REPLY TO CALUMNIES

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 436, 18 May 1937, Page 5

REPLY TO CALUMNIES

HEALTH OF HIS MAJESTY Zest In Many Sports London, May 7. Widespread interest, has been created by th© speech published yesterday by Rev. R. R. Hyde, director of the Industrial Welfare Society, concerning the malicious gossip about the King's health. The speech may be regarded as a reply to persistent canvassing in certain British periodicals. Mr Hyde accompaned the King, as Duke of York, on hundreds of visits io works and factories throughout Britain, and his book, “Camp Book,” gives an interesing account of the Duke of York’s camp, which is attended annually by boys from industrial areas and from Public schools. Mr Hyde states: “There is> a curious failing on the part of many—-to wish and believe evil of public characters. Only yesterday I was asked if the King is epileptic. You will recall, without* any prompting on my part, similar calumnies alleging that the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were deaf, dumb or imbecile, that the Queen was deaf; that there may be no Coronation because the King is so weak, and his heart is so bad that it may at the last moment fail; and that he is a ‘rubber stamp King.’

“I have shared long swims in a . rough sea with the King. I have seen him play golf in different surroundings with patience and endurance. He has played a good game of tennis at Wimbledon; shot duck at dawn; and stalked deer. He has endured long, tiring tours of cotton mills', shipyards, and mines. Once the National Anthem was played 15 times in nine miles, but he did not turn a hiaii. Never has there been any evidence of those shortcomings.’ of the physical or msntal weaknesses whicn malicious gossip has attached to him. One would have thought that the tact that since his brother’s adbication he has not had a single day's illnes s was sufficient for any intelligent person to assume that the state of hi s health was such (hat anybody might envy. ‘Those who hear gossip, do not heed it. it is unkind, unworthy, and untrue.”