THE QUEEN'S WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 16, 19 January 1938, Page 13

THE QUEEN'S WORK.

TAKING HER PLACE. It has been interesting, during the last week or so, to see the Queen going about so much alone, and looking so very dignified and self-possessed. From the time of their marriage we have been so used to finding Their Majesties together that it comes as a little shock now to encounter the Queen and her retinue settling themselves into a Royal box or on to a platform without the King and those in attendance upon hi in in the background. In the last 12 months, however, Queen Elizabeth has taken on & new poise. Her particular charm and her sweet smile remain, but added to them there is what one might almost call a bearing of greater responsibility. She now takes the lead and does it very graciously, and when she and her ladies-in-waiting ore attending a social function there is a delightful vivacity about it which makfcs for greater interest. I like the Queen's innovation of having people brought to sit with her during charity entertainments. Between the various items she makes inquiries of them as to the particular work the charity is doing, and of how the money raised is to be laid out. A lady-in-waiting takes the privileged one back to his or her seat and then invites another worker to take the empty chair next to Her Majesty. The Queen is certainly living up to her new standard. While it floats over Buckingham Palace, proudly displaying the Bowes-Lyon arms as well as'her Royal ones, she herself carries on, as it were, while the King is engaged out of London.