"Errand of Mercy"

From the West Indies last week the greatest living Welshman, David Lloyd George, cabled home an apology that he was unable to be in South Wales with Edward VIII "on the King's errand of mercy."

His Majesty, shortly before leaving London by special train, perturbed the Cabinet by sending for Percy Malcolm Stewart, the uncompromising Scotsman who, as Commissioner for the Special or "Distressed" Areas, wanted to spend so much money on them that his resignation was accepted by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. The fact that His Majesty went to South Wales straight from consulting Scotsman Stewart caused the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Neville Chamberlain, to arise in some perturbation and tell an audience at Leeds:

"It is impossible to contemplate the general prosperity of the country with unalloyed satisfaction when we know that at the same time there are districts to which that prosperity has never penetrated; where hundreds of thousands of men are still unemployed, some of them having been out of work for years, and many of them, the younger ones particularly, who have never known what it was to earn their own living and in whom even the will to work is decaying. Such a deplorable fact afflicts the conscience of the nation and the desire to do something to solve this problem is not confined to any one class or any one party."

Journalists covering the King were alert to note any departure from the pattern of his visits as Prince of Wales. These were distinguished by a boyish informality in fraternizing with and calling upon members of the toiling masses unexpectedly and at random. The ever-young Prince of Wales visibly lacked manly interest in actual proposals and specific complaints drafted by leaders of the masses--such as shop councils and aldermanic bodies of depression-stricken towns. These hoped last week that the now 42-year-old King would give them repeated and serious audience on his tour and they were disappointed, for Edward VIII continued to play the light role of Der King Charming--as His Majesty was dubbed by newsorgans in Vienna.

This was not entirely the King's fault, for his entourage did everything in their power to insulate His Majesty last week from serious matters. A copy of the open letter from Welsh jobless was handed to one of the royal equerries at Cwmbran, another to the equerry at Pontypool, and copies were even strewn on the streets walked by Edward VIII. When the Chairman of the Blaenavon Town Council dragged the petition into a conversation with His Majesty, the King appeared to know nothing about it, asked, "Where is it? I want to read it."

None of the equerries produced the petition, but the Town Council Chairman whisked out a copy and when King Edward had read this through without changing his expression he stuffed it into his pocket without comment.

Individual toilers were delighted as Der King Charming:

P:Knocked on the door of a couple named Newman and with hat in hand asked, "May I come in?"

P:Told a leek grower, "You can arrange to send some of those leeks to London for me. I am fond of leeks."

P:Rapped on the galvanized iron side of an unemployed workers' school hut and drew a laugh by asking the men with the mock roar of an Army sergeant, "ANY COMPLAINTS?"

P:Sympathized with dole-drawers who said they had done no work for periods of up to 13 years and, when he found a man who said he had never in his life done any work, cried warmly, "That's bad luck!"

P:Clapped his hands as unemployed turned somersaults in a physical training class and exclaimed, "Jolly good! You are very clever to be able to do all these things. We couldn't do them!"

P:Pinked the cheeks of a matron at Ponty-pool Junior Instruction Center by commenting with a chuckle on the fact that the Boys' Carpentry shops are separate from the Girls' Domestic Science kitchen, "Oh, I see, you want to keep their minds on their work!"

P:Keynoted to depressed South Wales, "Although I no longer have the title of your Prince, which I had for 25 years, my interest in the principality will never diminish."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.