A royal snub?

There's a certain disgruntlement in New Zealand among people who are upset that no member of the Royal Family will be attending the funeral of Sir Edmund Hillary. It seems to me that calling it a “snub” is a bit strong, but it does display, at the very least, that Buckingham Palace has a lack of attunement to appropriate responses and behaviours with regard to places outside Britain.

It's important to remember that prior to his death, Sir Edmund Hillary was almost universally regarded as the greatest living New Zealander. After he died, some people started saying that Sir Ed was the greatest New Zealander ever. It may be a bit early to say that sort of thing, but it's probably accurate to say, as some overseas media outlets did, that Sir Ed was the best known New Zealander who ever lived (even though, of course, there are plenty of people in the world who didn't know he was from New Zealand).

At any rate, it's fair to say that he was very important to New Zealand.

Days passed after Sir Ed died without any word from the Queen. Her press office said the Queen would send a private message to the Hillary family, which is great. But you'd think that a nation mourning its greatest son could have had a word of condolence from the constitutional head of state. But there was nothing from the Queen to the people of New Zealand. That was a mistake, a wrong decision.

Instead of attending the funeral, the Queen is holding a special service in memory of Sir Ed, a service that will, it's been reported, accommodate a couple hundred Kiwis in London. Ordinarily, when a Knight of the Garter dies, there's a small service where the honour is returned. The Queen's decision to have a larger service is said to be a special honour and an indication of the regard she had for Sir Ed.

No senior royal will be attending the funeral, either. Personally, I think it's fine that the Queen isn't attending, and I agree with Prime Minister Helen Clark, who said “Clearly the Queen in her early 80s is not in a position to travel at short notice as far as New Zealand.”

Nevertheless, many New Zealanders think it wasn't expecting too much to have a high-ranking royal make the trip. Both Prince Charles—who is supposed to be King of New Zealand one day—and Princess Anne had charity commitments in England. This left some to ask, how far down the ranking do you have to go before the royal attending becomes irrelevent.

To me, the New Zealand Herald put it best in an editorial on Saturday, January 19: “While in New Zealand eyes Sir Edmund is forever linked with this Queen by their shared history nearly 55 years ago, surely no one could expect the busy 81-year-old monarch to journey this far on short notice. To offer a lesser royal would carry little of the emotional connection so treasured in this land. Their presence is not important. Her words would have been”

If the monarchy is to survive in New Zealand, it needs to connect to this country and its people, and having a more astute press office would be a good first step. So, while I don't agree that this is a royal snub, it is, as ordinary Kiwis would put it, a royal cock-up. I just hope the Queen's press office learns from its mistakes.