The Crown

P:"What are you doing tomorrow, Bernard?" asked a friend recently of Bernard Marmaduke Fitzalan-Howard, Duke of Norfolk, the Premier Duke and Earl Marshal and Great Steward and Chief Butler of England, whose illustrious family have the hereditary duty of arranging the King's Coronation.

Murmured the Duke, who has his own terse way of putting things, "Must go to Buck House." Next morning His Grace, swinging a tightly rolled umbrella, arrived at Buckingham Palace to ascertain from his friend Edward VIII the royal pleasure as to what route the Coronation procession will take on May 12, 1937.

The Duke, who also performed the hereditary duty of arranging the funeral of King George, had a distressing experience on that occasion. So many subjects decided to attend the funeral that London suffered its most awful squash, and 200 spectators had to be hauled off in ambulances.

For the Coronation, London police authorities advised the Duke that crushing congestion could be best avoided by making the route of the Coronation procession as long as possible, thus enabling spectators to spread out. The police suggested that the procession wind across the River Thames and through South London as did some of King George's Jubilee drives.

At Buck House, however, the 28-year-old Premier Duke found the mind of the 42-year-old King-Emperor already made up that his Coronation procession should be the shortest possible and his Coronation ritual the simplest possible. Soon announced was an official route so short that the only way to make the publicly visible part of the Coronation any shorter would be to cut from Buckingham Palace straight across the park to Westminster Abbey. Seat prices along the official route promptly soared last week to as much as $200 for a small chair on a precarious roof ledge. In a patriotic effort not to profiteer, one London firm offered armchair seats in its shop windows for only $150 each, including sandwiches and coffee. In Paris last week Edward VIII's coming Coronation inspired famed Style Creator Schiaparelli to bring out an autumn collection featuring crown-shaped hats, regal brocades and embroideries, crown motifs on buttons.

P:The Coronation Ring, worn by King George and previous British Sovereigns on the little finger of the right hand, was ordered enlarged by King Edward last week to fit his third or betrothal finger.

P:Elsie de Wolfe Inc., international interior decorators, rushed out last week photographs of their Lady Mendl (nee de Wolfe) standing beside King Edward's private plane, but the story got ahead of them, grew bigger than their publicity. They wanted only to point out that Lady Mendl, after decorating the flat of the King's Mrs. Simpson, was recently brought from Paris in the King's plane to lunch with His Majesty at Sunningdale and there commissioned to decorate this rural snuggery. 27 miles from London. Last week the taste of U. S.-born Mrs. Simpson and the talent of U. S.-born Lady Mendl scored heavily again when His Majesty, just before leaving on vacation, commissioned Elsie de Wolfe Inc. to sweep stuffy Victorianism and plush out of stately Buckingham Palace, redecorate its interior in swank Modern Style.

P:In quitting England to cruise Balkan waters on the chartered $1,350,000 yacht Nahlin last week. His Majesty resorted not only to the usual incognito of going as "the Duke of Lancaster" but to unusual secrecy. His subjects had understood that he would leave from his royal airdrome at Windsor Great Park, gathered there in genial numbers to wish him Godspeed. Instead the King motored to a nearby private airdrome and forbade his staff to divulge the names of any of the five people who flew away with him in his royal plane, piloted by modest Edward ("Mouse") Fielden, Captain of the King's Flight. It took the machine exactly 14 minutes to fly the English Channel. At an obscure French air field near Calais vacationing Edward VIII became "the first King of England ever to alight from the air on foreign soil."

With the identity of the royal party still a close secret, His Majesty boarded the Orient Express for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Clear across France the train's route was guarded by French soldiers standing within sight of each other along the roadbed.

As the express halted at Salzburg, the King was seen to be accompanied by his grave friend and private secretary of many years, Sir Godfrey Thomas, and by his exuberant friend and sparkling equerry Major Sir John Renton ("Jackie") Aird, but his female guests remained secluded.

At 5:55 p. m. the royal private car entered Yugoslavia and its regent Prince Paul greeted King Edward who had blossomed into tan shoes, shimmering grey suit, apricot shirt and red tie. Yugoslavian rebel circles announced plans to turn the English King's yachting cruise into a demonstration against the Yugoslavian Regency with organized shouting at every port of "Long Live Democratic Monarchy! Down with Dictatorship Royal or Otherwise! Welcome to King Edward As a Symbol of Our Destiny!" News of any such demonstrations Yugoslavia's iron censorship could be counted on to suppress.

P:The chartered royal yacht Nahlin left England for the Adriatic last week with her master Captain Doyle instructed that only after sailing would he be told by the Admiralty House radio from Whitehall in what Balkan port to pick up Edward VIII.

Since all the Nahlin's regular staterooms are on lower decks and likely to be hot, the walnut furniture of the top-deck library was lugged out and walnut bedroom furniture, bought at Southampton, lugged in. After one look at the large walnut bed in which His Majesty was expected to sleep, a trusted aide condemned it as "too formal," sent it back and had an informal little number rushed aboard at the last moment. According to the Nahlin's proud owner, "Britain's Richest Widow" Lady Yule: "She is the most beautiful yacht in the world and the most seaworthy."

At the prow of the Nahlin is an Indian totem pole base from which sprouts as a figurehead an Indian chief with.flowing headdress, peering ahead. On final orders from the Admiralty, the Nahlin nosed this week into the minute Balkan port of Sibenik, between Zara and Split, there picked up King Edward & Friends.

P:Urged by the Press last week to give out the date of the Durbar which may be held in India for Emperor Edward, the India Office replied: "It has not been decided whether there will be a Durbar." His Majesty will be back in England to open Parliament as King for the first time on Nov. 3, will then make the following required declaration of faith: "I do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God. confess, testify and declare that I am a faithful Protestant."

P:In Yorkshire a coal mine blast 2,640 ft. underground killed 58 British miners last week, recalled that in nearby Durham a visit 600 ft. underground had been made by the Duchess of York with a bandanna tied over her head and the Duke of York in overalls. Laughing, T. R. H. had chipped from the working face lumps of coal which they said they would keep as souvenirs. In last week's disaster mine gas exploded with such violence that miners were dismembered, heads, limbs and shreds of clothing being blown as much as 50 yd. along the shafts.

P:Delivery of the first 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce--the new model "Phantom in"-- was taken last week by His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent vacationing in Yugoslavia, and the second "Phantom in" was en route to India for the Viceroy. By the Duke's desire his pigskin-upholstered black sedan Rolls is equipped with what London dealers advertise as "The Genuine American Police Siren Heard in the Talking Pictures."

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