ROYAL PLANE TROUBLE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28539, 19 March 1958, Page 13

ROYAL PLANE TROUBLE

Queen Mother’s Reaction

<Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, March 18.

The Queen Mother’s reaction to the news that her aircraft was in trouble when approaching Mauritius became known in London last night at the Lord Mayor of London’s ‘‘welcome home” reception.

When the aircraft’s commander. Captain Ronald Duffield, told the Queen Mother that one of the engines was giving trouble, she was reported to have said: “Are you happy that we will get there?”

The captain replied: ‘‘Yes, Your Majesty.” “Then,” the Queen Mother replied, “I am not worried.”

The Queen Mother used a horseracing analogy at the Guildhall reception when she told of her sympathy for the Qantas aircraft crews who battled to get her home from her tour of Australia and New Zealand.

“I have myself some experience of the disappointment of seeing a dazzling success snatched from one. even after the last fence, and my sympathy is much with the gallant crews who worked so unceasingly to complete their task.” Her Majesty said. Ths guests were quick to understand H?r Majesty. The Queen Mother was referring to the 1956 Grand National when her horse, Devon Loch, which had led over the last jump and was a clear leader on the run home, sensationally fell. The Queen Mother was speaking in reply to the Lord Mayor of London (Sir Denis Truscott), who. with the Lady Mayoress and the Corporation of tbe City of London, held the reception. Princess Margaret attended the reception with the Queen Mother. In her speech, the Queen Mother said:

“I suppose there is not one of us who, returning from distant lands, does not feel a lifting of the heart when the shore of this beloved island can at last be discerned. “ ‘Home again,* we may say and I think that now, when I use that precious word, my thoughts will go. as well, to those wide lands where I have left a part of my heart.”