King George VI, by John W. Wheeler-Bennett

[p034] King George VI, by John W. Wheeler-Bennett (Macmillan, 60s.) _ Wheeler-Bennett’s laborious essay in hagiography resembles in treatment the official portrait by Philip Laszlo of which a teproduction (in glorious technicolour) adorns its pages. So long as he is dealing with the King’s early life as a competent naval officer, patron of an annual ‘Duke of York’s Camp’, hard-working president of the Industrial Welfare Society and pertinacious wooer of the charming girl who eventually became his wife, there can be no objections to the author’s method. It is only after the abdication crisis, when the new king, handicapped by shyness and a stammer, found himself unexpectedly a leading figure in the drama of world conflict, that the Laszlo technique proves inadequate. ; George VI, as this record reveals, retained throughout his life the naive conservatism of a junior naval officer. A pathetic example of the ignorance in which he was kept by his advisers is the personal letter to Hitler which he drafted during the Munich crisis on the basis of ‘one ex-serviceman to another’. Even Lord Halifax, who in 1937 in his capacity of Master of Foxhounds had accepted Goering’s invitation to shoot foxes and been introduced to Hitler at Berchtesgaden, was ‘doubtful of the efficacy’ of this appeal. In his account of the Munich period, throughout which the King warmly supported Chamberlain, the author overlooks Russia as carefully as, in the fifties, Dulles overlooked China. On January 11, 1939, Lord Halifax and Neville Chamberlain went to Rome, no doubt in the hope of ‘driving a wedge’ between Mussolini and Hitler. On this occasion they toasted the diminutive King of Italy as Emperor of Abyssinia, a country they were under obligation to defend. This incident, which Viscount Cecil describes in biting terms in his auto- biography,! does not appear to have shocked George VI or diminished his confidence in his Ministers. Litvinov’s despair- ing appeal, some month’s later, for a conference at Bucharest to concert measures of collective resistance, was airily dis- missed by Halifax as ‘premature’. Wheeler-Bennett does not consider it worthy of attention. The ignorance in which the Conservative court circles kept our pathetically well intentioned monarch is once again shown by the King’s entry in his diary for September 3, 1939, in which he states, with evident satisfaction, that the country was ‘united behind its leaders’. The Soviet campaign in Finland is referred to by the author as ‘Finland’s gallant struggle against Soviet aggression’. He suppresses the agreement made on February 4, 1940, between the British and French governments, with the approval of the Labour leaders, to send an army of 100,000 men via Sweden to fight Russia. Only the fact that at that time no such force existed and the Swedes refused to permit the passage of troops over their territory saved us from national suicide. What were the King’s reactions? We are not told. Vv The events of May 1940—when Chamberlain was dismissed from office as a result of the revelations in the House of Commons about the mismanagement of the Norwegian expedition—seem to have been misunderstood both by the King and his advisers. ‘It is most unfair on Chamberlain,’ the King recorded in his diary, ‘to be treated like this after all his good work. The Conservative rebels like Duff Cooper ought to be ashamed of themselves for deserting him at this moment.’ As Chamberlain’s successor the King’s ‘first and personal preference was undoubtedly Lord Halifax’, who also had the support of Dr Hugh Dalton and other Labour leaders. Once 1 A Great Experiment (1941). An indispensable source for the - historian, this book does not appear-.in-Wheeler-Bennett’s ... “ bibliography, and its autfior rates only a line ina’ fo6tnote. -“ in control, however, Churchill quickly won the complete confidence of the King, who addressed him by his Christian mame and ever afterwards treated him as a trusted friend. When, after the Labour landslide of 1945, George VI advised Attlee to appoint Bevin to the Foreign Office he was almost certainly acting under*Churchill’s influence. It was an astute Move. Bevin’s ‘continuity’ speech in the autumn of 1945 inaugurated the bipartisan policy which enabled Attlee to fritter away his enormous majority in five years and. brought . Churchill back to power in six. Its effects are still with us. Wheeler-Bennett’s biography establishes the late monarch’s stern sense of duty, honesty and courage. It does not conceal the fact that except in his choice of a wife, where he was singularly happy, his judgment was almost invariably at fault and his advice to his Ministers bad. To those who like to think of Britain as a mixture of Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe and Madame Tussaud’s, with animated waxworks dolled up in fancy dress, it will confirm some of their suspicions. It is doubtful whether George VI knew either by name or sight many of the most eminent figures who flourished during his lifetime. If this book proves anything it is that the Crown and the Conservative Party are indivisible and that socialism is in- compatible with the present system of titles and honours. DOUGLAS GOLDRING German History