The Crown

P: Disapprovingly at a furniture exposition in London last week the King-Emperor pointed out to the Queen-Empress a modern bedside reading lamp.

"When I go to bed," snorted His Majesty, "I go to sleep!"

Later, as he rarely does in public, George V poked a bit of fun at Queen Mary. "Shouldn't you have this?" he asked, pointing to a cocktail cabinet. "You might use it in your study."

P: H. R. H. Mary, Princess Royal, 36, only daughter of Their Majesties, was ordered by Sir Frederick Stanley Hewett, Surgeon Apothecary to the King, to "observe a period of complete rest necessitated by extreme fatigue brought on by too many public engagements."

P: Aged 83, the King's hoary uncle H. R. H. Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and of Strathearn. kept a public engagement by opening in thoroughgoing fashion the new $5,000,000 headquarters of English freemasonry in London as the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge.

P: Certainly George V does not want Prime Minister MacDonald's Government defeated in the House of Commons. Seemingly it is impregnable, with 556 seats out of the entire House of 615. But last week King George gave a garden party at Buckingham Palace. So many Government supporters came to eat raspberries & cream that on a snap vote in the House of Commons the Government missed defeat by only seven ballots.

For the first time at a royal garden party numbers of smart young women arrived barelegged, seemed to feel that the extreme heat was ample excuse.

P: Leaving Buckingham Palace after a late chat with George V last week, lean, purposeful U. S. Conference Delegate Key Pittman found himself marooned in the palace courtyard. The tall iron gates were locked. The imposing Grenadier Guards in their massive bearskin hats refused to do any unlocking. Senator Pittman pleaded to be let out. After long argument, the Grenadier Guards, still unable to comprehend why Delegate Pittman should not have been called for by his own car if he really was a person of such importance, grudgingly let him escape and hail a taxi.

P: Loyal subjects who have wondered why George V seems to have a dirty face on so many silver coins were enlightened by Sir Robert Johnson, Comptroller of the Royal Mint. Recalling that the silver content was decreased in 1920 from 925 parts in 1,000 to only 500 parts, Sir Robert shrugged: "The result is all those dirty coins you see today. The thin covering of fine silver wears off and leaves a dirty patch on the King's cheek. We have now developed a new alloy to make the coins wear the same color all through."

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