Heavy Programme For Queen In U.S.

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28397, 2 October 1957, Page 11

Heavy Programme For Queen In U.S.

WASHINGTON, September 30

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will be on duty 12 or 13 hours a day during their six days’ visit to the United States, according to the itinerary announced today by the White House.

The Royal couple, who will begin their visit on October 16, will attend 114 ceremonial activities, including six official banquets and four receptions, at Jamestown (Virginia), Washington, and New York.

The Queen and the Duke will also attend the United Nations General Assembly, where the Queen will address the 82-nation body as Head of the British Commonwealth.

Even on Sunday, October 20. the Queen and the Duke will be busy after attending a morning service and dedication of a war memorial chapel at Washington Cathedral.

Immediately afterwards, the Queen and Prince Philip will attend morning service with the President and Mrs Eisenhower at the National Presbyterian Church. A f ter luncheon at the British Embassy, the Royal couple will pay a private visit to the Middleburg hunter and racing stables at Middleburg, Virginia. In the evening, on their return from the country, the Queen and her husband will attend a dinner at the Australian Embassy. given by Sir Percy Spender, the senior Commonwealth ambassador at Washington. That night, they will leave by Royal train for their one-day visit to New York. Arrival in Williamsburg The Queen and the Duke will open their United States visit when they arrive at Williamsburg, Virginia, from Canada on Wednesday, October 16. Within a few minutes of their arrival on United States soil, the Queen and the Duke will begin a two-hour tour of historic Jamestown, which this year is celebrating the 350th anniversary of the founding of the first permanent English settlement. The Royal couple will stay the night at Williamsburg, the eighteenth century capital of Virginia. There they will attend a reception and a dinner given in their honour by the Governor of the State. Mr Thomas Stanley.

President Eisenhower will send his personal aircraft. Columbine 111, to bring the Royal visitors from Williamsburg to Washington on October 17. The President and Mrs Eisenhower will head the welcoming party at the Washington National Airport.

The Queen will sit beside the President when they drive from the airport through flag-lined streets to the President’s official residence, the White House, where the Queen and her husband will stay until their official visit ends on the Saturday night. The Queen and the Duke will spend Saturday night at the British Embassy. President and Mrs Eisenhower will give a luncheon at the White House immediately after the Queen’s arrival. Correspondents’ Reception

That evening the Queen and Prince Philip will attend a reception given in their honour by the joint committee of press, radio and television correspondents at Washington.

The President and Mrs Eisenhower will give a State dinner in honour of the Queen and Prince Philip at the White House that night. While the Queen visits the National Gallery of Art on Friday morning. President Eisenhower will award the National Geogranhic Society Medal to the Duke of Edinburgh at the White House. The Royal train will go to Stapleton. Staten Island, in the middle of New York harbour. After an official city welcome, thev will cross by ferry, as tens of thousands of New Yorkers do every morning, to Manhattan Island. They will drive from the Pier to the City Hall to be received by the Mayor (Mr Robert Wagner), who will afterwards accompany them in a motorcade to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

In a visit timed to coincide with sunset, the Queen and the Duke will be whisked in a high-speed lift to the top of the world’s tallest building, the Empire State Building, for a bird’s eye view of New York.

The Pilgrims’ Society and the English-Speaking Union will give a banquet in honour of the Royal couple on the Monday night, and the Queen and her husband will drive from there to the Commonwealth ball at the armoury of one of New York's most famous regiments.

In the afternoon, the Commonwealth missions at Washington will give a reception at the British Embassy, to which 2500 persons have been invited. A State banquet will be given on the Friday evening by the Secretary of State (Mr Dulles) and Mrs Dulles. Embassy Investiture The Queen on Saturday morning will receive various Commonwealth diplomats at the British Embassy and will hold an investiture for both Commonwealth and American citizens. She will then lay the foundation stone of the new British Embassy office building. The Duke will spend the morning visiting the United States Marine Barracks at Washington.

One of the highlights of the visit will come on the Saturday afternoon, when the Queen and the Duke will drive to Maryland to see an American college football game between the Maryland and North Carolina Universities.

The Queen and Prince Philip will themselves give a State banquet that night at the British Embassy in honour of President and Mrs Eisenhower.