Triumvirate Triumphant

(See front cover)

Gentleman kneels at the foot of his bed

Strokes his much advertised leonine head.

Hlush! hush!--whisper who dares--

Ramsay MacDonald is saying his prayers*

To whisper while George V is saying his prayers, or while Stanley Baldwin is saying his, would be equally unthinkable. These three men--the vaguely born Prime Minister, the ermined & empurpled King-Emperor and the arch-bourgeois Leader of Britain's Conservative (majority) Party --form today an impeccable Imperial Triumvirate. Last week they managed to wash their hands of a political crisis nasty enough to have wrecked almost any other government.

"Disastrous Policy." Scabrous French weeklies called Philip Snowden a "nasty little gnome" and worse when, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he held out for a few more millions at The Hague Reparations Conference and returned to Great Britain as a national hero (TIME. Sept. 9, 1929). Last week it was this same Philip Snowden, now Viscount Snowden of Ickornshaw, who precipitated the nasty crisis, caused London's Laborite Daily Herald to headline prematurely LORD SNOWDEN WRECKS THE CABINET!

The things Lord Snowden actually did were1) to denounce the Ottawa Conference and all its tariff works "which will lead to the disruption of the Empire and' [are] fraught with great danger to our international relations"; 2) to declare with the immense financial authority of a former Chancellor of the Exchequer that Great Britain now faces an economic crisis more disastrous than last year (when the pound slipped off gold); 3) to resign as Lord Privy Seal, denouncing Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald as a traitor to the traditional Labor Party tenet of Free Trade.

"I need not say that I regret to be compelled to take this action," wrote Lord Snowden to Mr. MacDonald in his letter of resignation, "for it severs our 40 years of close political association and cooperation. . . . But I cannot longer without loss of self-respect remain a member of a Government which is pursuing a policy that I believe is disastrous."

Wrong, All Wrong! Because people never take very seriously a man who is frankly fuming with rage, Viscount Snowden's charges and resignation might have been ignored last week, had not the Cabinet's orthodox Liberal pontiff, Sir Herbert Samuel, simultaneously resigned as Home Secretary, together with nine other Government Liberals. These ranged from stuffy Sir Archibald Sinclair who resigned as Secretary of State for Scotland, to brilliant Lord Lothian (the onetime Philip Kerr) who as Under-Secretary of State for India has been the Cabinet's brains in that quarter. (So indispensable was Lord Lothian found to be at the India Office last week that he was persuaded to continue his work informally, though resigned.)

Presently resigned Sir Herbert Samuel and his orthodox Liberal Party of 32 M. P.s*, announced that they will wage no warfare against the Cabinet in the House of Commons "for the time being." but will quietly await developments.

This attitude lent awful weight to a cool declaration by Sir Herbert last week which was promptly backed up by Viscount Grey of Fallodon, the Marquess of Crewe and the Marquess of Reading: "In our view the whole policy of hard bargaining on trade between the governments of the different parts of the empire is wrong. We regard the continued unity and harmony of the British Commonwealth of nations as of supreme importance to its own members and the greatest value to the world at large.

"That purpose cannot be assisted by conferences such as that at Ottawa. In our view it can only be imperiled.

"The process so clearly in evidence during the proceedings was pressing one part of the empire to make unwilling sacrifices in order that another part of the empire may be induced, equally unwillingly to make counter-sacrifices."

Finally Sir Herbert & orthodox Liberals took the legal position that the Ottawa accords are unconstitutional (i. e. unprecedented) because Parliament in order to enact them would have to bind future parliaments to fixed tariffs & quotas for fixed terms of years and "Parliament itself cannot properly enact a statute of that nature."

This statement, backed by the opinion of the Marquess of Reading (Lord Chief Justice of England 1913-21), might well have given the Imperial Triumvirate pause.

"Very Big Job." Not being creatures of precedent but men of emotion, Prime Minister MacDonald and Conservative Leader Baldwin stood together as if nothing had happened last week, ably assisted by King George, who gave his necessary approval to all Scot MacDonald's acts.

The big and of course secret scene at No. 10 Downing Street was a purely emotional appeal by Mr. MacDonald to Lord Snowden and the Samuelites not to resign. When they resigned all the same and filed out of No. 10 amid cheers & boos, the Prime Minister raised his leonine head and said for publication: "We put our hands to a very big job a year ago. We knew what it meant. The same determination to disregard all ordinary partisan interests which we showed then we show still! . . . "

The work is not finished and cannot be finished until one way or another there is a reparations and debt settlement and there is a world economic conference, and we must continue until these things are done."

