(3 of 4)
Hearst & King. In Great Britain for the past month Publisher William Randolph Hearst, from his castle in Wales, has been quietly pursuing the theory that the one question of importance about King Edward today is whether or not he is resolved to marry Mrs. Simpson. It was apparent that Mr. Hearst, while personally investigating, ordered his newsorgans to play down as much as possible the Mrs. Simpson story, and in recent weeks Hearst editors have repeatedly blue-penciled or killed dispatches from London on this subject. Sir Godfrey Thomas, for 15 years Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales and now Assistant Private Secretary to King Edward, recently conferred at length with Mr. Hearst. This week Mr. Hearst's U. S. executives believed that the King had personally authorized their Chief to break the news of Edward VIII's intentions. From London by telephone suddenly came to Hearst editors, with authority to front-page it at once, a story to rank with some of the achievements of Mr. Hearst's only real rival in U. S. publisher-reporting, Roy Wilson Howard. This dispatch, couched in a style almost unmistakably the "Chief's" own, reported England's biggest news since the death of George V as follows:
"Within a few days Mrs. Ernest Simpson, of Baltimore, Md., U. S. A., will obtain her divorce decree in England, and some eight months thereafter she will be married to Edward VIII, King of England.
"King Edward's most intimate friends state with the utmost positiveness that he is very deeply and sincerely enamored of Mrs. Simpson, that his love is a righteous affection, and that almost immediately after the Coronation he will take her as his consort.
"It is stated definitely that King Edward is convinced that this is both the right thing to do and the wise thing to do.
"He believes that it would be an actual mistake for a King of England to marry into any of the royal houses of the Continent of Europe, and so involve himself and his empire in the complications and disasters of these royal houses.
"He believes further that in this day and generation it is absurd to try to maintain the tradition of royal intermarriages, with all the physical as well as political disabilities likely to result from that outgrown custom. "His brother, the Duke of York, has been extremely happy and fortunate in his marriage to a lady of the people, a commoner, socalled.
"King Edward believes that the marriage he contemplates would be equally happy, and that it would help him to do what he wants to do namely, reign in the interests of the people.
"Finally, he believes that the most im portant thing for the peace and welfare of the world is an intimate understanding and relationship between England and America, and that his marriage with this very gifted lady may help to bring about that beneficial co-operation between English-speaking nations.