PROVISION FOR COUPLE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25346, 20 November 1947, Page 7

PROVISION FOR COUPLE

King Makes Offer To Parliament RELIEVING PUBLIC FUNDS (R .?A 7 LONDON, Nov. 19. . An offer by the King to make provision for Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Mountbatten, if it is accepted, wiU mean that there will be no burden on the public funds for possibly twoyears,” says Reuters. The offer was contained in a message from His Majesty, which waspreln the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir Stafford Cripps) and read by Mr Speaker. The message said that His Majesty, relying on the affection and the cordial interest which his faithful House of Commons had manifested in the forthcoming marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Mountbatten, and desiring that provision should be made for them, was willing, in order to avoid burdening the people at present. to place at the disposal of the House of Commons a sum derived from savings on the Civil List made during the war years so that the provision made should, for a period, impose no additional charge on the public funds. Mr Herbert Morrison gave notice that a motion would be moved at the beginning of business to-day for the appointment of a select committee to consider His Majesty’s message. King’s Expenses

The King’s annual allowance is £410,000, of which £134,000 is set aside for the payment of fixed salaries and retirement pensions. The expenses of the Court and Household amount to £152,000. Alms and other special expenses take £132,000. The Queen receives no separate allowance. The Royal Family during the war practised many economies in staff and living expenses at Buckingham and Windsor Palaces. The King in one year saved £20.000. His Majesty’s message sets in motion the Parliamentary machinery for fixing the allowance for the Princess and her husband. The select committee which will be appointed to-day will make recommendations to Parliament, and Parliament will decide. The Parliamentary correspondent of “The Times” points out that as no change has been made in the Civil List since 1937, it may well be that the higher living costs since the; war, including increased salaries and wages to Officials and servants, have already offset much of the savings effected by the King during the war years. Since her twenty-first birthday, Princess Elizabeth has received £ 15,000 a year from the Consolidated Fund. Before that she had £6OOO. These sums were fixed by Parliament when her father came to the Throne. The select committee then made* no recommendation for an extra allowance in the event of her marriage. They decided that it would be for Parliament to make such provision as might seem proper at that time in the light of the circumstances then prevailing. This is what Parliament will do now. The Parliamentary correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that the new select committee will have no direct precedent to guide them. Queen Victoria was already on the Throne when she married. Parliament was then asked to vote £50,000 a year to the Prince Consort, but there was opposition and the sum was cut to £30,000. When George V came to the Throne in 1910, the select committee then recommended that if the Prince of Wales (now the Duke of Windsor) married there should be an allowance of £lO,OOO for the Princess of Wales.