THE COUNTRY AND 'FHE KING
AS the constitutional crisis moves towards a climax that may well come in the brief interval between the printing of these words and their publi- cation there must be claimed for them such indulgence as may be considered due to an article written in circumstances so difficult. And in circumstances, it may be added, . so melancholy, for however this unhappy affair may end it cannot end well. King Edward can only retain his throne with impaired prestige or bequeath to his brother a sovereignty brought for the first time in a hundred years under serious criticism. The harm was done when the King first allowed himself to set his affections on a married woman, and refused to recognise the inevit- able outcome of failure to end an impossible relation- ship while it could be ended with a tithe of the pain that renunciation must cost today. No one has. the right, and very few the inclination, to adopt the attitude of censor in this matter. The country has shown itself patient and generous and astonish- ingly united—and there was never greater need for the preservation of that unity than today. Kingship, as an institution, means much in this land. It has justified itself abundantly, and left small temptation to anyone to call himself republican. Deep as was the reverence and affection King George inspired, the loyalty he commanded was transferred unimpaired to his eldest son, and it will not weaken under the strain of another transfer, if another there must be, even in conditions so abnormal.
But it is not so much our loyalty that is under test as our self-discipline. The King's Government must be carried on whatever King is on the throne. These are days of anxiety and peril, and the most deplorable feature of the situation so suddenly created is that such a moment should have been chosen to lay an unprecedented burden on Ministers who were bearing responsibilities that almost over- taxed their capacity already. Thanks largely to the wisdom and self-sacrifice of the Prime Minister, who possesses ideal qualities for coping with such an emergency as this, they have proved equal to every demand made on them. There has been no hint of Cabinet divisions. There has been no suggestion in the House of an attempt in any quarter to make party capital—personal capital may be another matter—out of a situation which every Member unfeignedly deplores but every Member is resolved to keep in its proper perspective and proportion in relation to the problems of the world and of the nation. As little has there been hint or sign of division or doubt among the Dominions. In the literal sense of the classic phrase, their unanimity is wonderful. Insidious suggestions have been made that the Government may not have put the issue to the Dominions fairly. Dominion statesmen and the Dominion public are not illiterate. They can read their newspapers. They do not depend on coded cables from Whitehall for material for their decision in such a case as this. The issue is clear and their judgement has been unhesitating and Sure.
That judgement, neither in the case of the people Of this conntry nor of the peoples of the great Dominions, takes the form of self-righteous condemnation. It was said here last week that any comments On the course the King has taken would be reluctant, respectful and profoundly sympathetic. That has been proved amply true. The King was wrong. He allowed an impossible situation to grow up and he proposed an impossible way of escape from his difficulties. To believe that a lady whom he recog- nised as unfitted to be Queen of England could be accepted as fit wife for the King of England betrayed a strange and disturbing misunderstanding of the mind of the Cabinet, Parliament and the people. Whatever way of escape there may be, that road at least is barred. Of the only two roads left, renuncia- tion of Mrs. Simpson and renunciation of his throne, King Edward, it seems, has chosen the latter. It is his right, and it may well, in all the circumstances, be the path of wisdom. It is an untrodden path for an English King, but he will take it sustained in the future as in the past by the sympathy and affection of his people. They would gladly forget the cause of his departure ; they will never forget the life of service he has spent among them and the devotion with which he has discharged unfalteringly every duty attaching to his office as Prince or King. If today the involuntary comment must be "the pity .of it," the King will know that, wherever the lines may fall for him, he need never forfeit his hold on the hearts of his countrymen.
If tomorrow the country is called on to pledge its allegiance to a new King, taking up his vast responsi- bilities in circumstances that give the burden a doubled weight, it will pledge it without reserve or stint. Even where there was division about King Edward, there will be none about the duty to sustain his successor to the utmost. Nor will there be any question of forced confidence. The Duke of York has, through a lifetime only eighteen months less, been as familiar a figure in this country, though not in the Dominions, as his elder brother. Each lacks some qualities the other possesses and possesses some that the other lacks. In the younger there are more unconcealed reserves. In many ways he is more his father's son than any of his brothers. King George was mourned and honoured at his death for capacities unsuspected when he ascended the throne twenty-five years earlier ; so it may well be with his second son. That son, too, like his father, can depend at all times on the support and sympathy and counsel of a wife as capable of sharing his public as his private life. The transition is painful. All partings bring sorrow, and this far more than most. But good may well come out of evil, even out of evil not apparent but real. Democracy has in these last days borne itself well, with dignity, with patience, with resolve. All those qualities, and more, will be needed still. Behind a new King must be an undivided people, and the world must be shown that plainly. We must be about our business. The formalities of transfer will go through smoothly. The appointed date of the Coronation, it may be hoped, will remain. The ship of State will vary neither its speed nor its direction. If the King departs, long live the King.
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