All Over

A chill rain spread gloom over Lydd airport one morning last week as Group Captain Peter Townsend oversaw the loading of his green Renault sedan aboard an air freighter. Curious sightseers huddled near by, but the airman had no last words for them, not even a farewell wave of the hand as he himself climbed aboard the plane. A half hour later he was gone from

England, bound for his air attache post in Brussels. The romance was over.

All over Britain were heard voices raised in admiration for 25-year-old Princess Margaret's decision to choose duty over love;* others felt only immense sympathy for her. But mixed with these solemn sounds, in many a pub in gambling-minded Britain, was the noise of bets being paid off. The London Times, which managed to editorialize on the news without mentioning Townsend by name, commended Margaret for doing what was "expected of her." The self-appointed leader of the opposite side, the brash tabloid Daily Mirror, proclaimed: "A crisis has come to the serene cloisters of the Church of England. Slowly, a wave of anger mounts against the Primate, bringing with it a tide of doubt about the teachings of the church on divorce." The Archbishop of Canterbury, appearing on a TV interview,* insisted that he himself had had nothing to do with the Princess' decision. "Of course," he said, "she took advice, and she chose whom she took it from." And then he added, with a bluntness that distressed even some of his supporters: "We are fighting against a great popular wave of stupid emotionalism." The Archbishop's attitude on divorce, huffed Lord Beaverbrook's Evening Standard, "makes it inevitable that the question of the disestablishment of the Church of England must be urgently examined."

After two days of seclusion in Clarence House, Princess Margaret returned to the public life for which she was trained. Some 500 of her sister's subjects gathered in the rain on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral as she went to attend a commemorative service there. They stood respectfully as she passed by, a gentle smile suffusing her face. They gave her no cheers, but from here and there in the crowd came a few encouraging words: "Good luck" and "God bless you."

*In Paris, Margaret's renunciation intrigued the French more than her romance ever had. Said Novelist Louise (Belles Amours) de Vil-morin, "Margaret's case did not become interesting to me until the moment she said no." *For other news of Canterbury, see RELIGION.

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