VENUS VERSUS MARS

Professor McIlwain's masterly discussion for today's CRIMSON of the constitutional reverberations of England's matrimonial uproar presents the case for the King with all its strength most advantageously arrayed. Mr. McIlwain points out that the limitation of royal power in the interests of democracy has progressed far enough. He shows that distinct dangers would result from any derangement of the present balance between King and Cabinet, such as abdication of the one compelled by the other would necessarily produce. He rightly exposes the haste of the Baldwin government in forcing the issue, justifiable only on the basis that public opinion, if given time to mobilize, would unquestionably swing into action on the side of the King. He exculpates the King from charges of deception in his having delayed his avowal until after his father's death. It is furthermore clear that the romance and the luster of the kingship would be sadly served by that insiped nondescript, the present Duke of York.

In view of these facts and the serious complications they illustrate, it is hard to insist that Edward for the welfare of his realm must renounce his royalty. Since the beginning of time it has been sheer folly to advise a man to change his mind about marriage. But if, as it seems, a solution is not forthcoming, the only wise move is to take a lesson from Good Queen Bess, and procrastinate. As Professor McIlwain explains, the King cannot marry Mrs. Simpson till next April anyway. And if Mr. Baldwin persists in driving out the chief obstacle to his Conservatism, he will probably find that the name of a ruined king is far from a ruined rallying cry, and that the defiance of a great tradition is no firm basis for popularity. Mr. Baldwin is already unpopular enough.

The chief recommendation for a remission of this bad-tempered bickering is the necessity for England to return her attention to the critical condition of matters international. This Simpson affair has interrupted a far more important matter, the good work of keeping England out of the general imbroglio. The rearming has continued, but that alone is scarcely calculated to relieve the tension. France, refusing to pass judgment on the matriminial spat, has at the same time become quite uneasy over the state of the alliance. England must promptly forget her relatively piffling human interest story, and turn to things that are more realistic and far more consequential.