ROYAL TOUR IN PREPARATION

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25607, 23 September 1948, Page 5

ROYAL TOUR IN PREPARATION

Choice of Retinue

KING’S FLIGHT MAY LEAVE NEXT MONTH [From E. G. WEBBER. Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.] LONDON. September 22. Neither the Queen nor Princess Margaret has yet chosen her ladies-in-waiting for the tour of New Zealand and Australia, arid there is no confirmation at Buckingham Palace of a report that Princess Margaret has invited Lady Pamela Mountbatten to be her personal lady-in-waiting. It is unlikely that the King will be accompanied on this occasion by his principal private secretary. Sir Alan Lascelles. His two equerries will in all probability be Captain the Lord Plunket, Irish Guards, and Wing Commander Peter Townsend, C.V.0., D. 5.0., D.F.C. and bar, who will act as Temporary Master of the Royal Household. Lord Plunket is a grandson of the former Governor-General of New Zealand. The two • assistant private secretaries who will probably accompany the King will be Major Michael Adeane, C. 8., C.V.0., and Major E. W. S. Ford.

Detectives Cameron and Perkins, who will act respectively as personal guards to the King and Queen, will also sail in H.M.S. Vanguard, and other security officers will precede the party. The Divisional Band of the Royal Marines, one of Britain’s finest military bands, will be attached to the Vanguard for the tour and will undoubtedly, as in South Africa, give performances ashore. The band will be under the Royal Marines Superintendent of Music, Major Vivian Dunn. The King’s Flight of Viking aircraft, under Air Commodore E. H. Fielden, is now well ahead with its preparations and will probably leave for New Zealand about the middle of r.cxt month. The Flight will be completely loaded with spares and maintenance equipment and will not even be able to carry its ground staff. Press and 8.8. C. The press party in the Vanguard will comprise representatives of the Exchange Telegraph and Reuter’s news agencies. Australian morning and evening newspapers, the New Zealand Press Association, “The Times” official photographer. a newsreel cameraman nominated by the British Newsreel Association, and a 8.8. C. commentator and his engineer. Eight or nine representatives of leading British newspapers will go to New Zealand and Australia ahead of the Royal party. The 8.8. C. is likely to send six commentators and technicians.

The Royal Family is at present at Balmoral, but the King, accompanied by Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, who has now completed his naval staff course, are expected to return to London in the first week of next month, leaving the Queen and Princess Margaret at Balmoral for another week or a fortnight. With the exception of week-ends at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, and the usual family Christmas gathering at Sandringham, the King and Queen and the two Prin- ■ cesses will remain in London until the departure of the Vanguard. The Queen and Princess Margaret have begun to get clothes for the tour, and Princess Margaret has placed some orders with the firm of Molyneaux. It is expected that the Queen’s clothes will again be provided by the firm of Norman Hartnell. Few details about the wardrobes will be announced till early in December.

The King has not yet taken any official steps under the Regency Act to appoint a Council of Regency to act in his absence. The act gives the Sovereign power to delegate such of his Royal functions as he may specify to four Councillors of State who must be the four persons next in line of succession to the Throne, who have attained their majority. It is likely that the council will consist of Princess Elizabeth, the Duke of Gloucester, the Prinsess Royal and her son (the Earl of Harewood).

• The Council of Regency Is expressly debarred from exercising certain specified Royal powers. It cannot make appointments to the Peerage of the Bench of Bishops, and it cannot dissolve Parliament without the express instructions of the Sovereign. It is not expected that any formal announcement appointing the Council of Regency will be made until December.