The Crown

P: His Majesty King Edward VIII and the heir to the throne, His Royal Highness the Duke of York, flew in the same plane 300 miles last week, inspecting aircraft stations. An accident might thus have instantaneously made charming 10 year-old Princess ("Lilybet") Elizabeth, the Sovereign Queen and Empress.

P: The Imperial Japanese Government, having ascertained that news mentions of King Edward and Mrs. Simpson have been snipped out of periodicals before they could be sold on newsstands in Great Britain, recently put a firm query to the Foreign Office: Could this form of British censorship be enlarged to include the sacred person of the Emperor of Japan?

By last week the Japanese had found out that their query came too late. New King Edward stands not for more British censorship but for less. In His Majesty's official Court Circular the name of Mrs. Simpson made its appearance and was not snipped out of London papers (TIME, June 8). Next the British news weekly Cavalcade came out with Mrs. Simpson in five columns. This issue sold like hot cakes on the respected stands of W. H. Smith & Sons, the circulation of Cavalcade boomed and last week its editors were said to feel that their new magazine had definitely turned the financial corner.

Big London dailies finally ventured out with her picture. Last week in the U. S. arrived the first "British-made'' shots of the King and Mrs. Simpson attending the theatre publicly in adjoining seats. Not snipped was the Evening Standard for recording that her Paris designer is now doing several rooms in his house at Fort Belvedere in modernistic French style. Finally last week the official Court Circular carried a second and more potent utterance. The first had mentioned not only Mrs. Simpson but Mr. Simpson, too. The second last week omitted Mr. Simpson altogether, announced a dinner at York House in St. James's Palace at which ate His Majesty and Mrs. Simpson, Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York, the First Lord of the Admiralty and Lady Maud Hoare, Mr. and Mrs. Winston Churchill and Lord and Lady Willingdon, the former Viceroy and Vicereine of India.

Queen Mary has not yet dined with the King and Mrs. Simpson, but the Prime Minister and Mrs. Stanley Baldwin and Colonel and Mrs. Charles Augustus Lindbergh have. In those circumstances, socialite Britons assumed and freely said last week in Mayfair that, as in the case of Ethiopia, British public opinion is now in course of a great change, and soon the comings and goings of Mrs. Simpson will be a popular topic in the popular press.

P: Britannia, the greatest sailing yacht of the British Royal Family, was decked with blossoms, towed out into the Channel at night to foil photographers and sunk last week by order of King Edward VIII.

King Edward VII built Britannia, sold her after she was defeated by Kaiser Wilhelm at the helm of his Meteor II to a man named Johnson, repurchased her and sold her again to Sir Richard Bulkeley. From him, after being laid up for 16 years, "Old Britty" was purchased by George V, "The Sea King," who loved her like a child. She sailed in 20 races in 1935 without winning one, but King George said, "I will never part with Old Britty." In all, Britannia entered 625 races in which she took 231 first prizes and 130 others. She was bequeathed by "The Sea King" to King Edward or to any of his brothers who might care to keep "Old Britty." None did.

P: To open the Exhibition of British Art at Amsterdam, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent flew alone to The Netherlands in his own plane, dined afterward with Her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina at her country residence Het Loo.

P: Ladies "commanded" to curtsy before His Majesty at the first presentation of the reign received cards last week for alternative dates, July 21 or July 22. Every effort will be made within these limits to secure a bright sunshiny afternoon. In the event that rain is imminent on both days, presentations will be made in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace. In case of fine weather followed by rain, they will start on the lawn, then be abandoned. Ladies failing for this reason to be presented will thereupon enter the palace, hand their cards to a functionary, and have entered on the meticulously kept royal books that they have had "the equivalent of presentation."

P: The official British censorship ban on any stage performance representing a living member of the Royal Family was got around for the first time at the London vaudeville Palladium Theatre by an adroit mimic named Afrique last week. Afrique simply mimicked King Edward without saying who he was mimicking and the Palladium audience roared with delight. "It is quite possible that the King may want to see it himself," said Afrique. "The Duke of York and the Duke of Kent have done so already. I rather fancy it might amuse the King for whom I have a supreme reverence."

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