded, with muddy boots upturned beneath the blankets, and. there were few who guessed that beneath the closed flaps lay, not a Tommy from the trenches, but tbe King of England. Eight months later the King visited the front again, and this time against the advice, and certainly against the wish of the Commamler-in-Cliief and the other generals, lie insisted upon going closer into the danger zones and taking considerably risks. His most interesting and, indeed, thrilling i isit was in July, of 1917, when tbe Queen accompanied him to France, but not, of course, to the places within the zone of fire.

The King took risks that time which were certainly bc.volid prudence, out which had an excellent effect upon tlnspirit of the troops, who admired his pluck.