INFINITE HARM

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

INFINITE HARM

7 Marriage Would Damage Monarchy. » Press Association —Copyright. X’ , Londpn, Dec.iir 1 -IX “One of th© overwhelming .objec:lipns tcK.the King’s marriage is 'ithat Mrs Simpson has two former husbands living f rqm wh6m k she { ,has obtained a divorce, on the last* occasion, recently under circumstances, which are fairly fcommon knowledge,” says the Times in a leading article. “The marriage would scandalise a large proportion of the nation and the Enjpire and do infinite harm to the wholq institution of the British monarchy. - “There is no substance in the argument freely used that the Kingiq only too anxious and should be allowed to marry the woman 'he loves. The King, like most of 'h,i® humble subjects, is absolutely free' to make and carry out such a decision if he will. He may even be applauded fw it as a man. What he cannot doj-ln this case is to carry it out as a Kirijj.” The editorial proceeds to explain that though a reigning Queen may take a husband who is not a King, a Kipg may not take a wife who is not a Queen. Such a position wduld require legislation. “The objections to the marriage,” the paper adds, “are not legal at all and cannot be met by an amendment to ahe law; nor, indeed, can “they be met in any way’. Either the innovation of a morganatic marriage under the British Constitution must be superfluous or if must be condemned for rbe very reasons' which made it expedient.”