"TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1936. THE KING’S RIGHT TO MARRIAGE.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 302, 5 December 1936, Page 4

"TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1936. THE KING’S RIGHT TO MARRIAGE.

Kingship and marriage are not necessarily complementary terms. In the past few months the British Commonwealth of j Nations has grown to love its “Batchelor King.” Under normal circumstances it would, similarly, easily learn to love a “Benedict King” and his Queen. 1 fie Empire, however, is now faced with a new problem. Its King wishes to marry a lady to whom the King s advisers object In fact, the King’s chief adviser asks that the King publicly declare he will not marry her. The King will not, and hence a “constitutional crisis.” From a personal point of view, the King has every right to marry Mrs. Simpson or any other person with whom he believes himself to be in love. As a king, born to a position of dignity, pampered and educated to the ideals of the monarchy, honoured and praised by the people of his Empire—surely, selfishness is a vice which should have been eliminated. If the King is prepared to disregard the advice and the pleadings of his Ministers, does he not still place selfishness before kingship; does he not disregard the ideals of his office for the fleshpots of modernity? King Edward VIII. came to the throne of England and the British Commonwealth, beloved by the millions who go to compose that great conglomerate of nations. He was nurtured and honoured as the heir to the throne, the son of a man who had sacrificed every personal ambition to the traditional ideals of an Empire, an Empire of more millions of people than any other nation could ever dream of. To-day, that carefully nurtured child has grown to the estate! cf man, to the position and power of kingship, to the status of j Emperor, temporal father of his millions of children. Yet, if we I in this distant Dominion, are to judge by the cables of the day, this j “Emperor” prefers to sacrifice the love of millions for the love of I one. Human, his action may be; but kingly, never. Fortunately the British Constitution is an unwritten one. Therefore, King Edward VIII. may do as he will. But if he choses the I selfish way, the way of the fleshpots, and of the worldly ones, an ideal will be shattered in the minds of millions. In every theatre in this far-flung Dominion, in every gathering of people, there are thousands who every night pray, “God Save the King. ’ With King Georve V. that prayer became a personal I one. To-day it will surely become, "God Save the Empire.” For that is surely what is at slake, the Empire and not the personal ' happiness of one Edward VIII.