"THE CROWNED REPUBLIC"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 720, 1 May 1953, Page 7

"THE CROWNED REPUBLIC"

N the period of a little over 100 years since Queen Victoria came to the Throne a remarkable transformation has _ taken place in the relationship between the people of Britain and the Commonwealth and their Sovereign. The story' of these changes, both constitutional and personal, is told in Throne and People, a series of six half-hour BBC features which will start playing from National stations of the NZBS next week. The first part of the series describes some of the outstanding events in the lives of Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII and George VI, and recalls the personal and human réactions of the occupants of the Throne to many of these events. These reactions provide some fascinating sidelights on the characters of the monarchs and their personal influence on events and the destinies of the British people. The -last two programmes trace . the great constitutional changes which have cecurred since the days of Queen Victoria’s Empire and their development to the present concept of Commonwealth. The first programme, on Queen Victoria, will be heard from 1YA at 2.35. p.m. on May 10, 2YA at 8.30 p.m. on Monday, May 4, 3YC at 9.30 p.m. on Sunday, May 10, and 4YC at 8.0 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6. It is written by Lord Kinross, who, as Patrick "Balfour, is a well-known author and journalist, Summing up his study of the almost fabulous reign that lasted for

more than two generations, Lord Kinross says that to meet a new era of immense social and _ political change, Queen Victoria had evolved for Britain a new conception of monarchy-a conception, moreover, which was destined to ensure its survival. "Queen Victoria, in a phrase, made Britain what Tennyson once called it: ‘A Crown’d Republic.’ " The triumph of personality that marked the reign of King Edward VII is brought out in the second programme of Throne and People, which was written and produced by Christopher Sykes. It recalls the visits to France and Ireland that did so much to wipe out illfeeling towards England, and it shows how the King adapted himself to the new Liberalism that followed the parliamentary revolution of 1906, and how his reassuring influence was largely responsible for the mood of happy optimism among the ordinary people in spite of the first warnings of German bellicosity. Christopher Sykes sums up: "His years were a time of glow whose brightness was only occasionally and only latterly disquieted by the thought of sunset." The study of King George V, written by Sir Compton Mackenzie, is a record of faith, endurance, devotion, courage and compassion. Beginning with the King’s desire to do for the Commonwealth what his father had done for the peace of Europe, it shows how from the beginning of his reign he faced disappointments, tumult and aggression —

abroad, culminating in the First World War. The programme — ends with the King only a few months after his Silver Jubilee almost too weak to sign the order setting up a Council of State but fighting to carry out his duty to the last hours of his life. Edward VIII and George VI are discussed in one programme, written by John Connell, leader writer on the London Evening News, author, critic and broadcaster. After reviewing

Edward's brief reign- bad during which, by his successful visit to Turkey, he showed he had in him something of his grandfather’s flair for personal relations-he describes how the Crown passed from brother to brother and considers the relations between Throne and People at a time when the monarch was one of Britain’s best-loved kings. This programme is necessarily largely a record of the British peoples at war under a King who shared, and embodied in himself, the national sense of courage. ° Empire and Commonwealth are the subjects of the last two programmes, written by John Pudney in consultation with Professor Vincent Harlow, Beit EE A AS A SLL LE

Professor of the history of the British Empire at Oxford University. The first opens with the state of Victoria’s Empire when the young Queen came to the Throne-a time when none of the great political parties was prepared to concern itself with the principles of imperial solidarity-and discusses the change in outlook of Royalty towards travel and their overseas obligations which contributed so much to the building up of the Commonwealth. The final programme shows how the Throne was the unifying link as the Empire developed into a Commonwealth — which General Smuts described as "the most novel experiment in constitutions ever made." a a a EN LR