EVACUEE MONARCHS

Evening Star, Issue 25768, 15 April 1946, Page 7

EVACUEE MONARCHS

THE SCANDAL DF THE STATUES (From Our Correspondent.) (By Air Man./ LONDON, April 4. It is surely a scandal, for which tho Office of Works seems to bear responsibility rather nonchalantly, that two famous Kings of England should still be war-time evacuees many months after peace has been restored to the world. The famous statues of Charles the First and James the Second, the former esteemed by critics perhaps London's finest equestrian memorial, are still away in safe keeping somewhere is the country. There is no word of any attempt to unearth and restore them to their former sites. They both look like missing the Victory parades •Meanwhile, however, the Ministry of Works has given permission for work to proceed at once on the George V. memorial in Abingdon street, near the' Abbey. A model of this has already heen officially approved, and is to be of Portland stone, 2fift high, with a statue of King George V. standing on a plinth above six wide steps. Sir William lleid Dick completed it fivo years ago. It is now in Portland, buried for safety, awaiting the completion of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's setting. An interesting fact is that quite probably German prisoners of war will be employed on its erection. How King George would have appreciated the irony of that I