L.S.D. OF KINGSHIP

Evening Star, Issue 21632, 30 January 1934, Page 11

L.S.D. OF KINGSHIP

HOW THE KING'S SALARY IS SPENT Many people are surprised to learn that His Majesty the King receives more than half a million pounds a year, and perhaps they wonder what he can possibly do with such a vast sum. His accounts are not made public; but if they were I doubt whether the most revolutionary of his subjects could suggest any practicable way in which they might be cut. Most of the £470,000, at which the civil list—or King’s salary—was fixed in 1901 is earmarked before it is voted by Parliament (writes the Hon. Mrs Francis Lascelles). Tho money which the King and Queen have to spend is probably far less than that of thousands of their subjects. I doubt whether it is £2,000 a year. During the critical days of 1931 the King voluntarily subjected his salary to a reduction substantially the same as that suffered by many of bis subjects. Of the £470,000, all but £B,OOO is appropriated immediately for particular purposes. The salaries of the Royal Household account for £125,000 and the expenses for £193,000. The works Account takes £20,000, and the Royal Bounty £13,200. _ When it is read that the mother of triplets has received the Royal Bounty it is not considered that such gifts, made many times a year, add up to a considerable sum. The balance of £IIO,OOO, which goes to • their Majesties’ Privy Purse, seems to 1)0 a large amount until you consider how it is spent. Travelling alone costs tho King an enormous sum. _ Many people imagine that Royal trains and coaches are given free by railway companies, delighted to have the privilege of carrying Royal personages from London to Sandringham or Balmoral. They are mistaken. The King pays' just as does any other passenger—except that he pays a great deal more. The cost of a “ special " is somewhere round £1 a mile, so that a “ special ” to Balmoral costs more than £SOO. Members of the Royal Family do not always travel by a “ special,” but a certain standard is expected of them, and it has to be paid for. MOTORS MUST BE PERFECT. Motor cars must cost tho King much money. They must be good cars, without being ostentatious, and there must be no possibility of a breakdown. A staff of mechanics is kept constantly at work ensuring that the cars are in perfect order, and an expert from the tyre manufacturers 1 visits the Royal garage every month to examine the cars. It sounds incredible, but a number of misguided folk sometimes manage to scratch their initials on the paint of the cars. They forget that as soon as the car returns it has to be repainted. Tho splendour of the Royal procession at tho opening of Parliament and on similar occasions is expensive. King George lias to keep sixty horses in the Royal mews. At a conservative estimate it costs £SO a year to keep a horse, so there is £3,000 more accounted for. The extent of the charity of tho King and the Queen is impossible to calculate. Royal personages, by tradition are supposed to give handsomely to every cause, and the King lias sustained the tradition. The amounts given publicly amount to many thousands, and much charitv is done privately. It is difficult for Royal persons to avoid the limelight, but the British Boyal Family have never forgotten the Bibli-

cal exhortation regarding the right and the left hands. Apart from gifts of money, the Queen never fails to respond to an appeal for a good cause with gift's in kind. The articles she sends to bazaars every year number hundreds, and they are all bought personally during one of her shopping expeditions, or are made with her own hands. UPKEEP OF DEPENDANTS. The civil list provides for a number of members of the Royal Family. There is £IB,OOO for the daughters of Edward , v VII., and £26,000 for His Majesty’s younger children. But provision for many other relatives and connections of the Royal' Family comes from the King’s own purse. It has been calculated that ; 150 persons receive allowances jn this way, and there are a large number of pensioners. The kings of long ago sometimes made generous promises to those who served them well, and after hundreds of years these promises are still implemented. For instance, King Charles 11. bestowed _ a bounty on a family which helped him after his defeat by Cromwell, and the descendants still receive the pension, which varies between £2 and £4O a year. Again, all the Royal servants receive pensions, and tho number of pensioners on the various estates is considerable. Tho number of pensioners and the amount paid is increasing rather than decreasing. Apart from the civil list voted by Parliament the King receives a varyipg amount from the Duchy of Lancaster. Without this help he could not sustain his palaces and do all that is expected of him. The amount received from the Duchy of Lancaster used to be about £70,000, 'but tho heavy personal expenditure made by His Majesty on behalf of his people during the war necessitated the capitalisation of a certain amount in 1921. Parliament granted permission for £IOO,OOO to be realised to discharge certain outstanding obligations. The Royal accounts had shown deficits for some years, and the fund which the King had created to meet such a situation became exhausted after more than £130,000 had been drawn from it in three years. The “ cuts ” which the King made in 1931 have imposed real sacrifice. It has been made a rule that the economies shall not mean the dismissal of any servants to swell the ranks of the unemployed. The Queen showed during the war that she know how to manage a household 'economically as well as any of her servants, and 1 do not doubt that a great deal of the problem of discovering how the cuts are to be made has fallen bn her shoulders. There are few monarchs left in a world that is experimenting with fullblooded democracy, but the amount received by the King compares unfavourably with the civil lists of other countries. The King of Italy, for instance, receives nearly £BOO,OOO. which is about the sum spent every year by the Kaiser before the war. The Tsar of Russia was said to receive some £4,000,000 a year. The Emperor of Japan has £450,000 a year, which is more than the King receives after the reductions have been made. One point is not generally understood. The payments made to the British Royal Family are not “ salaries ” in the strict sense." When, many years ago, the Royal Family gave up all its rights. Parliament agreed to grant it a yearly sum in return. The civil list is therefore an annuity on a capital sum. and the amount is a good deal less than was received formerly by the King in a personal capacity.