British Commonwealth of Nations: Barred from Canada

International jurists elevated an eyebrow. Students of the validity of human testimony jotted an additional note or two. The Manhattan-edited Chicago-printed weekly, Liberty, was “permanently” barred from Canada, “because it is publishing a series of articles concerning King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra and the present Prince of Wales which are misrepresentations and libelous.” Thereupon the persons immediately concerned flatly contradicted one another, as follows:

Mr. George H. Boivin, Canadian Minister of Customs and Excise: “The article complained of is a very libelous one concerning the Queen Mother.”

Mr. J. M. Patterson, President of Liberty: “Some seem to hold a mistaken impression that this narrative . . . ‘The Heartbreak of a Queen’. . . in some way reflects upon the late Queen Alexandra. Nothing could be farther from the fact.”

Observers were in no doubt as to the true merits of the case, after scanning a few paragraphs of the offending article:

Of Edward VII: “[The Mordaunt divorce trial] occurred in February, 1870. … Sir Charles Mordaunt had instituted the proceedings to fix the paternity of the child. . . . The Prince (later Edward VII), it was conceded, visited young Lady Mordaunt frequently prior to the birth of the child. . . . Immediately following the baby’s birth she made a confession to her husband, implicating the Prince of Wales, Lord Cole, Sir Frederick Johnston and others. . . . Notwithstanding a jury verdict completely exonerating Edward . . . the scandal touched Alexandra a little more than any other. . . .”

Of Queen Alexandra: “She met her marital problems with a cleverness that evoked the unwilling admiration of Europe. Repeatedly, although by nature she was one of the most exclusive of persons, she invited to Sandringham the very women with whose names his was associated. And she was at some pains to show these ladies manifestations of her good will in other and equally significant ways.

“She made much of Mrs. George Keppel . . . frequently and openly portrayed in Europe and America as Edward’s favorite during the last ten years of his life.

“Repeatedly Alexandra invited Mrs. Keppel to Sandringham. . . .

“On the night of the fifth of May, 1910, Edward died. Mrs. Keppel had been summoned by Alexandra. The Queen took her hand and led her to the deathbed. There, together, they knelt and prayed.”

Of Edward of Wales: “Virginia De Lanty [was] the girl who started gossip by finding the Prince of Wales’ wallet in her room [during his last visit to Manhattan]. . . . The wallet was monogramed and contained private crest-marked papers, some money and a few photographs. Among the latter was a picture of the Queen Mother, which bore mute testimony to the sympathetic devotion which was strong in the heart of her grandson. . . .

“Miss De Lanty . . . came forward with the statement that she was hostess not to the Prince of Wales but to his equerry, Major E. D. Metcalfe. It appeared that the major had dashed into the street at an early hour in the morning in a highly overwrought state of mind. To the first policeman he chanced to encounter he made a statement which the excited officer recalled as: ‘The Prince has been robbed of his wallet.’ After the recovery of the pocketbook, the major corrected the policeman’s impression by informing him that he really said: ‘I have lost the Prince’s wallet. . . .’

“A Broadway supper club [afterwards] featured ‘Miss Virginia De Lanty, Nightly, Late Friend and Guest to H. R. H. Prince of Wales, In a ‘Wallet’ of Songs and Dances.”

Prophecy: “[King Edward’s] son, the present king, George V, he believed would be the last King of England. My grandson,’ King Edward used to tell his inti-mates . . . ‘will never come to the throne.'”