ON TOUR WITH THE KING

Evening Star, Issue 16628, 10 January 1918, Page 6

ON TOUR WITH THE KING

A MOST APPROACHABLE MONARCH. [By BtTßtairiin. Rttshwood.] LONDON, October 25. If the King of England wants to inspect munition works in any part of his kingdom, it may cost hinOts muck as £3,200 in railway fanes. This fact is known to very few people even, in Groat Britain, but whenever and wherever King George tours, unless it is on some special State affair like a visit to the Oversea Dominions, his railway fares and those of all his suite are paid out of his privy purse. I have been on several tours with the King during the wan. He takes as few people as possible, not only as an example in economy, but also because the Royal Household hae been very considerably reduced during the war by the departure of many officers who formerly served at Court and have now rejoined their regiments. Tie King is always accompanied by his assistant private secretary and close personal friend, Colonel Clive Wigram. There is also an equerry-in-waiting, and the suite is completed by the general of the district in which the King is malting his inspection, or some Stuff officer from tho IV ar Office who is idirectly responsible for the work that is being done in tho mills or factories or shipyards that tho King visits. And in the last case, also, there is usually a naval officer .of high rank on the suite for the time being. These officers live on the Royal train throughout the tour. Others who may be specially attached for a- day or two to the suite for some special object stay at a hotel in the nearest town. Whoa the King is going round any works or yard, a certain number of civilians are added to the procession. These include partners of the firm which is being visited, one or two private detectives, and a dozen or so newspaper men and photographers, all of whom have to be specially invited, and who represent not only the great national newspapers, but also the papers published in the district. On a four or five days’ tour the King soon comes to know by sight all tho writers who are following him, and to some who have attended him on many of his inspections he usually stops to chat for a few minutes on one of the first days of tho new tour. There is a great change in the attitude of the Court towards newspaper representatives since the time of Queen Victoria, and even of King Edward. .But King George is fully in touch with the. spirit of the times. He knows, too, the extremely hard work that falls to the lot of a writer who is assigned to describe a Royal tour that involves visits to seven or eight big factories during each day, with little or no chance of writing anything until, the. whole long day’s tramping is over. A Royal tour means a 12 hours' day for several da vs on end for the men who have to describe it. . A PRACTICAL KING. The King’s inspection of a works is no mere formality. He is an eminently practical man, who wants practical information. and the director or manager who conducts the visitor round frequently finds himself involved in a highly technical discussion. Jt is the same with, the many foremen and workmen to whom the King stops to speak in the course of his walk round. They all find that he is very well posted in Labor questions, that lie is well acquainted with matters that arc in dispute between the trade union leaders and the authorities'or the masters, and he is always eager to hear the men’s point, of view in their own language. This probably accounts in large measure for the warmth with which he is almost invariably greeted by the workers in the various establishments that he visits. lie is the most approachable monarch who ever sat on the throne of England. L have seen workmen endowed with push and nerve come forward quite unsolicited and speak to him in the yards, and I have never seen the King fail"to stop and hear what they had to say. In the majority of cases it was something loyal and patriotic, but in one or two instances the man genuinely wished to bring a grievance, or a supposed grievance, to tho King’s notice, and on each of those occasions the man's statement has been carefully noted for investigation. Theer are no red carpet and roped oil avenues in a Royal tour nowadays. Indeed, the, manager of one very irupjvta.it firm who had railed oft' the path that the procession was to follow, found to hi:- dismay that he had seriously a unwed the King by doing so. The whole object of these war-time lours is to show the King the work that is in progress, and all the workers are expected to go on with their work while he is passing through the shops. They do. hut as soon as the procession has passed through their particular bit of factory they rush a wav from their machines, and add" themselves'to the procession, and it is no uncommon thing for the King to find himself surrounded by a bodyguard of two or three hundred very grubby, toil-stained little bovs. or an equal number of workgirls, who alwavs manage, in their working overalls and moh caps, to look cleaner and neater than their male colleagues. Famous generals, .