This was the first reference by a British statesman since the opening of the U. S. presidential campaign to the coming reduction, by hook or by crook, of what Europe is going to pay the U. S. Though embarrassing to President Hoover, it was under the circumstances, about the only thing Prime Minister MacDonald could effectively say.

"Conservative Cabinet" Oddly enough Scot MacDonald seemed to hope that he could draw Lord Reading into his Cabinet last week, but emotional appeals to the great jurist (who served for two months as Foreign Secretary in the National Government last year) fell flat.

It was therefore necessary to replace Viscount Snowden as Lord Privy Seal by having Mr. Baldwin, who was already 'Lord President of the Council, consent to serve also as Lord Privy Seal "but without pay" (both offices are sinecures and Mr. Baldwin is too honest to accept more than one salary for doing nothing).

Grizzled. Conservative Sir John Gilmour, Minister of Agriculture and a fox-hunting man. succeeded orthodox Liberal Sir Herbert Samuel as Home Secretary.

Unorthodox Liberal Sir Godfrey Collins was given the unimoortant Secretaryship for Scotland, and other appointments last week had this net result:

Conservatives in the National Cabinet rose from 12 to 14 (counting Mr. Baldwin as two).

The Prime Minister's own so-called National Labor Party is now represented by only three ministers: himself; Viscount Sankey as Lord Chancellor, and J. H. ("Jim") Thomas, onetime engine-greaser, as Secretary for Dominions.

Since Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon and his unorthodox Liberals are scarcely to be distinguished from Conservatives, what really happened last week was that the "National Government" became an almost completely Conservative Government, much to the quiet satisfaction of His Majesty.

"Gentlemen, the King!" Last year, when Scot MacDonald's Laborite colleagues roundly disowned him, he called at Buckingham Palace, intending to resign (TIME, Aug. 31, 1931). Instead the Prime Minister was persuaded to go back to No. 10 Downing Street. There he obtained the resignations of his Labor ministers, proceeded to join forces with Stanley Baldwin, announced his "National Government" and won the most sweeping electoral victory in British history (TIME, Nov. 9). In that affair the role of His Majesty, though evident, was veiled. Last week George V was even more cautious.

While the actual Cabinet shifts were taking place, royal assent was sought by telegrams to Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands where, for once. His Majesty was kept so busy that he had to stop grouse shooting. When the last shift had been made George V and Queen Mary hurried to politically grousing London. Where the King's first act was to receive his Prime Minister. What, if any, change in British policy was to be expected?

First, the Ottawa tariff accords seemed certain of enactment by Parliament, precedent or no precedent.

Second, the very success of the Conservatives in upping tariffs seemed likely to make them more cautious about continuing to flout President Hoover's proposals for a general one-third arms cut.

Third, the French Press rejoiced, perhaps prematurely, that Britain's Cabinet had been revamped without shoving Sir John Simon, friend of France and Japan, out of his Foreign Secretaryship and into some such post as the Home Office. This development most Frenchmen had feared, most Britons had hoped for.

Throughout the United Kingdom, though Sir John Simon is acknowledged to be a great criminal and corporation lawyer, he is blamed for extreme clumsiness in antagonizing both the U. S. and Germany at the Geneva Arms Parley.

Monarch, Four Sons 6 Betty. Until he was 26, George Frederick Ernest Albert of Saxe-Coburg und Gotha had no idea that he would become King-Emperor. As the second son of the then Edward of Wales (later King Edward VIII; he supposed that his elder brother the Duke of Clarence was going to marry the present Queen Mary (to whom Clarence was engaged). As late as 1890, George was content to command H. M. S. Thrush (in U. S. waters), content with rare press mentions of himself as "The Sea Prince." perfectly content to go without a college education.

The death of Clarence in 1892 led to George's creation as Duke of York, then to his espousal of Princess Mary of Teck one sweltering July day in 1893. They began to travel soon after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 which made them Prince & Princess of Wales. They opened Australia's first Parliament. They returned home by way of South Africa & Canada. They read the saga of their exploit in a plush-bound volume. The Web of Empire, by Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace.

