- 2
Monday, June 5, 1972
!
of a generation in war, distracted by the frustration and misery of
world economic slump, and threatened by the rise of Fascist and Communist
dictatorships in Europe. A period of desperate difficulty for those,
like him, to whom people looked for a lead.
"But in spite of this, thie was the period of his legend and
the time when his star shone so brightly. The time when, as we now see
he threw his weight on the side of much that mattered most, and against
much that we now see was out-of-date or irrelevant.
"Abroad, by his tours and by his style, he demonstrated the
role the Royal Family could play as a link between peoples as well as
between governments. We remember how he visited Hong Kong. Those were
the days when he was known as Britain's first Ambassador, and Britain's
best salesman.
11
Common Touch
"At home he had a common touch. He tried to identify himself
with the economic and social realities and needs of those times, and by doing
so to insist they were not forgotten. He did this by personal interest
and personal contact at all levels, and, let us not forget, by a programme
of activities that called for immense expenditure of physical and nervous
energy.
"And in these roles, and by temperament, he rejected much of the
formality and many of the conventions of the Court and Society of those days.
"So these were the courses he set himself; this was why his star
shone so brightly; this is the legend that will be his. It is surely one
that is sympathetic to us in Hong Kong, who in totally different circumstances,
/have