SURPRISE VISIT BY PRINCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 176, 27 June 1932, Page 9

SURPRISE VISIT BY PRINCE.

HUMBLE HOMES VISITED. The Prince of "Wales talked with unemployed miners, shipbuilding men who have no ships to build, families in tenements, and little children at their play during a ten hours’ tour of Tyneside from Newcastle in April. After a strenuous morning he had a round of golf at Gosforth after lunch, winning his match. Then he set off on another tour. At the Walker Unemployment Centre he chatted to many of the men about the dole, about work, the Means Test and other problems, and one ' of them said afterwards, “The Prince knows more about it than we do ourselves.” “It’s rotten to be out of work,” said the Prince to the men, and he promised to send them two bagatelle boards and a number of books. They gave him a loud cheer. A DOLLS’ TEA PARTY. The Prince called on Mr S. W. Suggett who. after being a miner at 36, won a scholarship at Cambridge and took the B.A. degree. The Prince took Mr Suggett with him in his car and drove to Hcbburn Play Centre, where he joined some of the 300 children in their games. He helped the boys to make models, and then took part in a dolls’ tea party with some of the girls. He paid a surprise visit to the Welcome Mission' at Gateshead, where youths who have been in the hands of the police are helped to go straight again. “QUITE AT HIS EASE.” In Elsivick Terrace, Newcastle, part of a slum area which is scheduled for clearance, he went into a yard known as “Mack’s Cottages,” and then up dark stairs to a tenement where he took the family completely by prise.Mrs Ayre, the occupant, was washing up the breakfast dishes when the Prince knocked at the door. He shook her by the hand, and asked if - he might look round. “The Prince was quite at his ease,” said Mrs Ayre afterwards. “He w'alked round the room, looked at everything, and just said one word—‘deplorable’— about the house.” “There is no edge about the Prince,” said another woman after the Royal visitor had seen the housewives busy preparing dinner. “He asks a straight question and expects a straight answer.”