¶ The great legend of King George today is that Britain's markedly successful National Government sprang from a discreet stroke of statecraft by His Majesty. Three years ago George V is supposed to have persuaded James Ramsay MacDonald to desert his Labor colleagues of a lifetime and become the vote-getting figurehead of the so-called National (but in fact Conservative) Government (TIME, Aug. 31, 1931). Always the King is represented as a tower of moral strength, aiding his conscience-torn Scottish Prime Minister to decide between Labor and the Nation. Last week this pristine royal legend was rudely spattered. At it gnomish, crippled Philip Snowden, splenetic Viscount Snowden of Ickornshaw, heaved the clods of his second volume of autobiography.
There was no struggle in the Prime Minister's conscience, Lord Snowden insists. "He [MacDonald] had always entertained a feeling of something like contempt for trade union leaders," reminisced the onetime Chancellor of the Exchequer. "His mind, a long time before this crisis arose, had been turning to the idea of a new party orientation and government by what he called a 'Council of State.' He set about the formation of a National Government with an enthusiasm which showed the adventure was highly agreeable to him."
Thus brutally did Lord Snowden reverse the popular belief that for once King George did something of importance, winning over his Prime Minister when the Scotsman came to Buckingham Palace determined to resign. As a matter of fact, according to Lord Snowden, "The day after the National Government was formed he [MacDonald] came into my room in Downing Street in very high spirits. I remarked to him that he would now find himself very popular in strange quarters. He replied gleefully, rubbing his hands, 'Yes, tomorrow every Duchess in London will be wanting to kiss me.' "
Pleasant royal legends die hard. Lord Snowden's revelations proved anything but popular. Typical of Empire editorial reaction was a dressing-down which the dyspeptic Viscount received from Ottawa's sturdy Evening Citizen: "He [Snowden] is on record as having kowtowed as Chancellor to the Lords of 'sound' money just as much as Ramsay MacDonald has been Chanticleer in the hen-run of society dowagers. The Prime Minister's chaste cheek may have been impressed with various flavors of London society's lipstick, but Comrade Snowden is in the House of Lords because he kissed the seats of London's international moneylenders."
¶ Most unwelcome guests of the week to His Majesty were four delegates from Western Australia who made for Buckingham Palace carrying enormous scrolls. Their obstreperous State had decided by referendum to secede from the Australian Commonwealth and seek self-governing status under the Crown (TIME. April 17, 1933). The scrolls, crammed with the signatures of Western Australians who demand this change, will be referred by the King-Emperor to his Lords and Commons when they reconvene this week.