‘staff officers, and the rest of the authorised procession, often find themselves quite cut off from the King by the cheering. laughing, pushing crowd : hnt it is all taken in good part, and 1 have never seen anyone, except some officious vard foreman, attempt to keep 'the workers back. ' . AUTOMOBILE PROCESSION. The works that arc visited are scattered all oyer the district, mid the journey from one to the other is generally .made, hv motor car. The King's car goes first, of course, and with him. unless the Queen is accompanying him, lie generally has tho general commanding the. district. Colon d \N igram, and one other officer. On the front seat beside the chauffeur it, is customary for tho chief constable ni the neighborhood to ride, in order that he mav net a» a guide, since on occasions the ride fiony one works to the next, mav entail n drive of five or ton miles. The rest of the .Staff, and the privileged civilians, are also provided with cars, and the whole procession may include as mam- as 20 cars. . At one time it was usual to allow tho civilians to provide (heir own conveyance, but some local garages were, not- equal (o providing cars of sufficient, speed, or snlficiontly smart in appearance, and all the cars are now provided hv tho Army Service Corps. The same officer is always in charge of the convoy, and ho has brought the art of getting all the cars oft tl in ark: quickly, and keeping (lie procession in smart military formation, to a fine point. 1 have only onco known one of the cars in tho Royal procession to break down, and that Iron hie was adjusted inside five minutes by the breakdown gang that occupies the last car. The King’s day on these occasions is divided into two parts, and he generally has an interval of an hour and a-half for lunch. This is almost invariably served on the Royal train. These tours arc business affairs, and the King docs not stay with any of the local magnates during his visit. His headquarters are the Rova.l train. To American travellers, accustomed to drawing-room cars, smoking saloons, dining cars, and bedroom cars, the Roval train would probably seem very ordinary; hut in Engl and, where the longest- train journey does not take 34 hours.' - the octu-fortably-fitted-up saloons of the King’s special train are. noteworthy. When the King is travelling alone there are only three of the special saloons used, one a dining room, one a smoking room with a desk in one corner, at. which the King : does a _ great ( deal of work each evening after hia day’s tour, and one a -hedromm If the Queen is travelling with the King two extra saloons are put on, one a drawing room and one a. bedroom. The decoration of the King’s smoking saloon is carried nut in green and mahogany. Th© Queen’s drawing room is in while, with blue brocade upholstering, and her'sleeping is decorated in soft pink.* with a silver-plated bed and satimvood furniture. When the King is on tour the train is stationed at some convenient siding each night, well away from the noise of any passing main line traffic, and an armed guard is mounted all night, exactly as it is outside one of the Royal palaces. As soon a.s the train draws up at the siding workmen from the Post Office link up Hie

telephones and the telegraph instrument.') on board -with lines specially laid to tin) .nearest main wires, and so. the train i i in direct communication with 1 .ondoi t should there be any necessity for tho 1 leads of the Government to consult the King. A special courier carries <lespatches from the Royal train each nialri also, having brought mails from London the- previous night. The rest of the train is composed of ordinary sleeping carriages and dining cars, and in these the staff are accommodated and have their meals. Each sleeping berth has the name of the person using it on the door, and since the war brought women workers to the fore it is nothing unusual for three or four girl secretaries to travel in the Royal train on these tours. The journalists attached to the party usually make their own (ravelling arrangements, but on one or two occasions, when the distance from one place to another was considerable, or the ordinary trains did not serve owing to cross-country delays, the journalists have been -commanded” to travel in one of the cars of the train. 1 have frequently lunched on tho .Royal train, as in the very brief breathing space between the end of the morning’s work and the start of the afternoon s events it is not possible to get back to one’s hotel, and the accommodation at the inns of some of the little manufacturing towns visited would not be equal to catering for a sudden flood of hungry men. Tie meals served are very simple and wholesome. King George is an abstemious man in meat, and, as is known, has entirely foresworn alcohol since the war began.