THE “OBVIOUS” DUKE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 554, 5 January 1929, Page 10

THE “OBVIOUS” DUKE

PREFERS “GOING WITHOUT SAYING” The Duke of York paid a tribute to oratory other than his own at the annual dinner of the Harrdwicke Society at the Hyde Park Hotel, London. “Not long ago,” he said, “I read somewhere that members of the Royal Family were ‘obvious’ persons. I was not quite sure what this expression meant, so I looked up the word ‘obvious’ in the dictionary, and one of the definitions given was ‘goes without saying.’ I have attended many dinners at which I have wished to be ‘obvious’ and ‘go without saying.’ That is not the case to-night, however, for it gives me a real pleasure to propose the toast of the society. “I fear I have little personal experience of the law,” continued the Duke. It falls to my lot to hold many positions. lam president of hospitals and societies of every kind; I hold commissions in all three fighting services; I am a Maori chief, a boy scout, a draper, a bencher of the Inner Temple. But I have never been invited to become a judge, and so I caDnot speak from personal experience of a legal education. Accuracy and alertness of mind are essential, but are themselves of little use unless the possessor of these qualities can also express himself clearly and tersely. I do not mean with such terseness as the American gentleman who asked a lady to dance in these expressive words: ‘Say, kid, lend me your form for a twist.* ’* (Laughter.)