Read The Peoples King for Free Online Page A

for the last 4 months I've been working till 3 & 4 in the morning on your behalf. Will you please believe I'm doing all I can?' 61 '
    The men pulled back, presumably out of respect for the King. Let Brown try going to South Wales 'without the shelter of the royal purple!' mocked Aneurin Bevan/' It was certainly unusual for govern­ment ministers to walk among the people, as Brown was required to do on this royal tour. 'The Ministers are emphatically unable to voice the opinion of the people', it was observed in a letter to the King, because 'they never come in contact with them, when they constantly drive about in cars.' 68
    At Nantyglo and Blaina, where three-quarters of the population were unemployed, cheering crowds congregated behind barricades on the coal tips and pavements. It was bitterly cold - the village was 1,400 feet above sea level. When the King arrived at the Miners' Welfare Institute at Garn-yr-Erw, he was smoking a cigarette and appeared thoughtful. After meeting local officials, he lingered on to talk with ex-servicemen. He met an old Welsh Guardsman, a miner, who had been unemployed since 192.9. He was appalled when told that although the Cwmtillery and Six Bells collieries on the outskirts of the town were at work, the three pits in the centre of the town were now closed. One miner who had been working for forty years and unemployed for nine, said he prayed that the royal tour would bring improved conditions. 'I hope so', answered the King. 69
    The next stop was Abertillery. Through a maze of short streets, the King's car was driven to Rhiw Park where an unsightly slag heap had been converted into a grassy recreation ground for children. Noticing the former president of the South Wales Miners' Federation among the spectators, the King immediately crossed over for a chat. The royal party then went to the club room, which was being used as a children's feeding centre. Here, the King would not allow his arrival to interrupt the meal of stew and pudding. When the children saw him and scrambled to stand up quickly at their wooden benches, he told them at once to 'Sit down and get on with your meal!' He was informed that the menu varied from day to day. A child might have boiled beef, potatoes and haricot beans for dinner one day, with bread, butter, jam and fresh milk for tea; then boiled fish, mashed potatoes and suet pudding for dinner the next day, with bread and butter, banana sandwiches and fresh milk for tea. This was a godsend to the mothers. 70 The final stage of Edward's tour of Wales was the long run to Rhymney. The old shops of the Rhymney Iron Company by the railway station had been converted into a social centre for the unemployed, to which about two hundred men and women belonged. The men repaired boots and did carpentry and woodwork; they also took part in physical training, sang, listened to broadcast talks, debated, and heard lectures and concerts. Here the King met an old man at work with a saw and, trying it himself, exclaimed, 'You are very lucky if you can use it!' The women did sewing, knitting and crochet. Edward spoke to the men who were responsible for the working of the outcrop scheme, by which unemployed men were able to obtain their coal for tuppence a week. He then joined in the singing of Welsh songs and the classic hymn 'Cwm Rhondda'. 71
    This was the last stop: it was now time for the King to leave South Wales. 'I have seen a great deal,' he said, 'and I must now go home and think of what can be done.' At 3.30 p.m., he boarded his train for London. The echoing cheers of the enthusiastic crowds followed the train as it pulled slowly away from the station. 72
     
     
2 'My own beloved Wallis'
     
     
    When King Edward returned to London from South Wales on the evening of Thursday, 19 November 1936, he was in high spirits. He went to a dinner party at the home of Sir Henry ('Chips') Channon, an American friend and a Member of Parliament. Channon watched the royal car draw up and