“Taranaki Central Press” TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1937. PROVIDING FOR THE DUKE OF WINDSOR.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 355, 9 February 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1937. PROVIDING FOR THE DUKE OF WINDSOR.

A domestic problem which is exercising the minds of English members of Parliament is that of making or not, some State financial provision for the Duke of Windsor. At one stage it was mooted that the ex-King would figure in the Civil List which provides part of the Crown finance. Such a suggestion, however, was not received very warmly by members, and to-day we print a cable message indicating that the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall will accrue to the State and some similar but fixed annual charge will be paid to the Duke of Windsor. A hint of further political controversy regarding the question is also given in the message.

While the Empire generally is prepared to pay full tributes to the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin) and his Cabinet colleagues for the tactful and restrained manner in which they handled the affair of King Edward's abdication, there will be few who would willingly countenance any lavish display of generosity towards him to-day. As King, Edward held the affection of his people; as a man in his still recent trouble, he held the sympathy of those people. To-day that sympathy still exists, but not the old esteem and affection. By choice he gave up the Throne to marry the woman not even he considered fit to be Queen of England. In so doing he alienated himself from his people. It was his own desire, taken in spite of the Empire’s pleadings. Where then is the justification for Statd financial provision for his future? History will undoubtedly record how Edward VIII made merry with the nation's money. He received, both as Prince of Wales and as King, enormous sums from the State and from properties which, if it were not for the inherent generosity of Britons towards the Crown, would have accrued to the State. There is no real historical justification for the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall being the personal property of the Heir Apparent. Still less was there for Edward's action in retaining them when he came to the Throne. i There can be no question that the House of Commons has no right to vote any monies directly or indirectly for the benefit of the Duke of Windsor. A man who lived on lavish ostentatiousness as he did, deserves neither money nor sympathy. We have read for years about his interest and despair in the sufferings of the poorer classes in his Empire. But we read little about his material assistance or even of any Royal example towards the problem of poverty. We have to turn to a New York society journal, “Town and Country,” to learn of gifts of jewellery to Mrs. Simpson worth £200.000; of one order for furs the ex-King placed with a Manhattan furrier for silver foxes to the value of £lO,OOO. How could he sail blithely away in the most palatial yacht afloat, chartered at a tremendous cost, in company with another man’s wife and a host of society leaders, when his “people” were suffering in the distress which so often apparently pained him? How could a heart-broken rnval ruler dismiss the cares of his office to the wild strains of a Hungarian sipsy band ringing merrily through the halls of Buckingham Palace as a fitting accompaniment to the cheapness of the King’s own social life? And now the nation is asked to bear an additional financial burden to enable this man and this woman who, to satisfy their own selfish desires, rode rough-shod over the feelings of the millions t" whom the British Throne is a symbol of grace and propriety. There is no cause for further assistance to the Duke of Windsor. He has readily leased an Austrian castle, and though heartbroken and separated from the woman he loves, yet finds I-ttle difficulty in living the same gay social life to which he has been accustomed. By his actions as Prince of Wales and as King, Edward apparently considered his private life a thing apart from his kingship. Here then is his opportunity, and the nation’s opportunity, for givir g him free rein to that desire. The Empire should forget him.