ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY KING, GEORGE V. (Hansard, 20 March 1913)

§ The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Asquith)

I beg to move:— That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty to express the indignation and deep concern with which this House has learned of the assassination of His Majesty the King of the Hellenes, and to condole with His Majesty on this melancholy occasion, and to pray His Majesty that he will be graciously pleased to express to His Majesty the present King, on the part of this House, their abhorrence of the crime and their profound sympathy with the Royal Family and with the Government and people of Greece, to assure His Majesty that this House will ever feel the warmest interest in whatever concerns His Majesty's domestic relations, and to declare the ardent wishes of this House for the happiness of His Majesty and of His Family. The world has been shocked by another of those purposeless crimes which have for their victims heads of States, and which at a single blow inflict bereavement and sorrow upon millions of mankind. There is a special pathos in the circumstances of the time and the occasion when the King of the Hellenes was struck down. He was on the eve of completing the fiftieth year 1226 of a reign in which, amid many vicissitudes of fortune, he had witnessed and presided over the steady and progressive development of the people who had called him to their throne. He had just had the satisfaction of seeing the realisation of some of their most cherished hopes in the victories which have been won by the armies under the leadership of his eldest son. No Sovereign in the world had less reason to fear a violent death at the hands of one of his own subjects. We here in this country have special grounds for asking to be allowed to associate ourselves in the grief of the Greek Royal House and nation. We have from its first beginnings watched with sympathetic interest and good will the constitutional growth of Hellenic freedom; and in the person of the late King, the uncle of our own Sovereign and the eldest surviving brother of our much loved Queen Alexandra, we had a further tie of the most intimate relationship between the ruling families of tine two countries. I ask the House in this Address to offer our sincere condolences to His Majesty the King and to the Government and the people of Greece, and to accompany that expression of the national feeling with a special and separate tribute of sympathy to Queen Alexandra, who finds herself by this cruel blow wounded once more in her tenderest affections.

§ Mr. BONAR LAW

I desire to second the Motion which has just been proposed by the Prime Minister. I am sure that everything he has said will find a ready response in the heart of every Member of the House. The late King during his long reign, by his good sense, by his courage when courage was necessary, and by his moderation, had won in an ever-increasing degree the confidence, the affection, and the devoted loyalty of his people. We sympathise with the Royal Family of Greece in the cruel blow which has so suddenly fallen upon them, and we sympathise with the people in the sorrow which is universally felt by them—a sorrow which has come, as the Prime Minister reminded us, when the reputation, both of the King and of his people, 1227 was at its highest point, at a time when something of the ancient spirit of the race had been revived, and when they had done something to remind the world of the glorious traditions of their past. We sympathise with the Royal Family and with the Greek nation, but our hearts go out in a special way to the Mother of our own Sovereign. Prince and peasant in all the great joys and sorrows of life are touched alike. Queen Alexandra has been sorely tried, but it is our hope that even in her abiding sorrow it may be some consolation to her to feel that she enjoys in the fullest measure the affection and heartfelt sympathy, not only of the House of Commons, but of every subject of His Majesty the King.