The Crown

P:Prince Edward of Kent, 6th in line of succession to the Throne, was officially announced to have "entertained" his parents the Duke and Duchess of Kent last week on his first birthday. Prince Edward wore the latest thing in woolen suits, knitted for him by Queen Mary, and during afternoon tea cooed and gurgled at his sugar cake with one candle. His mother last week canceled all social engagements for the winter, thus intimating to the pleased British populace that she is expecting a second child. P:Queen Mary's amiable brother Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone and onetime Governor General of the Union of South Africa, added to the gaiety of the annual Lorfdon Antique Dealers' Fair by remarking publicly of his popular wife Princess Alice: "I always have the greatest difficulty in getting her away from the window of an art dealer's shop. She remains there with her nose glued to the glass rather like a child looking into a tuck shop." P:To the surprise of Welshmen, the dragon passant, emblematic beast of Wales, was seen to have vanished last week along with the three "Prince of Wales" feathers from the arms of the Duchy of Cornwall, as new emblems designed by the College of Arms were submitted for the approval of King Edward.

The reasons for dropping the dragon and feathers, while not set forth by the College of Arms, were assumed to have something to do with the fact that there is no Prince of Wales. The immense revenues which previously went to the Prince of Wales from the Duchy of Cornwall now appertain to His Majesty, although when he first came to the Throne experts disputed weightily whether he retained the title Duke of Cornwall. It has also been arranged that military groups designated hitherto as "The Prince of Wales' Own" retain that designation and their bands continue to play their stirring march, God Bless The Prince of Wales.

P:Young Archibald Fairley of Dundee, who found stunned upon the ground and nursed back to health a pigeon belonging to King Edward, received as a reward from His Majesty two pigeons which arrived in a crate lettered: "LIVE BIRDS --URGENT--FROM HIS MAJESTY THE KING." P:A horse of exceptional gentleness named Cherry Grove was discovered in the stable of the Salford mounted police and bought for $750 to become the "charger" which will bear His Majesty through the streets of London on State occasions. Cherry Grove was first elaborately tested in the stableyard of the Metropolitan Police.

There life-sized dummy-policemen and dummy-pedestrians bob about on wires, horns are tooted, whistles blown to determine which horses are gentle enough to be safe under royalties, both visiting and British.

P:Since popular little Princess Elizabeth, favorite grandchild of the late King George, would become Queen Elizabeth upon the death of the King and her father the Duke of York who frequently fly in the same plane, readers of the London Sunday Times conned with interest last week an account of the education now projected for Her Royal Highness. According to the Sunday Times she will continue to study at home under Miss Crawford and other tutors because "there is the difficulty of choosing a suitable school without causing great jealousy." "Another Queen Elizabeth on the Throne," continued the Sunday Times, "will, in this complex modern world, have to have a deep knowledge of a variety of subjects that are not taught in ordinary girls' schools. . . . Princess Elizabeth will be gently led to the study of constitutional history and the British Constitution, and afterwards she will study economic history and theory. ... As in the case of Queen Victoria the whole matter has been considered by the Cabinet. . . . Princess Elizabeth is an extremely bright little girl . . .

but when she does not like a subject-- arithmetic is one--she can, like other little girls, be obstinately slow." P:During the week King Edward kept in closest touch with the ugly situation developing as Soviet Russia threatened to intervene in the Spanish Civil War and stormy scenes among the diplomats concerned lasted for hours at a stretch in the British Foreign Office (see p. 22). To Buckingham Palace was frequently summoned the brilliant directing diplomat who is not always permitted to prevail at once in shaping the British Cabinet's foreign policy but usually manages to prevail sooner or later. Sir Robert Gilbert Vansittart, Permanent Undersecretary of the Foreign Office.

P:As the Empire Salesman, Edward VIII bore in manly silence the fact that eight out of nine British planes which took off on the recent race to South Africa failed to arrive (TIME, Oct. 12). At the first opportunity, Salesman Edward's private secretary Major Hon. Alexander Hardinge released for publication this boost: "The King will be glad if the Secretary of State will convey to Squadron-Leader Swain his Majesty's congratulations on his fine achievement in breaking the altitude record with all-British equipment." Part of Hero Swain's equipment was a new type of air-tight rubber "Safety Suit" which, during the descent from his record altitude of 49,967 ft., nearly suffocated him. He escaped death by slashing open the suit (see cut. p. 24).

P:To the funeral of Hungarian Premier and Field Marshal Julius Combos in Budapest last week King Edward sent a wreath composed of one thousand roses.

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