"Here Come the British"

Incalculable tons of water had cascaded over Niagara Falls between 1776 and a summery night last week when the great-great-great-grandson of England's George III was trundled across Niagara River to set foot in the U. S. A.--first British sovereign ever to do so. A royal red carpet was spread on the station platform at Niagara Falls, N. Y. and when the blue & silver royal train slid in, Secretary of State Cordell Hull & wife stepped up to welcome the visitors. Mr. Hull said: "Your Majesties, on behalf of the Government and the people of the United States, I have the honor and pleasure of extending to you our warmest welcome. All are delighted with your visit. ..."

Mrs. Hull bowed (no curtsy) to the visitors. Animated talk began. They all boarded the train, rumbled through the night toward Washington. In Pennsylvania, the pilot train was halted with a hotbox, streaked at 85 m.p.h. to try to catch the royal train at Washington. It was eight minutes late and all the ace correspondents who had trailed Their Majesties across Canada missed their first meeting with the Roosevelts.

A Wellsian telescope on Mars might have detected human congestion in the U. S. Capital that morning. Some 600,000 people, many of them standing on peach baskets, walled the royal route from Union Station, past the Capitol, down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. The 32nd President of the United States was at the station. Mr. Roosevelt said: "At last I greet you." King George VI said: "Mr. President, it is indeed a pleasure for Her Majesty and myself to be here."

Visiting Year. Historically, this visit climaxed an unparalleled era of international visiting and friend-making. With the war clouds hanging over Europe, there was no telling when friendly neighbors' roofs would be needed. Within two years, four out of six Balkan rulers had visited London or Berlin. Mussolini had visited Berlin, and Hitler repaid the compliment. King George & Queen Elizabeth had been to Paris, and in turn had received President Lebrun in London. To make the utmost of their trip to the U. S.,* the King had at his elbow Secretary Alan Frederick Lascelles, who wrote his speeches, and Canada's Prime Minister Mackenzie King (the Queen's kinsman), who edited them.

Crisp and bonny, Her Majesty at once became the heroine of the occasion. People noticed that King George was less tall than they expected (towering Sir Ronald Lindsay dwarfed him), that his smiling muscles stood out rigidly, that he looked young, fit and earnest. Elizabeth was the perfect Queen: eyes a snapping blue, chin tilted confidently, two fingers raised in a greeting as girlish as it was regal. Her long-handled parasol seemed out of a story book. She wore an "unselfish" off-the-face hat and the parasol failed to save her Scottish skin from Southern sunburn. Washington was 94DEG that day. Along the processional route, 500 people collapsed. So did 60 Girl Scouts, waiting at the White House to be reviewed. From the Boy Scouts (he was one) the King received a neckerchief ring made of a fossilized shark's tooth.

The city, its streets jammed with citizens and soldiery, thundered salutes and applause. The world's diplomats presented themselves at the White House, and after lunch the President toured his guests around the city. Then came the momentous garden party at the British Embassy. Every variety of male costume was oh view--from Senator Arthur Vandenberg's ice cream suit, through the cutaway & sombrero of South Dakota's Senator Bulow, to Jimmy Roosevelt's pearl grey streamliner. Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt arrived with the Jim Parleys. Jack Garner slapped the King's back in greeting. A standard device of the King's was to exclaim about the youth of people he met. Said the King to Under Secretary of the Treasury John Hanes: "You look very young for such an important post!"

Said Hanes: "Your Majesty, I will not grow old in it." When a presentee dropped a coin in confusion, the sweltering King cracked, "Finders keepers!" But did not pick it up.

He was well coached. When he met South Carolina's senior Senator, he said: "Cotton Ed Smith?" John Pierpont Morgan, Britain's potent U. S. banker and George's closest U. S. friend, sat at tea with His Majesty. Of the Queen's lace-trimmed parasol, an old-timer said: ' haven't seen one of those since the Taft Administration."

The toast at the President's State dinner was to Peace. Marian Anderson and Lawrence Tibbett performed afterwards. Their Majesties slept in the White House and were up betimes (9 a.m.) to go to the Embassy and receive subjects.

Cousins and Congressmen. They drove to the Capitol to handshake Congress. "Here come the British!" cackled Vice President Garner as the royal car drew up. New York's prognathous Representative Sol Bloom, acting chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, fumbled his high hat and mispronounced names as he and Senator Key Pittman officiated. Everyone remembered but no one mentioned the fact that this King's ancestor's troops burned this "seat of Yankee rebellion" 125 years ago. Now George VI endured an ordeal of Kleig lights and Congressional crudeness as 74 Senators and 352 Representatives trotted by in 25 minutes. Parliamentarian Lewis Deschler helped Sol Bloom with the House names. Representative Patton of Texas addressed set speeches to "Cousin George" and "Cousin Elizabeth."

President Roosevelt was almost late meeting them at the Potomac, to take them down the river for lunch. When the great moment came for the King to lay a wreath on the tomb of George Washington at Mount Vernon. Son James got busy with his movie camera. So did Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau. They visited a CCC camp, where the Queen "discovered" a neighbor from Scotland. The King wreathed the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, and the Canadian Cross.

