MRS SIMPSON

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4959, 23 February 1937, Page 7

MRS SIMPSON

DASH ACROSS FRANCE TO VILLA IN CANNES. Paris, December 6. "The King alone is judge," Breaking her silence for the first time, Mrs. Simpson made this dramatic declaration this afternoon on the last stage of her dash across France to Cannes, which she reached just before midnight. She spoke in a restaurant at Vienne south of Lyons, where she stopped for lunch. Mrs. Simpson had been travelling south by road almost continuously since she slipped away from her hotel at Blois, 120 miles south-west of Paris, in the dark hours of this morning. Speaking good French, but with a slight accent, she told newspaper correspondents:— "I am extremely tired. You French are very sympathetic, but are very annoying. Since yesterday I have been followed everywhere. I haven't slept for two days. In the last hotel where I slept there were 24 journalists. We literally had to flee this morning. I would like everybody to understand that in the present circumstances I need calm and rest. "I have no plan. The King alone is judge. While waiting for his decision I am going to withdraw into silence and rest." While Mrs. Simpson was speaking* a detective accompanying her went to the telephone, where he remained for ten minutes. "In Better Times." When Mrs. Simpson had finished lunch she shook hands with the owner of the restaurant, complimenting him on the excellence of the meal. "But I would have preferred to eat it under other circumstances," she added. "I will come back in better times." On a sign from the window of the restaurant, the car drew up at the door. As the door was opened Mrs. Simpson, wearing a three-quarter length seal coat, ran lightly up the steps and jumped into the waiting car, which was at once driven off. At 6.20 to-night, the car—still the same Buick —stopped in a private road outside the Dominion Hotel, Avignon, about 40 miles from Marseilles. Two men alighted, went into the hotel, and ordered two light meals and a third, on a tray for "a man who didn't feel like getting out." The third meal was placed on a tray and carried out to the car, in which Mrs. Simpson was sitting". Villa Gates Closed. The car left at 7.20 p.m. and just over an hour later passed through Aix-en-Provence, about 100 miles from Cannes. Mrs. Simpson arrived at the Cannes villa of her friends, Mr. and Mrs. Herman L. Rogers, prominent figures in New York society, at 11.35 p.m. As the car, containing three people, entered the villa grounds the gates were closed. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers are probably Mrs. Simpson's closest American friends abroad, and were fellow guests with her aboard the Nahlin during the King's Mediterranean cruise. Eight large trunks and five suitcases arrived at Cannes on the Blue train this morning. All were labelled "Miss Burke," but bore the initials "W.W.S." An English detective artrived at Cannes by air, and two French detectives have been appointed by the French police authorities to keep guard on Mr. and Mrs. Rogers's villa, the "Lou Viel" ("Old House"). Watchers Eluded. It was at 3.30 a.m. to-day that Mrs. Simpson eluded the watching newspaper men gathered round the Hotel de Paris at Blois. She had arrived there late the previous night on her way from England via Dieppe and Rouen. In the dark hours of this morning her car was taken out of the hotel garage without any of the watchers being awere of it. The special guard of police posted outside' the hotel kept patrolling the building long after she had left. Her departure became known when one of the watching newspaper men sent a porter to the garage to make sure that his own car, parked in front of Mrs. Simpson's with the ignition locked, had not been moved. When' her absence was discovered, the newspaper men set forth in chase of Mrs. Simpson's car. She had breakfasted at Moulins, 125 miles north-west of Lyons. She asked for tea and rolls, while those accompanying her enjoyed a meal of eggs and bacon. She ate very slowly, and during the meal wrote out a telegram addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Rogers.