The Daily News. TUESDAY, MAY 10. THE KING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 385, 10 May 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, MAY 10. THE KING.

The ignorant gioe that the King is a mere figurehead lias been current any time during tilie reign of any monarcii in all countries. The real fact is, especially in regard to the King ot England, that he is predominant, all powerful and supreme. He may receive the advice of his Ministers, and he may refuse to receive such advice. There is nothing to prevent him—except custom and his own good sense—from doing politically exactly as he desires, in exactly the way he believes it should | be done. He can dissolve Parliament with a stroke of the pen. The Navy is the King's Navy, and not the plaything of Ministers. The Army is the Imperial Army, the Emperor's Army; the Empire is his domain, and the people of the Empire are his subjects. His responsibility is immense, his position difficult, and his work unending. Nature may have given him gifts, and she may have witheld them. He Is all powerful; not because he has gifts ot prescience, but because of his birth. It is a catastrophe if Nature has not been kind to him. It is a beneficence to the nations if the King of England is blessed with common sense and the humility that should clothe the high office. King Edward has unhappily died at a moment when, for the first time for many de cades, the Monarch has been freely discussed by his servants, the representatives of the people. For political ends, Englishmen have fought to prove that the Sovereign, elect, apart and unaip-, proachable, has been partisan. It has been said that the late King—whom all men now praise—was the tool of a party in the great political battle waging on the question of the peers' predominance in the, ruling of the State. Irresponsible politicians, eagerly advertising, have suggested that the Established Church, the spiritual and temporal peers, and the Monarchy, will go at the same moment. The near future will prove that the lie was a party dodge, an insult to the great people who cherish monarchy, and give allegiance not only to the Crown but to 1 the person. If we believe that the peo-.! pie will now hate the monarchy, wej believe that the overwhelming tributes to the British monarchy that nave poured into London from every monarchy, every republic, and every dependency of both, are cruel gibes. The British feeling still exists that the King is apart and unbiassed, the care-J ful referee between the people and their enemies. And so, not only because King George is the son of King Edward, not only because he comes of a long line of monarchs, not only because he is the grandson of Queen Victoria, but because he has the many qualities whiili endeared King Edward to the nations | will he give great service and obtain the love of the people of the Empire. His position is tenfold more difficu't than that of his father. He accedes at' a moment when there is a crisis in the political affairs of the Empire. His position is difficult in that he follows a man of brilliant gifts, the best known

man in the world, a man who has done more for humanity in the past decade than any other man on earth. New Zealandera have had an opportunity of seeing King George, and some few Have been privileged; to hear him speak. He speaks with an intimate knowledge of statecraft and of the nations. Formed in a slighter mould than his illustrious father, he still possesses the Royal gifts King Edward so notably showed. Knowing that on him would devolve the governance of the greatest of the earth's > empires, 'he 'has been disciplined, trained and compelled to cultivate his natural gifts, ibecause it was his duty so to do. By his unswerving devotion to the high ideals set by modern British Monarchy, by firmness common sense svnd retention of public affection may lie guide the nation in an hour when, more than ever, it needs guidance. So great a .part does sentiment iplay in all relations ot nl'e mat the affectionate British public, in their pity for his bereavement, will clothe him with the gifts of his father. He comes to the Throne under difficult, but auspicious, circumstances. He is known to the nations, he has seen his Empire, lie has studied the great questions affecting it, and, above all, lie has been convinced on innumerable occasions that he could be sure of the fealty King Edward compelled. On the vexed question of the predominance of peers, (politicians, out of (consideration for King George, will probably agree to a truce as has been suggested. It would lie unseemly and most mi-British xor political squab'blßs in which tire new King was most concerned, should take place while yet the shadow of death lay on the Throne. And so it is to he hoped that the great wave of affection that has washed from .the outer shores of the Empire to the foot of the Throne will sweep away acrimony and iperm't our new King to become cognisant ot his responsibilities. There is no doubt that the Outer Empire, where King Georse is known, will continue to be loyal to tb« Crown. Knowing what we kiiow, seeing what we have seen, having read what has been written, we know that through great tribulation the British Empire has grown to its mastership u'nder monarchy. King George is Monarch, an untried monarch truly, but still typifying all that is best in Brit-J ish governance. Because of these things, and more particularly because the British .Monarchy has won the esteem of the nations, Britishers the whole world over must, remembering with affection King Edward, transfer

their loyal service to his successor

Wherever the British flag flies, it is the! symbol of lilierty. Wherever the British flag flies, it is the flag of the Emperor Wherever the King's Standard floats, there is justice to all. And so. as we have said for the last nine year.?, may we continue to say in all the glorious years to be, "God save the King."