Evening star., 1936-01-21
The British Crown.

To Brttons their revered national
anthem. God Save the King" has
deeper significance than mere supph-
cation for the personal welfare OF the
sovereign. In its true inwardness II Is
q prayer for the preservation OF the
empire, of which, under the constitu-
tional monarchy, the King is the living
symbol and uniting link. When Britons
salute at sound of the stirring strains
of God Save the King" they envision
the whole far-nung British common
wealth of nations, which finds its per-
sonification in the King-Emperor. 1t IS
for what he typifies that Divine blessings
and the protection of Providence are
petitioned.
BY temperament and practice GeorgeV V
was the ideal embodiment Of the crown
of British tradition. There is no re-
corded case of his having ever over
stepped the strict limitations of his royal
prerogative, yet it is common knowledge
that throughout his reign his counsel
was constantly sought by responsible
ministers and that on innumerable po-
utical occasions his was the guiding hand
that led to wise decisions. He knew every
inch of his empire from the personal
contacts of travel, and brought to the
solution Of its problems that sound judg-
ment which can spring only from ex-
perience and background.
The late monarch had been enthroned
only four years when the holocaust of
the Great War swept across the world.
Before its fury was spent empires top
pied and disappeared. For years prior
to 1914 Germans had been taught that
on the day Britain became involved in
a vast European conflict the empire
would prove to be built on shifting sands
and that the self-governing dominions
overseas would eagerly seize the oppor-
tunity to break the bonds that tied them
to the mother country. Berlin COM
mitted no graver miscalculation. King
George found himself, at the end Of the
struggle which tried the British soul as
1t had not been tested since the
Napoleonic terror, the ruler Of realm
which emerged from the crucible of war
a more united political entity than ever.
His own sagacious conduct during those
four years Of travail played no small part
in producing that result.
For q decade following the armistice
France automatically assumed dominancy
in European politics. Britain prepared
to concentrate her energies on postwar
economic rehabilitation. During more
recent times, and particularly incidental
to the crisis provoked by Mussolinis
aggression in Africa, the British have re-
asserted themselves in Old World councils
with former vigor. King George is
gathered to his fathers at moment
which reveals his country once again
enacting its ancient role in European
leadership. It accords with the spirit
which the departed sovereign unfailingly
infused into his political activities and
interprets the policy of peace and liberty
demanded by the British democracy in
q day of dictatorship and tyranny on
all sides.
The new King, Edward VIII, in
herits a mighty responsibility and op-
portunity. He ascends the ancestral
throne at critical point in European
affairs. There is, happily, every promise
that he will carry on in the tradition
that is bequeathed him, and that just
as the empire is destined to find in him
an enduring symbol Of unity, the world
will discover that the British crown
continues to be q force for peace and
the rule Of right.