In 1910, after King Edward's death. Parliament took no chances with King George's religion, passed the act requiring him and his successors to swear, "I do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God profess, testify and declare that I am a faithful Protestant." Next year His Majesty was crowned as King in London June 22, as Emperor at Delhi Dec. 12.

"Pure, kindly and useful" were the adjectives under which Their Majesties entered the Wrar, but soon George V was applying the expletive "damn him!" to his first cousin Wilhelm II, and Their Majesties came naturally under the sway of Britain's top-notch fight propaganda. When the War was three years old His Majesty renounced the numerous German titles of himself & family, changed the British dynastic name from Saxe-Coburg und Gotha to Windsor and became a frequent visitor behind the Allied front in France.

On seven days after the Armistice Their Majesties drove to seven different parts of sprawling London, received tempestuous acclaim. Dec. 27. 1918 they banqueted President & Mrs. Thomas Woodrow Wilson at Buckingham Palace. Three years later they ventured into Northern Ireland--not into the Irish Free State--and King George, opening the first Parliament at Belfast, begged all Irishmen to "forbear . . . forgive . . . forget."

Since then His Majesty has only thrice attracted unusual notice: when he opened the Wembley Exposition (1924); when he nearly died of pleurisy (1928-29); and last year when he bucked up discouraged James Ramsay MacDonald, gave that Laborite & Socialist courage to turn his back on both Labor & Socialism, thus made possible the founding of the MacDonald National Government.

To this day George V prefers his original role of "The Sea Prince." According to his valet the uniform His Majesty prefers to wear is that of Admiral of the Fleet, though he is compelled to dress oftener as a Field Marshal. Like most Navy men the King reads newspapers in preference to books, drinks standard whiskey & soda almost to the exclusion of vintage wines, takes Queen Mary to more musical comedies than operas, to more variety (vaudeville) shows than dramas. ''That man, Al Trahan the American comedian," His Majesty said after shedding tears of laughter at a zany whose act consists in getting chewing gum on his fingers and the seat of his trousers while playing a piano, "made me laugh very much."

Ahead of grouse and postage stamps, the royal yacht Britannia is His Majesty's passion. This year, during the Cowes Regatta, English newspapers concealed, but Scottish ones reported, the annoyance of the Cowes populace that George V did not leave his yacht during the whole of "Cowes Week," and the fury of members of the Royal Yacht Club at the King's absenting himself from their annual dinner. Not even Her Majesty could prevail upon Yachtsman George, who was having a gorgeous sea time. To soothe the proletariat Queen Mary went shopping alone several times in Cowes, bought all sorts of knicknacks, including an ink-spot remover.

Their Majesties, thwarted in all efforts to induce Edward of Wales to take a wife, have just sent him to Denmark & Sweden (TIME, Oct. 3) and last week in Stockholm he was being affable to Princess Ingrid, daughter of Crown Prince Gustaf and 100% Protestant. Why? Abruptly George V's youngest son. Prince George left London last week and streaked for Stockholm. Rumors began to buzz that aggravating Edward was playing the role of willing matchmaker between Princess Ingrid, 22, and Prince George. 29.

Of Their Majesty's four sons the Duke of Gloucester is the most diplomatic. Asked "what is your favorite flower?" he adroitly replied. "Flowers of all kind appeal to me." Their daughter, Princess Mary (now the Princess Royal) is known to be devoted to her husband, the spindle-shanked Earl of Harewood. despite a local conviction that he drinks to excess. Most satisfactory of course are the Duke & Duchess of York, except that their two children are girls, Princess ("Baby Betty") Elizabeth and Princess Mary Rose.

*British Liberal campaign quatrain, parodying A. A. Milne's When We Were Very Voting.

*The late Lord Asquith was the last legitimate successor to William Ewart Gladstone as Liberal Leader. When Asquith's power began to wane David Lloyd George seized Liberal leadership but he was deserted at the last election by orthodox Liberal Sir Herbert Samuel and unorthodox Liberal Sir John Simon, the latter remaining in the Cabinet last week supported by 35 Liberal M. P.s.

Sir Herbert's Liberals are considered "orthodox" because they champion Free Trade, the traditional Liberal policy and are supported by such venerable colleagues of the late Lord Asquith as half-blind Viscount Grey of Fallodon and the Marquess of Reading, greatest of Britain's living elder statesmen.

England's Constitution, like its Common Law, is not a document but a body of precedents. It cannot be "violated" in the U. S. sense, but violation of a major precedent amounts to the same thing.

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