'WE ARE NOT REMOTE SUBJECTS'

THE GROWN: A FOCAL POINT FOR THE PEOPLE
By David O'Shea
Ex-National Secretary of the Y.C.W.
EMERSON remarked one hundred year I ago that
loyalty is in the English a sub-religion. Many of the foreign visitors among us now have no doubt come to the same conclusion. To say that we "respect" the Crown is to say too little. To say that we venerate it is nearer the truth. This attitude to the Crown is
so deeply a part of us that there is no need for a monarchist party to
assert its importance, nor could one imagine anything so un-British as a republican movement.
For our veneration for the Crown, as the central institution not only of the United Kingdom but also of the whole of the Commonwealth and Colonial Territories comes our sympathy and affection for the person who has to bear such a vast responsibility. Millions were happy to give
expression to this sympathy by responding immediately to the Queen's
request for prayers in her Christmas broadcast.
The Queen, on that occasion, seemed to show her sense not only of ruling over her people but also of being dependant upon them, being responsible for but also in a way responsible to them. We are not remote subjects of an impersonal ruler but are all members of one family in which we need the Queen and the Queen needs us.
It is this tradition in recent holders of the English Crown—helped not a little by the way they have been able to speak to their subjects hy radio in the intimacy of their homes—.that has made our Kings and Queens ever more popular in a world where the march of democracy has often meant the disappearance of the throne.
The Common Touch THIS tradition has its origins in the reign of Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert. They gave themselves so completely to their duties that they became the models for their age. Prince Albert's eye for detail where the needs of the people were concerned is shown by his action on behalf of the ballast tillers in the London pocks.
When he was made Master of Trinity House they petitioned him to remove an abuse. They could only get employment through publichouse owners—after spending money with them. Through his efforts the whole business was cleaned up. There are many workers in the docks of New York who would be glad to have a man like Prince Albert around today.
Last year a man of 75 was telling me of the devotion people had to Queen Victoria when he was a youth. When he was working as a young coalmines in Leigh. Lancashire. he took time off from work one morning to walk some miles to stand by the Liverpool-Manchester railway line to see the Queen's train go by. In those days workers rarely were given time off with pay for a royal occasion. The fact that Coronation Day is now a Bank Holiday is in itself a mark of the progress in popularity of the Crown In his autobiography George Laosbury wrote: "The Coronation of King George took place in 1911.1 put some questions in the House about workers losing their wages and suggested the Coronation should not be an occasion for imposing losses on masses of people who could ill afford to lose a day's pay.
"Lord Carrington sent for me and asked what I wanted done. I told him I wanted the King, or somebody on his behalf, to make an appeal to all employers to see that the workmen did not lose their wages, and this was done."
But this problem will not arise for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. Attendance along the route to the Abbey is expected to be greater than ever. Even these numbers will be small compared with those who will see the great event on television screens all over Europe and, with only a few hours' delay, in the U.S.A. It is estimated that some bye hundred million people the world over will see the special film that is being made.
Crown and People
THIS is all making the Crown a focal point for the community spirit of the people, a spirit which will be expressed in the many C-Day parties which will take place all over the country. I talked recently with two former Y.C.W. leaders now roarred who, like thousands of others in the country. realise the great value of helping this community spirit amongst their neighbours.
They have both organised street parties. By such means as collections, raffles, donations, bazaars and such like. many of these street parties have as much as £200 in their funds, The money will be spent on such events as children's parties, outings for mothers and children and prizes for the best decorated house in the street, Through all this the Crown is drawing the people together not in a
vague way but very concretely in our own streets and neighbourhoods.
Maurice Foley, former Vice-President of the Y.C.W., is now National Secretary of the English European Youth Campaign. Earlier in the year he initiated a scheme through which young people from all over Europe have been invited to watch the Coronation procession and spend two weeks as guests of 15 London boroughs. The response to this has been a wonderful reflection of how highly our Crown is regarded throughout Europe. Six hundred boys and girls are among us now as a result of this scheme. Two of our most heavily blitzed boroughs: East and West Ham, are receiving parties from the devastated German cities of Berlin and Dusseldorf.
A group from Arnhem, in Holland, is made up of the children of the people who tend the graves ef the British soldiers who died so heroically defending the ideals embodied in our monarchy. Those who have come from Austria and Switzerland were the prize-winners in an essay competition on the-British monarchy.
Venerated Crown THE Coronation is high-lighting the fact that the Crown, the responsibilities of which are borne so well by our Queen, ably helped by her dynamic husband, is venerated more than at any other period in history, This is true not only in the United Kingdom but all over Europe and throughout the free world. So much depends on the continuance of this great symbol of justice and order, of peace and unity between peoples, that millions of the Queen's Catholic subjects will join in the Triduum of Intercession culminating in the special Mass on the Eve of Coronation Day.
There we will take part in the reoffering of the sacrifice of the King of Kings, and ask God's blessing on our Queen and on all the peoples united in the Crown.