The Crown

P: Palace officials said that Queen Mary, peeping unobserved from behind a Buckingham window curtain last week, shed tears of motherly joy as 5,000 Canadian War veterans demonstrated in extraordinary fashion their deep affection for her son Edward VIII.

Officially veterans had been invited only to have tea on the lawn of Buckingham Palace with the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, following the Canadian pilgrimage to see King Edward dedicate the Vimy Ridge memorial in France (TIME, Aug. 3). Unexpectedly His Majesty arrived and was shouldering his way unannounced through the mass of Dominion veterans when they recognized him with shouts of "Oh boy, the King! Good old Neddy!" slapped their King-Emperor on the back, vigorously wrung his hand.

Taking no chances, Scotland Yard operatives of great brawn courteously and quietly pressed the veterans back, saw to it that His Majesty's pace was accelerated until he was clear of his well-wishers. Sudden rain, after the tea was half over, sent the King scurrying to the Palace for cover. At this the 5,000 Canadians, not knowing that English folk in similar circumstances usually take shelter under trees, dashed pell-mell after him into Buckingham where one astounded Palace flunky in scarlet & gold was heard to say to another, "It's like the bloody Revolution!" When skies cleared King Edward appeared on a balcony to speed the 5,000 parting guests with one of his most felicitous impromptu speeches. Not all of it could be heard above the laughter and applause but deafening cheers greeted His Majesty's remark: "We in England need this rain less than the drought-stricken portions of Canada." Before drifting away the Canadians sang the refrain For He's a Jolly Good Fellow! and God Save the King over & over.

P: Numerous eyewitnesses reached London last week with facts about doings in Belfast which had been omitted by British newsorgans unwilling to record the first public demonstration against the King since he came to the Throne.

Normally the Orangemen of Northern Ireland are fanatical adherents of the Crown, regard it as a Protestant bulwark protecting them from their Catholic enemies in the Free State. First with astonishment, then with fury, Belfast Orangemen read a recent prognostication in Reynolds Illustrated News of London that the new King-Emperor may assert himself by trying to end the feud which divides his Irish subjects and bring the whole island under one Government. If His Majesty had any such ideas the Orangemen had no use for him, and up in Belfast they promptly raised a huge portrait of Edward VIII captioned "DOWN WITH THE FENIAN KING!"

Pictures showing His Majesty beating an Orangeman's drum when Prince of Wales, were next burned at Belfast amid Irish jeers. Finally through Belfast streets rumbled a float on which an effigy of Irish Free State President Eamon de Valera dressed as a nurse attended a baby carriage in which sat an effigy of King Edward sucking a bottle of liquid labeled "DOPE."

Irish wit could have produced nothing more grossly absurd, for there was no evidence that His Majesty has anything so foolhardy in mind as trying to put the two irate parts of Ireland together. In Dublin recently a Catholic alderman warned the Lord Mayor that he will probably be manhandled if he attends His Majesty's Coronation. Last week President de Valera formally announced that that piece of pageantry will be boycotted by his Free State which by no means has King Edward in a baby carriage.

P: New vacation plans were announced by the King who fortnight ago canceled his summer lease on the $350,000 villa on the French Riviera of Actress Maxine Elliott (TIME, Aug. 3). He turned last week to the "Richest British Widow," Lady Yule, whose husband Sir David ("The Scottish King of the Indian Jute Trade") left some $100,000,000 to her and Daughter Gladys. To King Edward, Lady Yule leased her $1,350,000 yacht Nahlin (an Indian name meaning "Fleetfoot").

With a crew of 50 the Nahlin has superluxe accommodation for only a small yachting party which Palace reports slated thus: King Edward, Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, Lady Diana Duff Cooper, Lord and Lady Brownlow and Mrs. Evelyn Fitzgerald. Citizens of the Balkans learned with pride that the Royal Party will board the Nahlin in Yugoslavian waters, cruise to Greece where conditions are ripe for another revolution, finally cruise around the Italian boot on a "Good Will Trip" symbolic of post-Sanctions peace between Imperial Britain and newly Imperial Italy.

Arriving in Southampton for a surprise inspection visit to the Nahlin, King Edward watched cases of champagne, Scotch, soda, lime squash and lemon squash being carried aboard. Royal china and plate from the King's own steam yacht Victoria & Albert will be used on the Nahlin. After a brisk look around His Majesty ordered extra beds set up in the library.

P: Leaving their baby son Prince Edward with his nurse in England, Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Kent flew to Paris for a seven-week holiday on the Continent.

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