The Crown

P: Queen Mary was persuaded by her little granddaughters. Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose, to help them with a game of "Presentation at Court." After several mock presentations to Her

Majesty, the royal and imperial grandmother asked amiably: "Whom have I the honor of receiving?" Announced Lilybet: "Lord Bathtub and Lady Plug!" This caused not a flicker upon the countenance of Her Majesty, but after the game was over she asked, "How did you happen to think of such queer names?" "Oh, we didn't think of them," explained Lilybet. "While we were dressing up to play, Uncle David came in. We told him we needed some new names and he suggested 'Lord Bathtub and Lady Plug.''

P: "Uncle David" seemed again last week the boyish Prince of Wales and not the 42-year-old King-Emperor when he went out to test the British Admiralty's new "Flea Boats." These are high-speed motorboats firing torpedoes. For months British capital ships infesting Italian waters have been bothered by such "Fleas."

Benito Mussolini used them to scare Stanley Baldwin, who received disquieting news that in the Mediterranean Fascist Flea Boats were running circles around Britain's most potent dreadnoughts, obviously able to dash in for quick, close, suicidal work with torpedoes had Il Duce so ordered. Last week His Majesty, arriving at Portsmouth Naval Base in the gorgeous uniform of Admiral of the Fleet, was mobbed by sailors' girls who broke through police lines and jumped on the running boards of his car cheering in the rain. Putting on an oilskin over his uniform and tossing the white-feathered cocked hat of the Admiral of the Fleet into a corner of the cabin in Flea Boat No. 1, His Majesty had the tiny craft's three 500 h.p. motors opened wide, disappeared toward Spithead in a choppy sea at 44 knots with cascades of spray bursting over his eager head. Twisting and turning at terrific speed among the breakers, Flea Boat No. 1 overhauled the destroyer H. M. S. Amazon which was doing her best to dodge, fired at deadly close range a dummy torpedo and saw it crash against the Amazon's side for a direct hit.

P: Insurance now being taken out against King Edward's marriage prior to his Coronation next spring boomed so heavily last week that Lloyd's quotation shortened from odds of 11-to-1 to 5-to-1. This sort of thing, in view of the recent Budget leak insurance scandal (TIME, May 4 et seq.), caused British eyebrows to up sharply with queries on whether there has been a marriage leak. Stoutly Lloyd's maintained that they thought there was no speculative position last week but only a rush to cover "legitimate trade risks."

Just now, they thought, it is extremely risky to publish an edition of the Church of England's Prayer Book. Reason: If the King-Emperor marries, prayers will have to be included for the Queen-Empress. Last week the Prayer Book's printers rushed to Lloyd's, insured themselves heavily.

Auctioneers submitted at Buckingham Palace the results of their sale of fittings of King George's yacht Britannia, a beloved treasure of "The Sailor King" who expressly commanded that she should be sunk and not used for any charitable purpose after his death. The late King's sailing master, Sir Philip Hunloke, tried to buy the Britannia's mainsheet, 70 fathoms long, but souvenir hunters outbid him. Prices also proved too high for Captain Turner, long-time skipper and yachting favorite of King George. He watched while $20 was paid for a boathook, $160 for the Britannia's red & green sidelights, and $1,500 by an enthusiastic ex-M. P. for her 18-ft. motor launch in which he proposes to go swankly chugging on the Thames at Richmond.

An old woman who had traveled all night to buy the Britannia's ship's bell was told that Queen Mary is keeping that and it was not for sale. In all, the auction netted close to $5,000. The King's signal flags will be draped in the taproom of an English inn; the 102-ft. solid pine mast is to be the flagpole of a country estate; and Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Brinton are taking home to South Africa two feather pillows upon which once lay the heads of King George & Queen Mary.

P: To avoid Edward VIII's being called King of Canada, King of New Zealand, King of Ireland, etc., his title is ingeniously compressed and arranged backward.* Last week His Majesty ordered that the actual situation created by enactment of the Statute of Westminster (TIME, Dec. 14, 1931 ) be squarely faced. Under this statute Edward VIII is a multiple monarch, separately King of each "country," separately acting upon the advice of its Premier. Therefore by royal command last week the age-old Coronation ceremonial will be overhauled and altered enough to make each Dominion feel that its King is being crowned as such in Westminster Abbey on May 12, 1937. Further, His Majesty let it be understood that there is no reason why a multiple monarch should spend all his time in the British Isles and that he intends to betake himself to all his Dominions and to India from time to time. During such absences Queen Mary and a Council of State will reign in London with powers delegated by the King. They start reigning next month when His Majesty & friends move into the flamboyantly modernistic French Chateau de I'Horizon at Juan-les-Pins which he has rented from oldtime Actress Maxine Elliott. Last week Britons viewed bug-eyed in their illustrated papers pictures of this Hollywood setting, complete with ''artificial moonlight" and a practical joke swimming chute. Fun is had when a guest sits down and lets go, only to discover too late that he is sliding 30 feet down on abrasive cement.

P: Before the figure of King Henry VIII in Madame Tussaud's Waxworks last week halted His Highness the Sheik of Bahrein, recently decorated by King Edward VIII (TIME. July 6), and loudly exclaimed with a gesture of disdain: "I do not like this big fat man who killed his wives!"

*Officially he is "of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Kinp."

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