Majesty, Spain & China

His Majesty's Government and the whole Royal Family were busier last week than at any time since the Coronation last spring.

With members of the Lords and Commons gathering for the final meeting of the only Parliamentary session ever opened by King Edward VIII (TIME, Nov. 9, 1936), and for the first meeting this week of the first Parliamentary session to be opened by King George VI, there was every reason why the Chamberlain Cabinet must score quickly a triumph of some sort, preferably in foreign affairs. It would not do to have Parliament convene for the winter with His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs actually cutting the figure he was shown cutting last week in a London Evening Standard cartoon by No. 1 British Cartoonist David Low. In this Mr. Anthony Eden, whose toe is being stepped on heavily by Il Duce, cries in anguish:

"Benito Mussolini, have a care! You've ruined the Woman I love, Democracy; killed my aged mother, the League of Nations; sunk the British fleet and set fire to the Empire--but beware! Don't go too far."

In dead earnest, the private comments of not a few ruling-class Britons on the international situation as Parliament convened last week were in this vein: Until our Rearmament is a good deal nearer completion, there is nothing for the Government to do but continue putting as good a face as possible on the fact that Britain for the time being is not a First-Class Power. Such a policy is deeply repugnant to us and to the country, and it will be pursued no longer than is absolutely necessary, but at present it is the only safe policy--and Britain must play safe. America at the present time is the only country which can afford to take risks for Peace.

Premier Mussolini, far from actually treading harder on Mr. Eden's toes last week, instructed spade-bearded Italian Ambassador Dino Grandi obligingly to ease up at sessions of the London International Committee on Non-Intervention in Spain, and this enabled the British to score a "diplomatic triumph'' for window dressing (see p. 24). Thus all was set for members of His Majesty's Government to come beaming with success to the final meeting of Edward VIII's Parliament last week.

Meanwhile the King & Queen, the Duke & Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke & Duchess of Kent were out in various parts of the United Kingdom taking an interest in housing and public welfare. After several days of such exertions, the Duke of Kent, who was about to inspect the Cardiff Royal Infirmary, broke down and gasped, I'm all in!" His Royal Highness, too exhausted to greet members of the infirmary staff with Her Royal Highness, was limousined away to rest. The Duke & Duchess of Gloucester indomitably inspected royal estates which belonged to the Duke of Windsor (see p. 27) when he was Duke of Cornwall, and Her Royal Highness christened at Devonport the cruiser Gloucester. The King & Queen came vigorously through a three-day tour of Yorkshire, not making the constitutional mistake Edward VIII made when he toured Welsh slums as King, provocatively exclaimed: "Something must be done for Wales!' (TIME, Nov. 30 et seq.). Inspecting last week a municipal housing development at Shiregreen, Their Majesties conversed democratically with a haggard housewife who told of tribulations since her husband lost his job five years ago. Queen Elizabeth cried: "It's wonderful how you manage on so little!"

"I hope," said solemn King George to the husband, "that you will find work soon."

Arrived in London, His Majesty was graciously pleased to assent to the text of his Speech from the Throne, drawn up by the Chamberlain Cabinet, and to assent to its being read to the Lords and Commons last week by the Lord Chancellor, Viscount Hailsham. This usual procedure of opening the last session of a Parliament did not necessitate the presence of Their Majesties, and Viscount Hailsham read with traditional decorum such phrases from the King's Speech as "the Queen and I. . . ."

The Speech, referring to monies voted by Parliament exclusively to members of the Royal Family other than the Duke of Windsor, thanked the Lords and Commons "for the provision you have made for the honor and dignity of The Crown." It said that the immediate cessation of "pirate" attacks by submarines in the Mediterranean after the Nyon agreement has made the King "happy." His Majesty noted "with satisfaction the strengthening of all three of my defense forces" and hoped that the coming Nine-Power Brussels Conference on China and Japan "may contribute to bring this deplorable conflict to an end."

Next day Japan had grown so belligerent toward the Brussels Conference that the Belgian Government hastily informed Tokyo that if October 30 seems too early a date the Conference can be postponed, but the Imperial Japanese Government were expected to announce this week that they will refuse the invitation to sit in, in any case.

Belligerently in Buckingham Palace the heiress to the Throne, strong-willed little Princess Elizabeth, bothered the King & Queen at this juncture in World affairs by insisting that she and her little sister Princess Margaret Rose be permitted to ride with Their Majesties in the glittering State Coach to the opening of Parliament this week. Their Majesties had resolved that their little daughters shall not be "spoiled" by too much public acclaim. Princess Elizabeth lost her battle at the last moment and she and her sister rode to the opening in the coach of Lady Helen Graham, which followed the royal conveyance. Asserting that 37-year-old Queen Elizabeth "could still have another child" who if male would be Prince of Wales, United Press disclosed for the first time last week these little-known facts thus: "Princess Elizabeth was a Cesarean baby, and Margaret Rose was premature, her mother being scientifically starved for several months beforehand to facilitate the birth."

The splendor of British pageantry was relied on to silver-line the cloudy fact that at this session of Parliament the last measures to insure a gas mask for everyone in the United Kingdom are to be taken under direction of Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare. This potent statesman who in recent years gave India her new Constitution then made "The Deal" with Mussolini and next placed the Royal Navy on a $525,000,000 Rearmament footing, last week showed King George and Queen Elizabeth the new type gas mask of which 45,000,000 are being provided. It encloses both nose and mouth, is fairly comfortable. His Majesty, pinching his own nose together jocularly with his fingers, spoke of how the World War type of mask used to pinch noses. "He spoke while demonstrating," reported an attendant, "and the strong nasal tones emitted rocked the royal party with laughter."

No laughing matter are the bombproof and gasproof cellars with which Buckingham Palace has finally been equipped this year while the Royal Family were in Scotland. During the War, by order of Kaiser Wilhelm, his cousins in Buckingham Palace were never bombed, although nearby Trafalgar Square was bombed repeatedly. Still in place, but considered useless against today's heavy bombs, is "the Steel Helmet," a steel net supporting layers of sand bags strung under the roof of Buckingham Palace.

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