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THE IMPERIAL POLICY GROUP. 13, Old Queen Street, Westminster, London, S.W.1.

Telephone Whitehall 4969.

[written in pencil] Kenneth de Courcey! Not a very reliable witness.

11th December 1936.

My dear Lord Tweedsmuir,

Now that this crisis has reached its very tragic end, I would like you to know some of the story which I have before me. I happen to know some of the King's close friends very well indeed, and in consequence they have somewhat naturally surrounded me during the last few days, knowing that my sympathies were very much more with the King than with anybody else. It is such a complicated story that it is difficult to give.

First of all, I think S.B. was perfectly honest when he told the House that he believed his relationship to be absolutely friendly with the King; on the other hand, the fact does remain that the King had expressed to his personal friends a growing distrust of the Government, and had not indicated a very warm friendship with his ministers, excepting Duff Cooper. He had the extraordinary idea that the Press had always been against him since his Accession, and he gave the example to a friend of mine that after his Presentation of Colours to the Brigade of Guards, the Press was not interested in his speech, over which he had taken infinite trouble, but only in the attempt on his life, and that curiously enough irritated him enormously; and then even more curiously he was displeased at the sentence on the man who threw the revolver at him. He undoubtedly had the idea that nearly everybody was against him, although this of course was wholly untrue. And to be really frank, I must say that I do not think he was very touched or pleased to hear that people were working in his interests - if anything, I am afraid he rather revelled in the idea that he was lonely.

No words can describe to you the appalling advisers he had during the last few days. Apart from the Government, who were somewhat naturally in constant touch with him, most of the people with whom he was in touch were Mrs. Simpson's own friends, and several of them came to see me, although I had never met them before. You could never imagine what frightful

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people they were, and there is no doubt whatever that they were fighting for Mrs. Simpson and not for the King. They were mostly Americans.

Morganatic marriage was, I imagine, quite impossible because of the number of Common Informers and the weight of the evidence before the Court, which ruled out the possibility of making the decree nisi absolute. That was a very excellent reason for ruling out marriage, and quite apart from the views of the Dominions and Parliament, the marriage never could have taken place. Mrs. Simpson played a very clever game indeed, but she made two miscalculations: first, she thought Attlee would back her, and then she did not think the publicity would break until after the Staffordshire tour, by which time she reckoned his popularity would be overwhelming. The extraordinary thing was that the King was not in the least influenced by the evidence produced to him that the marriage could not take place, and my own opinion is that his state of mind was such that he never decided between the Empire and Mrs. Simpson, because the Empire side of his mind, if I may so describe it, was completely and absolutely dead. I think he had been overwhelmed by a sort of mental obsession.

There is no doubt His Majesty was in a very unbalanced state, for a friend of mine was staying with him a short time ago and told me of his extraordinary behaviour during the weekend. There is no doubt Mrs. Simpson had a vile influence. I am sure that nobody can blame the King for having deliberately chosen Mrs. Simpson as against his duties, because at the time he made that decision he was not in a state to make one. Curiously enough he was radiantly happy , and a man told me who was at the last dinner when the Prime Minister spent over four and a half hours with him he had never seen the King looking so happy before.

But I do think the Government made a number of very serious mistakes. First of all, I cannot think why Mr. Justice Hawk was not ordered to quash the divorce prodeedings, for that would have been quite possible. Then I cannot imagine why Duff Cooper, after being on the yacht with them, did not come back and demand a Cabinet discussion, for he must have seen the red light, and that would have given Mr. Baldwin another six weeks; and more than all that, the whole of London was talking

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about this in the early spring, and I should have thought there would have been some means of dealing with the matter before the King became so utterly blinded to everything but the one issue.

My line was to try and build up in the King's mind the idea that he was quite wrong in thinking everybody against him, and I hoped as a result of demonstrating almost last ditch loyalty he would be so touched that in a flash he would realise the tremendous responsibilities of an Empire. But curiously enough it had not the slightest effect. S. B. has said in the House that he is satisfied that where he failed nobody else could have succeeded, and I quite agree with him as far as the last few days are concerned, but I cannot agree about the earlier stages. I do not know how S. B. can know that nobody could have succeeded if he only tried from 16th October onwards, which after all was months after the King had succeeded to the Throne, and was therefore in direct touch with the Prime Minister . As to the earlier stages of the business, before King George V died, I do not know what might have been done - probably nothing.

A striking illustration of the King's mind is that last night - that is, the night of his abdication - he invited a number of friends to dinner, and one of the guests came to see me. I am quite satisfied that he had not the slightest conception of what he was going to [do] and what he was sacrificing. I do hope that nobody will think he made a deliberate choice.

It will take us many years to restore the full prestige of the Monarchy, but it will not take many months for King Edward to realise what has happened to him. I only wish that the Prime Minister would take Mansfield, Wise and me into his confidence, instead of leaving us in complete ignorance until these things become so acute. After all, he has failed and his Government has failed, and this is not the first time, and on many occasions we have not been at all wrong. I should have thought it was time he really did consult us, at any rate on the off-chance that we might be able to save some of these failures in the future. I am quite certain in my own mind that we could have made some very businesslike suggestions with regard to this problem, if only to goodness

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we had known in time. In ordinary circumstances it might sound very foolish to say this, but since the Government has completely failed, and we have lost a very great King, I am beginning to wonder whether my friends and I are such complete fools after all. If the divorce had been quashed at the very first, at any rate the acute public issue could never arisen. The effect on the King might have been very bad, and there might have been a scandal of another sort, but if his affaire with Mrs. Simpson had really continued, there would surely have been evidence for the King's medical advisers to suggest a year or two's complete retirement, and even if necessary an enforced retirement, when he could have been sent round the world or something of the sort, and his place taken by a Council of State. I should have thought almost anything would have been better than what we now have. I think the Duke of York will make a very good, honest and sincere King, but the idea of an ex-King of England wandering round Europe, completely shattered as he will be before long, must ever be a source of grave embarrassment.

It must not be forgotten that if ordinary Government policy fails, particularly with regard to the distressed areas, the ex-King will ever be a rallying point for dissatisfied elements, however much he wants to avoid this.

The strong feeling in the country which was very clear on Sunday of this week, when the country thought the King was being coerced, has died away, and apart from a few Fascists last night, there were no demonstrators. But the feeling that the King was thrown out, however unjustified, might grow again, although I hope not. I would emphasise once more that I am sure that S. B. sincerely believed what he said in the House last night, that the relationships between him and the King were very friendly. The King was prejudiced against the Government if what he said to private friends can be believed and I must say I am sure it can be - an idea probably built up by Mrs. Simpson. She is, I imagine, about the last word in badness, although a very very clever woman.

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I wish you would impress upon the Prime Minister how much better it would be to talk to us occasionally, just on the off-chance that we might be helpful, and show that we are not quite such fools as the Government seem to think.

Yours very sincerely, Kenneth de Courcy.

The Hon. Lord Tweedsmuir, Government House, Ottawa, Canada.

[added in pen]

Walter Monckton and Edward Peacock have been quite excellent. At the private dinner last night the ex King talked only of Mrs. S. and proposed her health. Only once did he break down - he seemed to have forgotten then having been a King: When I see you I will tell you much more. Do think kindly of him - it was not his fault - his mind was quite unbalanced over this one subject.