MAY MARRY HIS OWN CHOICE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 301, 4 December 1936, Page 5

MAY MARRY HIS OWN CHOICE

LEGAL POSITION REGARDING ROYAL MARRIAGE.

SUGESTION THAT KING SHOULD WED IN PRIVATE CAPACITY.

WIFE NEED NOT NECESSARILY BE QUEEN. ~ - / The legal position with regard to the King and is that the King may marry any non-Catholic he wishes to, whatever her race, nationality or position in society. A fact which could possibly qualify his right is that' it is not possible to compel any clergyman to perform a ceremony of which his conscience disapproves. The King may not marry a Roman Catholic, but Mrs. Simpson is a Protestant. It is customary for Parliament to pass resolutions felicitating the Sovereign or his immediate relations on the matrimonial happiness, and so important a matter as the choice of a Queen could hardly be withdrawn from discussion. The Government and Parliament could express avowal or disapproval of a Sovereign’s marriage, but until the law is changed the marriage now discussed would be legal. Any Government disagreeing with the King over any subject— say, his aviation—is entitled to resign. But that would not of necessity stop the aviation. It might only mean that the King must find another Government. • 1 ■' Newspapers are suggesting as the best way out of the difificulty that the King, if he wishes to marry Mrs. Simpson, should do so in his private capacity as Duke of Lancaster, in which case his wife would not take the title of Queen. If this were done, moreover, it would be possible to exclude any issue of the marriage from succession to the Throne.