25 JUNE 1937, Page 21

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Papers which confirm your

own opinion it may be a pleasure to read;. it is a duty to read those with which you disagree, and this is why I read The Spectator.

I have not heard of any ecclesiastical censure or excommuni- cation of the Duke—but I remember a letter written by a lady during the crisis in December. She said : "During the War hundreds and thousands of our best men without a moment's hesitation had given up the women they loved, the homes and children they loved, for their King and country, but the King (as he then was) is unable to give up for the country a lady of over forty years of age with two former partners living."

Most of us greatly admired the Duke, with his popular gifts, great capabilities and wonderful possibilities of service, and we all expected great things from him, and possibly for that very reason we were disappointed that he seemed to put his personal pleasure and inclinations before his duty to his country, a duty which he had seen most exemplarily performed in his home, and in the Services which he loved so well. It was this supreme renunciation of duty, as he knew it, that we regret—I am, Sir,