The Crown

GREAT BRITAIN

P: After lying in the same bed and room since Nov. 21, 1928, His Majesty the King-Emperor was removed to an adjoining chamber, last week, enjoyed the change.

P: Pompous, perennially frock-coated Sir William ("Jix") Joynson-Hicks incurred the ire of Her Majesty the Queen-Empress, last week, and received a rebuke from the London Times.

The Home Secretary was said at Buckingham Palace to have offended Queen Mary by what she considered the "levity" of his public allusions to George V's condition. Since Sir William has the official duty of presiding at and certifying royal births and deaths, the British public look to him as the highest political authority on His Majesty's illness.

Therefore Her Majesty was greatly vexed by the language and implication of Sir William's remark on Dec. 5 to the Hounslow Chamber of Commerce:

"There's still great hope that His Majesty may recover."

This was flayed at Buckingham Palace, last week, as an "almost flippant" and "entirely unauthorized" exaggeration of the gravity of George V's condition on that date.

P: The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Dr. Downey, returned from Rome, last week, and was quoted as quoting four words which came from the Pope:

"The King will live."

P: Sir Kynaston Studd, London's Lord Mayor, delivered the customary annual expression of the City's loyalty to the sovereign. In reply he received from the Queen-Empress' own hand these moving words:

'. . . The King's illness must take its long and arduous course, but please God I may look forward to a lifting of the clouds and to a happy realization of the nation's faith and hope.

"The love and affection extended to me and my children throughout these dark days have indeed been a support to me and those near and dear to me, and when health and strength shall be, as I hope, vouchsafed again to the King, it will be a source of happiness to him to know that in his suffering he was ever in the thoughts of the citizens of London. I pray you, my Lord Mayor, to convey to one and all my heartfelt thanks."

P: Lumps rose in many honest English throats when it was popularly rumored that during the crucial stage of His Majesty's illness (TIME, Dec. 24) Queen Mary broke down and wept hysterically* until soothed by the Duchess of York.

P: Throughout the week a major difficulty in treating George V was his lack of appetite, and his apparently somewhat wilful refusal to eat when urged. Since the royal will is not easily crossed, Baron Dawson of Penn, the King's physician-in-ordinary, was understood to have mentioned the difficulty to Queen Mary. Presently the official palace bulletin declared:

"There is now a little more readiness to take nourishment. . . ."

P: Broth, whipped eggs and juices (fruit and beef) were mentioned, last week as constituting the royal bill of fare; and the patient was said to have "lost considerably in weight."

P: Edward of Wales admitted that on the evening after Christmas, when most of the servants for Buckingham Palace were given "a night off," he and his brother Albert of York prepared and served a cold supper to Queen Mary and the Duchess of York--always a favorite of Edward of Wales, who often calls her "Queen Elizabeth." Should death come to George V and Edward of Wales, the blooming, gracious little Duchess would be Queen Elizabeth.

P: To the ten doctors who have been attending George V was added, last week, an eleventh, Professor Dr. Edward Charles Dodds, barely 29, yet regarded as a foremost authority on biochemistry, and a specialist in calcium and insulin.

Unlike most Englishmen, Dr. Dodds pointedly eschews sport or exercise in any form. Last week he determined that the blood royal contained less than the normal .298 percent of calcium, drew his hypodermic, injected a minute mite more calcium into George V.

*Reputedly she last so wept upon the death of her fiance, the Duke of Clarence (1864-92) eventually marrying, however, the Duke's younger brother George.