"Indiscretion"

COMMONWEALTH (British Commonwealth of Nations)

Appeared in London the second tome of King Edward VII's biography, written by the late Sir Sidney Lee at the express command of King George. These books, both enormous, tell the whole story of Edward's life from the time he was a boy to his death in 1910.

The latest of them is flavored, according to the critics, with several "indiscretions," although, according to British legal theory, the King can do no wrong. Earl Balfour, onetime (1902-05) Prime Minister, the biographer reveals, was annoyed because "The King has treated me with scant courtesy." The King thought the Earl of Oxford and Asquith (then Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith) was "reticent, secretive, reserved" and that he deliberately withheld information from his monarch. On one occasion he wrote to Premier Asquith asking him to tell Reginald McKenna, then First Lord of the Admiralty, now Chairman of the Midland Bank, that it was "his duty to keep His Majesty informed of fleet movements, to say nothing of common courtesy."

Onetime Prime Minister David Lloyd George was from an early date "a thorn in the King's side." The King had frequently to complain of one of Mr. George's speeches, according to Sir Sidney, and prevailed upon the late Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman on one occasion to admonish the little Welshman to "avoid such a tone in future."

When Viscount Gladstone, then plain Herbert Gladstone, son of the famed Prime Minister, was suggested as Governor General of South Africa, King Edward asked: "Is there nobody better?"

But most scathing of all the royal pepperiness was his censure of his brother, the Duke of Connaught, now 77, uncle of King George. The royal ire was aroused by the Duke's refusal to retain for a third year his appointment as commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean, with headquarters at Malta. Said King Edward: "The Duke of Connaught must now consider his military career at an end, and if he does not intend returning to Malta he should resign his appointment at once. The King is much annoyed at his brother's persistent obstinancy."

Arthur William Patrick Albert, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, is the third son of Queen Victoria. A shy, sensitive man, he has been less in the public eye than any other Prince of the British Blood Royal. His career has been for the most part spent in the Army. At the age of 20 he served in Canada in suppressing the Fenian raid and later saw active service in Egypt. Rising by easy royal stages, he finally achieved the not unmerited rank of a Field Marshall.

The Duke of Connaught has never been a popular figure, even in the Commonwealth. He is much too reserved for that. He has not been popular in the Army. His acid wit prevented that. The measure of publicity, which the remainder of the royal family have never been able to eschew, although they hate it as cordially as does the Duke, he has been able to avoid.

In the army he was known as a martinet--the greatest in the service. It is said of him that he would worry himself into fidgets over the dress of a soldier. His particular "horror" was un-shined shoes. Always scrupulously dressed, he is to be observed even today with shoes as polished as he himself is. To a young officer who apologized for the dirty state of his sword, he rasped: "Your excuse is so good that you must be an old offender, sir!" He hated, too, excessive drinking. "Just able to walk straight, was he," he once said in settling the sobriety of a certain colonel. "That's sober enough for a civilian, but it's very drunk for a soldier."

But the Duke's life has not all been spent soldiering. He has, for example, been entrusted with several important functions of a diplomatic nature, such as representing Queen Victoria at the Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandria of Russia, and, more recently representing King George in India at the opening of the legislative councils of Madras, Bengal, Bombay. Then, from 1911 to 1916, he was Governor General of Canada, the first Royal Prince to hold a governing position in any of the dominions. In 1879 he married Princess Louise Marguerite Alexandria Victoria Agnes of Prussia, daughter of Prince Frederick Charles, the "red prince" hero of Koniggratz in the Austro-Prussian war, cousin of the onetime Kaiser. After the outbreak of the War the Duchess was not so acceptable to either Canadian or English society as she had been previously. Her death in 1917 removed this cloud, but the Duke has never forgotten the coolness of the public towards her.

Even at the age of 77 he is still an early riser and still is as immaculately clad as ever. Much of his time is spent in the south of France, where he owns a villa and where he is known as the "uncrowned King of the Riviera." Only a short time ago he said: "I am getting on in age now, but I still do my physical exercises every morning. I don't think I should be happy without them."