WORDS MISREPRESENTED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 219, 16 August 1937, Page 8

WORDS MISREPRESENTED

TALK ON ROYAL FUNERAL

“I certainly did not mean any disrespect to the Duke of Windsor. Noth; inc was further from my thoughts, said Sir Gerald Wollaston Garter King of Arms, when explaining how he came to make the remark which evoked from the Duke the exclamation: What a ‘rotten’ story!” . Sir Gerald was reported as having indicated at a Lyceum Club dinner that the Duke had “rushed the funeral of King George V The Duke replied from Austria that, his mother having expressed a wish to have the funeral on January 28, seven davs after death, he had called a meeting of all the necesasry authorities and told them of that wish All except Sir Gerald agreed, and he, the Duke, had to speak sharply to him. Later Sir Gerald said: If I have caused any distress to the Duke, 1 most deeply regret it. I was not by any moans the only one who objected. Asked if the Duke had spoken sharply to him he said he did not wish to discuss that, but the Duke had certainly expressed a desire to have the funeral within a week. As far as Sir Gerald could remember tlie Duke bad said it was his mother’s wish and he agreed that the object of the request was to avoid prolonging the distress of Queen Mary and other members of the Royal F insisted that his remarks had been misrepresented m a way that lie had never for one moment intended.