Monday, Mar. 16, 1936

Teddy, Queen Mary & Buick

Now laboriously engaged in figuring out the wealth of new King Edward as a matter of national and imperial interest are several British journalist-economists. In a preliminary way they were about ready last week to agree that, after all deductions of whatever kind, the actual fortune of His Majesty is piling up ceaselessly at the rate of some $2,000 per day. This is capital increase, not mere income.

The young King, whose father & mother always traveled by special train, had a single royal car hitched to the regular London-Glasgow express one night last week and sped north to the metropolis which is fullest of British Communists. Canny fellows, many of these Scotsmen are like Japanese Communists in viewing the Reigning House as their possible ally against the Upper Classes in a last-ditch social upheaval, or at any rate as safe custodians for immense wealth which never ceases to pile up and ultimately may be shared for the greatest good of the greatest number in the United Kingdom. Only people who are not Scottish Communists were in any way surprised last week when these intelligent Glasgow fellows welcomed Edward VIII, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India, with loyal roars of "Good old Teddy!"

Thus transferred to Edward VIII was the genial nickname Scotsmen bestowed on his grandfather King Edward VII. Scottish authorities differ as to whether this venerable Sovereign was called "Good old Teddy!" because his figure somewhat resembled that of the popular Teddy Bear, created in the year of his accession (1901). From now on in Scotland 41-year-old King Edward is good old Teddy.

Queen Mary. His first duty in Glasgow last week was to go out to John Brown's shipyard to inspect Queen Mary, the British challenger to the French champion Normandie, "Largest and Fastest Liner in the World." The Queen Mary is of roughly the same size as the 160,000-horsepower Normandie but of 40,000 greater horsepower. Hull designs of the two superships are sufficiently different to make horsepower not necessarily the decisive factor. Obviously the speed trials of the Queen Mary late this month off Ireland will be an international sporting event of first magnitude. Aboard for these Irish trials will be King Edward, members of his entourage sensationally hinted last week.

Through seven miles of fresh paint and purposeful mess King Edward tramped on the Queen Mary. Long-jawed Cunard White Star Board Chairman Sir Percy Bates beamed as King Edward commented wisely, "I am very pleased with everything I have seen. This is a ship built for utility."

"I Am Your King." Quitting the Queen Mary bareheaded in a pouring rain amid fresh roars of "Good old Teddy!" the Sovereign drove off rapidly over an unannounced route with John Stewart, Lord Provost of Glasgow. Scotsman Stewart later chuckled: "The King is a very human man. In my private room he showed me how to balance a penny. When I tried to emulate His Majesty and failed he said: 'Please give me back my penny. You know I am a Scotsman.' "

This from one whose capital is increasing $2,000 per day or thereabouts struck the merriest possible note in Scotland. Cheerfully the King, in sleek long coat and bowler, set out to repeat in Glasgow slums the sort of famed house-to-house tour he made as Edward of Wales through the bleak, starveling Welsh collieries and "Depressed Areas."

Knk! Knk!--tapped the knuckle of Edward VIII's middle finger on a Glasgow tenement door as he cried, "May I come in?"

"Certainly,come right in! Who are you?"

"I am your King."

In tenement after tenement the King plodded up & down worn steps of Scottish granite to knk, knk softly and ask, "May I come in?" At His Majesty, 5-year-old Charlie Storrie piped incredulously, "Are you the new King?"

Patting the moppet's head, the Sovereign answered: "Yes, Little Man, I am."

Afterward in his private car King Edward and his aching leg muscles reached London early, drove not to St. James's Palace but to Mayfair's swank Turkish Baths in Jermyn Street where almost every employe is his oldtime friend. Calling to them: "Good morning! Good morning!" the Sovereign bathed Turkishly for 90 minutes, emerged daisy-fresh to find Jermyn Street almost obstructed by a curious throng of his subjects who cheered as his United-Kingdom-built car drove off.

Sensational in automotive British circles this week was news that, for the first time, the King of England had ordered a car other than the Daimler invariably used by King Edward VII and King George V. The United Kingdom's motor industry is acutely sensitive to Canadian competition, has not hesitated to sneer in paid advertisements at "the American cars which are so conveniently brought in from Canada" under Empire tariff agreements. At great advertising expense a feeling has been nurtured in the United Kingdom that to buy a Canadian car from beyond the seas is not really to "Buy British." This notion was blasted and a page of Empire business history turned when it was announced by London's Buick Sales Manager that King Edward had ordered an enclosed Buick built to his special order in Canada at Oshawa.

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