Back at the White House, tea became a New Deal question bee. Secretaries Hopkins, Wallace and Perkins were there; Robert Fechner (who promised the King a treatise on CCC), FHA's Stewart McDonald (who got on with the Queen immediately after telling her his family came from Skye). A. F. of L.'s William Green went (but C. I. O.'s John Lewis declined). Everyone was impressed by both the King's and the Queen's interest in U. S. housing. Mrs. Roosevelt wrote in her column: "It was interesting to me to find how understanding and sympathetic was the Queen's attitude toward the social problems faced today by everyone." After tea, the President and King took a swim in the White House pool. So did Mrs. Roosevelt, Son Elliott & wife.

Up The Hudson. The Queen connived to preserve an illusion for Diana Hopkins, 7, suggested that the child see her first in her tiara for the Embassy State dinner. After that function (where Mrs. Woodrow Wilson had an inning), Their Majesties entrained for Red Bank, N. J., next morning were escorted to the destroyer Warrington at Sandy Hook. Hundreds of Britishers on chartered steamers missed them as they sailed across the Lower Bay to the Battery. Governor Lehman and Mayor LaGuardia got in behind them in a big Cadillac, squired them under prodigious police escort up the West Side express highway (chosen over the Mayor's protest, instead of Broadway-Fifth Avenue because it was easier to patrol) in a triumphal journey much less uproarious than Charles Lindbergh's ticker-tape blizzard (see p. 20). Grover Whalen, resplendent in a flowing stock, received them at his Fair, where they were tootled around in a trackless motor train. Their own Empire's exhibits, including a copy of the Magna Charta, were their chief stops, being formal reasons for their U. S. visit. Artist Frank E. Beresford was on hand with sketch pad to record the event. Columbia University got a crack at them on their way to Hyde Park: Dr. Nicholas Murray ("Miraculous") Butler received them at the foot of the library steps, showed them the King's College charter issued by George II in 1754. Ahead was an 80-mile drive up the Hudson, with no comfort stops.

Poughkeepsie turned out en masse to see them motor through: one family chopped 20 ft. out of their lilac hedge to clear the view. At Hyde Park, where the royal standard was flown from the portico, the grueling formality and handshaking ended (the royal hands were swollen). After church on Sunday, where Rector Frank Wilson dryly observed that attendance would improve if all parishioners would bring their guests as Mr. Roosevelt did, the King shed his necktie, ate hot dogs, drank beer (Ruppert's) at a "dream cottage" picnic, photographed the Indian storyteller and singer who performed. Squire Roosevelt whizzed the Royal pair around in his Ford with manual brakes and gearshift, giving Scotland Yard palpitations. He and the King had another swim. By this time the Roosevelts had developed a father-&-motherly feeling towards this nice young couple ("Very, very delightful people," was the President's authorized phrase), whom they were equipped to entertain at home as no President since Taft could have done.

Their real hostess at Hyde Park was, of course, the President's mother, which made it all the more like home and Queen Mother Mary. Mother Roosevelt took a strong fancy to George, patted his arm as well as Elizabeth's hand when she said good-by at the Hyde Park station. When the Roosevelts repay the visit, as they almost certainly will at some time, she may well go too.

"It's been a long week end, but a short visit," said the King.

"Good luck to you! All the luck in the world!" shouted Franklin Roosevelt as the train pulled out for Quebec. They had all exchanged photographs, and the King gave the President a gold inkstand. To Their Majesties, Mr. & Mrs. Roosevelt presented copies of all the books they have written.

Somewhere in the North Atlantic lay a squadron of British war boats, waiting to pick up the Empress of Britain (in a fine new coat of white) when the Canadian destroyers Skeena and Saguenay escort her out of Halifax late this week. Meantime, Canada's King had three more of his provinces to inspect--New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia--and Britain's oldest colony: Newfoundland.

Net Results of George's and Elizabeth's 30-day, 10,000-mile visit to Canada and the U. S., during which they were seen by some 15,000,000 people, were intangible but evident. Canada had been given a shot of Empire enthusiasm which would be a long time wearing off. The U. S. and Britain had put on a show of good neighborliness that had dominated the world's news for a week. While the London Times augustly observed that "there was nothing political in the visit," the liberal News Chronicle probably reflected European reactions more accurately when it predicted: "The result will be not only to make a marked difference in Anglo-American relations, but also to affect all political calculations in Europe."

But the trip nowhere had more influence than on George VI himself. Two years ago he took on his job at a few hours' notice, having expected to play a quiet younger brother role to Brother Edward all his life. Pressmen who followed him around the long loop from Quebec to Halifax were struck by the added poise and self-confidence that George drew from the ordeal. Filled with new pride in their King & Queen, Britons were preparing to give them a monster welcome--with millions lining the railroad right-of-way to London --calculated to top anything the Yankees did for their sovereigns.

After that their doctors will pack George and Elizabeth off to the country for a well-won rest.

* Throughout their U. S. trip, the King & Queen talked daily by telephone with their two small daughters in England.

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