“India… while it mourns the loss of an Emperor whose kindness and affection secured for them the blessings of British rule – so graciously granted by the late Queen Empress – welcomes her new King-Emperor whose sympathy with her people has already been assured, whose personal knowledge and insight has already led him to the true secret of wise, progressive and beneficent rule in India”.
MAY 9, 1910
George V – King Emperor
THE SPEECH WHICH HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V. EMPEROR of India, addressed to the Privy Council on Saturday last, a summary of which Reuter has wired to us, will sound the veriest depths of emotion in every one of his subjects. His Majesty recalled his father’s words, that so long as he drew breath he would strive to promote the best interests of the people. “It will be the earnest object of my life”, said His Majesty, “to follow in the footsteps of my father and at the same time uphold the constitutional Government of these realms. I am deeply sensitive to my heavy responsibilities, but know that I can rely on Parliament and the people of these islands and my dominions overseas to help me in the discharge of my arduous duties by their prayers that God will grant me strength and guidance.” His Majesty King George V comes to the throne at a younger age than his late Majesty, but with a wiser head than many monarchs his age could boast of in Europe. King George in the days of his youth was not trained to be a king”. That was done in the case of his late lamented brother, the Duke of Clarence. His Majesty therefore, has had the singular advantage of having been trained as a sailor and the unsecluded career led by him threw him fully and freely in the midst of all his subjects. When he was therefore, called in 1901, by the hand of Providence, to undertake the duties of his royal position as Prince of Wales, His Majesty showed an adaptability and resource in his new position and evinced qualities, which if they were perhaps different from those displayed by his great father, His late Majesty, certainly contributed equally to strengthen the bonds of the people of the Empire to the throne and to attach their affections to himself as the heir-apparent. Quietly, unostentatiously, but none the less effectively, His Majesty has been performing the functions of his high office. His Majesty has visited every part of his Empire and has made himself personally acquainted with all their problems. For the Royal tours in 1901 and 1905-06 were not regarded by him, merely as Royal progresses undertaken for purposes of display or diversion, but as affording opportunities for the purpose of understanding the varying needs and requirements of the Empire. That His Majesty used those opportunities wisely and well, it is superfluous to mention. The speeches which he delivered on his return from his colonial and Indian tours have given his subjects a glimpse of the deep insight which he has acquired into their conditions and into their problems. His Majesty’s Indian subjects now recall with pride the great speech which he made at the Guildhall Banquet given to him in June 1906, which we republish elsewhere and in which he gave an account of his impressions of his Indian subjects, of the enthusiasm and devotion with which they welcomed him, of the unmistakable proofs of their genuine devotion and personal attachment to the King Emperor, his late Majesty, and of the poverty and misery of many of the people of this land to whom he extended his royal sympathy. In the following impassioned words, he appealed to his hearers and to the members of the ruling class in India to rule his people with sympathy:
I have realised the patience, the simplicity of life, the loyal devotion, and the religious spirit which characterise the Indian peoples. I know also their faith in the absolute justice and integrity of our rule. I cannot help thinking from all I have heard and seen that the task of governing India will be made the easier if we, on our part, infuse into it a wider element of sympathy. I will venture to predict that to such sympathy there will be an ever abundant and genuine response. May we not also hope for a still fuller measure of trust and confidence in our earnest desire and efforts to promote the well-being and to further the best interests of every class?
His Majesty’s visit to India synchronised with the beginning of a period of unrest in this land after the regime of Lord Curzon, and nothing has shown the sober and statesmanlike qualities of His Majesty more than the trouble which he took amidst all the pomp and pageantry of a Royal progress, to study and understand the true causes of the unrest among his Indian subjects, to appreciate and sympathise with their disadvantages, difficulties and desires and speak out his mind on them to those agents of his administration in India to whom has been committed the destinies of millions of his subjects. India, therefore, while it mourns the loss of an Emperor whose kindness and affection secured for them the blessings of British rule – so graciously granted by the late Queen Empress – welcomes her new King Emperor whose sympathy with her people has already been assured, whose personal knowledge and insight has already led him to the true secret of wise, progressive and beneficent rule in India. In England, as well as in India. His Majesty succeeds, in the words of the London Times at a time of unusual difficulty and stress, but his subjects may rest assured that they have had his close and anxious attention for many months”. Whatever be the means by which the constitutional crisis in Great Britain between the House of Lords and the House of Commons is tided over we may be sure that, as John Bright once put it, so long as the Throne of England is filled with so much dignity and so much honour – and we may add with so much ability and statesmanship – by Queen Empress Victoria and her descendants, “the venerable monarchy will be perpetual” even were the most socialist Ministry to be in power in England. India, however, has nothing to do directly either with the ending or mending of the House of Lords or any of those party fights which are now acute in the United Kingdom. And amidst the shifts and changes of parties and ministers in England and the continual changes of rulers and administrators in India, the masses of the Indian people have naturally regarded the Royal Family as the one permanent factor in the British connection with India and have continued to place their faith in their sense of justice, sympathy and kindness, as far as they might help in promoting the welfare of the country. So far as His Majesty is concerned, we may be permitted to observe that the Indian problem will be the simpler and easier one for His Majesty to grapple with. For, His Majesty has had the advantage which his Ministers do not possess, of a direct and personal acquaintance with it during his very recent tour – and, to the extent he extends his wide sympathy, “there will be an ever-abundant and genuine response.”
Reference:
The First 100
A Selection of Editorials, 1878-1978, THE HINDU, VOLUME I