Return Visit

To return the visit to them in Rome last year by King George and Queen Mary, King Vittorio Emanuele and Queen Elena, accompanied by Prince Umberto and Princess Mafalda, hied them to London.

At Dover, the Prince of Wales welcomed the distinguished visitors and traveled with them to Victoria Station, where were assembled King George,

Queen Mary, many other members of the Royal Family, peers, Cabinet Ministers, Italian diplomats. The greetings exchanged were of marked personal cordiality.

A State procession of six carriages then proceeded from the station to Hyde Park Corner, down Constitutional Hill to Buckingham Palace. The route was lined with soldiers and police, behind whose cordons were tens of thousands of cheering spectators. "Little Italy" (Italian colony in London) was there, waving the Italian tricolor and shouting "Viva il Re" and "Viva Savoia." Inside the Palace Court was drawn up a guard of honor composed of the Yeomen of the Guard (Beefeaters) dressed in their picturesque Tudor uniforms.

Then followed three days of hectic State formalities. The Italian King and Queen attended a State banquet, laid the inevitable wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, paid homage at the Cenotaph, were present at a State Ball given in their honor, visited the British Empire Exhibition, the Zoo, attended a great luncheon in the Guild Hall. At the Italian Embassy, the Italian Sovereign and his Consort gave a dinner to which the British King and Queen, members of the Royal Family, many Government and distinguished people were invited. They then departed amid volleys of British "Hip, Hip, Hurrahs" and "Gawd Bless 'ems," Italian vivas and salutes galore.

At the Guild Hall functions, the Prince of Wales escorted the fair Catholic, Mafalda. Overlooking the fact that the occasion demanded such attention, the people, conscious only that the reprobate bachelor Prince appeared with a pretty girl of the right age and the same rank, fell violently to gossiping of an imminent betrothal. But the Prince of Wales remained his misogamist self.

Italy, since the Napoleonic Wars, has always held a fair measure of British sympathy and friendship. The present King is widely admired and respected for his democratic simplicity, his high and rigid sense of duty, his integrity of thought, his immense store of common sense for which he is ever finding a means of practical application. Like many constitutional Kings he is in reality a powerful Ruler, exerting a concealed but profound influence in the councils of State.

During the War he refused to take a high command, wisely leaving it to professional soldiers. But he was more often at the front than any of the Entente Sovereigns, constantly encouraging his men and conferring with the Generals. Once, and it is hardly known, he was wounded in the hand. The publication of this fact he peremptorily forbade.

In 1922, when Benito issued his illegal proclamation of martial law in defiance of the established government, the King instantly did the right thing by recognizing the Fascisti and appointing Benito Prime Minister. Without any question he thereby averted civil war.

The King is in his 55th year, in stature short and well-built. It has been said that his manner "combines his father's force with his mother's grace." His hair is gray and always closely cropped. The fine lines of his mouth are quasi-concealed by his prominent mustache. His eyes are piercing but kindly. He received a Spartan education, a fact which is mainly responsible for his unhesitating strength of mind and the wide range and accuracy of his information. "Teddy" Roosevelt ranked him high in the family of Kings.

Discounting the tumultuous cries of the Republicans and Communists, the most serious criticism leveled at the King is that he does not appear often enough in public. The truth is that he is first a domestic man and then a King. When his children were young he was frequently to be found in the Royal nursery with the Queen, playing mumbletypeg on the floor.