YACHT FOR MRS. SIMPSON.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 303, 7 December 1936, Page 5

YACHT FOR MRS. SIMPSON.

WILL KING EDWARD ABDICATE TO-DAY ? LATEST MOYES IN CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS. MR. BALDWIN MAY SHORTLY DISCLOSE SURPRISE. ' ■' f LABOUR MEMBERS’ DEMAND FOR INFORMATION ■ . r - I • ,f.‘ S - v . - ’ ‘ ’ (Press Association—Copyright.) Received 1 p.m. To-day. CANNES, December 6. Mrs. Simpson is very tired and is not leaving her room. “Probably she will not stay more than four or five days,” said Mrs Herman Rogers, with whom she is staying. The blinds and windows of Mrs. Simpson’s room were drawn all day and police guarded the villa grounds at all points. Photographers who climbed adjacent trees were disappointed. The captain of Mrs. Reginald Fellowe’s yacht, the Sister Anne, which now in Monte Carlo harbour, has been ordered aboard the vessel, probably in preparation for a cruise by Mrs. Simpson. Workmen were busy all Sunday altering the Fellowes’ villa at Rocquebume, near Cape Martin. Possibly Mrs. Simpson will stay there. A message from London received at 10 a.m. states that last night’s Cabinet meeting lasted a hundred minutes. It may result in a long statement by Mr. Baldwin in the House of Commons on Monday, which may contain a surprise and possibly a revelation of something of what the King said during his consultations with the Prime Minister after the crisis. The private notice of a question from Major Attlee may lead to Mr. Baldwin disclosing His Majesty’s expressed intentions and more clearly indicating a solution. Rumours that the King will abdicate and join Mrs. Simpson are still being published in American papers.

“ABDICATION MEANS REVOLUTION," SAYS PLACARD ( 1. J:*!-:'... .<1 ••■■■ ■ • EVIDENCE OF WIDESPREAD UNREST IN LONDON. ■ 'V; ’ “i '■ z (Press Association—Copyright.) , ’ * Received Noon To-day. LONDON, December 6. The car in which Mr. W. T. Monckton, Attorney-General for the Duchy of Cornwall, travelled to London in the morning returned to Fort Belvedere in the afternoon with two occupants who could not be identified. lev ' Members of f ;the Labour Party complain that they are completely in the dark about the real facts. A meeting of the executive is fixed for 2 p.m. to-morrow. In the meantime Major Attlee has been instructed to request Mr. Baldwin to give him a full statement of the position. He will put a series of questions to Mr. Baldwin which the executive desires answered before the party’s final decision. 1 The Archbishop of Canterbury called at No. 10 Downing Street. A man rushed up to the Archbishop’s car and shouted: "We want King Edward and his wife!” The Archbishop spent /fifty minutes with Mr. Baldwin, and when he was about to leave two women held up large notices: “Hands off our King. Abdication means revolution.” Detectives hurried to the car and the crowd took advantage and broke through the police cordon and filled the street. A woman tried to walk along the street carrying a placard: “Hands off the King!” but was turned back by the police and walked along Whitehall, the crowd following.

KING PASSES A SLEEPLESS NIGHT. (Press Association—Copyright.) **; ‘ Received 11 a.m. To-day. ' LONDON, December 6. Mr. Baldwin returned to Downing Street at 1 1.50 a.m., having spent/ the interval with Queen Mary at Marlborough House. Mr. Baldwin’s consultation with his Ministers was resumed. The King remained at Fort Belvedere last night, and lights were seen at his windows as late as 3.30 a.m. The Ministers dispersed shortly before 1 a.m., having been in consultation two and a-half hours. Mr. Monckton drove off from Downing Street at 12.55 p.m. in the King’s car, in which he arrived early. He had been at Downing Street three and a-half hours. Officials at Buckingham Palace carried on as usual. The King is in telephonic communication with the Palace from Fort Belvedere;

BISHOP OF BRADFORD EXPLAINS HIS ACTION. HAD NO KNOWLEDGE OF REAL CIRCUMSTANCES (Press Association—Copyright.) Received I I a.m. To-day. LONDON, December 6. The Bishop of Bradford told the Sunday Graphic that when his* address reproaching the King for lack of religion w r as written I had no knowledge of the circumstances which have subsequently arisen. It was Only yesterday week that I ever heard Mrs. Simpson s name mentioned in connection with the King.” ; He added that his intention to make the speech was confirmed by Communists circulating in Yorkshire scurrilous Yellow Press statements regarding the King and Mrs. Simpson, and he felt it was high time to cut the ground from under the feet of the Communists, who were aiming to make strife. The Scotsman, in an editorial says: ‘‘The King’s proposed marriage would be incompatible with the dignity of the Crown. It might bring the King great happiness, to which his subjects cannot be indifferent, but if that happiness were bought at the sacrifice of' ’the people s devotion and loyalty, lowered prestige of the Crown and debasement of the hereditary monarchy, it is too dear for the nation if not for th® King.”

“PUZZLED EXPECTANCY,” IS ENGLAND’S ATTITUDE. POSITION SAID NOT TO HAVE CHANGED IN ANY WAY. I No Attempt Is Being Made To Hurry King’s Decision. QPress Association —Copyright.) Received 1.3 0 p.m. To-day. LONDON, Dec. 6. Prayers for’the King were offered in all churches this wintry Sunday, which was a day of puzzled expectancy pending the result of the evening’s Cabinet meeting, at which, however, no decision was reached regarding the issue between the King and the Government. Mr. Baldwin will make a statement in the House of Commons on December 7 in order to dissipate rumours and false impressions. To-morrow’s Cabinet meeting has been cancelled, and Mr. Baldwin remains at Downing Street and will not see the King tonight. The Associated Press learns on the highest authority that the story published in the Sunday Special that the King had reached a decision and that the next step lay with Mr. Baldwin, was only a clumsy guess. Ihe position is still much as Mr. Baldwin outlined in the House of Commons on December 4. 1 lie suggestion that the King is being hurried is equally unfounded, in view ol the fact that His Majesty’s only request for information related to the passage of a morganatic marriage law. Ihe advice given thereon was indicated by Mr. Baldwin on December 4. « The King is being given all the time he requires to make up his mind, and Cabinet is awaiting his reply. There is r.o truth in the repeated statements that His Majesty rejected Cabinet’s advice. All such conjectures are built up from Mr. Baldwin’s frequent audiences with the king, which, it is explained, have been purely | informal. No other Government advice has been given, arid there- j fore no constitutional crisis, in the broad sense of the term, exists. I No conflict has arisen, unless Cabinet’s reply on the morganatic j marriage question can be so dcscrilied. I his corrects Mr. Win- I ston Churchill’s statement where he attacked the Government for | rushing the matter. Government circles feel his attack is based on i a complete misapprehension of the relations between the King and ' the Government. j