NEW KING AT WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22352, 25 February 1936, Page 13

NEW KING AT WORK

OFFICE IN PALACE ROOM ON GROUND FLOOR LARGE FLAT DESK INSTALLED [from our own correspondent] By Air Mail LONDON. Feb. 1 King Edward has already made changes to facilitate his work at Buckingham Palace. His father's working room was on the first floor. King Edward is to work on the ground floor, and for that purpose has had a former waiting room converted. This room is only 20 by 15 feet. Hitherto, it has been reserved for visitors calling to see the King's private secretary, Lord Wigram, or other officials of the secretariat. It is a quiet and private apartment on the ground floor overlooking the quadrangle. Its furniture as a waiting r6om was chiefly Chinese, heavily lacquered. It formed part of a gift to King Edward VII. by tho Empress of China. Some of this furniture has now been removed to make room for a large flat desk for the King. In addition two large armchairs have been placed here. The mural decorations are very plain. The permanent ornaments aro supplemented by paintings of Royal racehorses. Extremely Convenient The room is extremely convenient. It is reached by "tho King's door," the entrance from the quadrangle into a square hall in the north wing. On the left of this hall is King Edward's dressing room. The room opposite is used by the palace footmen on duty with the secretaries. Directly ahead, up three steps, is the long corridor which runs the whole length of this wing of the palace. Up three steps on the left is Lord Wigram's office, and next to it that of the assistant secretaries. A third room is occupied by the Queen's private secretary. Page Outside Door Stationed outside the King's room is a page, and it is his duty to convey all verbal messages which may pass between His Majesty and his secretaries. Messages for the King are first given to the page. Visitors are usually conducted to the King by an equerry. No one is allowed to use the "King's door" unless entering with the Sovereign. King George rarely used it. He invariably entered his car on tho garden side of the palace. This was for convenience. Immediately opposite the door is the lift which ascends to a point direct to the late King's rooms on the first floor. LATE KING GEORGE NO SOJOURNS ABROAD LOVE OF OWN COUNTRYSIDE [from our own correspondent] By Air Mail LONDON. Feb. 1 In an editorial article upon King George's death the Lancet states that it was well known among the King's medical advisers for some years that he could have enjoyed more certain health, and probably prolonged his days, by spending the winter months at warmer and more sheltered places than his London or his Sandringham homes. " But the King remained in England," it adds, "not only from that sense of duty which made him the most serviceable of monarchs, but because the Norman castle which gives to the Royal House its present name and the heaths and marshes of Norfolk made an appeal to him more urgent than the balmier prospects of the Continental holiday resorts could offer. "He did not avail himself of climatic advantages which are open only to a small proportion of his fellowEnglishmen, and in their memory of him this will count." The article acknowledges the Empire's debt to the King's physician, Lord Dawson of Penn. Members of the profession, it says, know from experience the keen anxiety attached to the care of a patient whose cardiac reserve is slight, and whose duties are onerous. It must have been due in no small part to Lord Dawson's unobtrusive watchfulness and clinical wisdom that the King's last eight years were years of joyous fulfilment. MOURNING CUSTOMS HISTORIC BELLS TOLLED ONE THRONE IN THE LORDS [from our own correspondent] By Air Mail LONDON. Feb. 1 As an expression of sorrow at the death of King George, the Stock Exchange and most of the other markets of the country closed for a day. There was an extraordinary demonstration at Lloyd's. The underwriting room was more crowded than on any previous occasion since King George opened the new building in 1928. As the clock struck 12 the historic "Lutine Bell" was rung as a signal that business had ended. Spontaneously, and without any sort of prearrangement, all present stood still and silent, and there followed four unforgettable minutes, during which Lloj'd's paid tribute to the memory of the late King. "Great Tom of Oxford," formerly the clock bell nt Osney Abbey, which hangs in Tom Tower at Christ Church, Oxford, and tolls 101 times every at five minutes past nine (indicating the former number of students on the foundation of Christ Church in 1525), tolled the news of the King's death just after midnight. With the exception of the 101 tolls nightly, the bell, one of the largest in England, is rung only on the death of a monarch or heir apparent. In the House of Lords, when the Peers met to take the oath of allegiance to King Edward VIII., there was a striking evidence of the new reign. Instead of the usual two Royal thrones for the King and Queen, with the third for the Prince of Wales, the King's throne stood by itself. The King being a bachelor, and there being no Prince of Wales, the others had been removed.