Word: vi
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What Statesman Law calls "Commonwealth" practically all Britons call, without shame, "Empire." Colloquially, the Empire includes: 1) the Dominions of the Commonwealth (Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Eire); 2) the colonies and protectorates (Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, etc.); 3) India-the only realm of which George VI is actually Emperor. Total population: 557,000,000. (The world's population...
...Full title: George VI, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India...
...George VI ... Emperor. . . ." therefore embodies a hope and a prospect which is all-important to Britons, important to all the world. War has at once tightened and loosened the bonds of Empire. Sovereign, national aims conflict in Canada with a never-dying tie to Britain. Aspirations both regional and national stir New Zealand and Australia. South Africa's great Prime Minister, Field Marshal and Elder Statesman Jan Christiaan Smuts, feels grave responsibility both for Imperial Britain and for the independent integrity of his own country. India, the jewel of Empire, strains away from Empire, yet gives (or sells...
...Faith. No phrase in George VI's royal style is more resonant than "Defender of the Faith."* When Pope Leo X so designated Henry VIII, it meant: defender of the Roman Catholic faith. Henry abruptly and sensationally made it mean defender of the Protestant Church of England. Since then, the faith preserved in Great Britain's Crown has evolved, in terms both political and social, far beyond careful definition. What it has gained in breadth it may have lost in depth...
Gentle yet earthy King George VI would probably feel more atune to the words of a British mother, refusing to send her children to safety in the U.S. at the war's start. Said she: "Something is happening here they must feel and know if ever they are to be a part of England again. Whatever the risks, I cannot rob my children of their country...