ROUSING WELCOME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23616, 28 March 1940, Page 12

ROUSING WELCOME

THE KING AND > QUEEN SCOTTISH SHIPYARDS " CHEERED BY THOUSANDS [from our own* correspondent] ' LONDON, March 5 "Our own wee Scots lassie" was how - 72-year-old Paddy McDermot addressed the Queen when, with the King, she visited Beardmore's Forge, • Parkhead, during Their Majesties' tour in Glasgow. McDermot was speaking for 6000 men at the works. "I have had 53 years of it," lie-told the Queen, "but all the years have been worth while for to-day alone, because we are very proud to know we/ have our own wee Scots lassie among u.s." The Queen smiled with pleasure." The furnaeeman at McDermot's side said: '"Bless you. You're a credit to us. You're a fine lass." . During their visit to the Clydeside the King and Queen were given a tremendous reception by thousands of workers. They saw ships of every kind under construction on the stocks. When they were, at Greenock the Queen shook hands with so many of the workers that her gloves were ruined with grime and. coal dust from, their hands. As she picked her way over a path of rusty iron and cinder her French grey suede shoes were covered with mud in five minutes and her stockings were splashed about the ankles. On the half-built boats the men stopped work. They climbed the cranes or hung over the rusty boats waiting for the King and Queen, and shouted; "GoodjjJd Lizzie." Above all the noise - still a tapping coming from some grey ship skeletons in the yards and a hiss from a few cranes that could "not stop even for aRoyal visit. The Queen was enjoying herself. She turned to the King and said, "Grand people, aren't they?" lie replied. "You know them. They're Scots." While visiting the Glasgow A.R.P. organisation they went "coffeehousing." so called because the Queen seemed inclined to linger at the mobile canteens. The King laughingly commented: "Don't you think we hare, coffee-housed long enough here?" In one of the canteens the Queen was offered a cup of tea, and replied: "I have been longing for one." The King, as he took his cup, said: "Do you wish for a coupon for my sugar?" At another canteen, where the Queen accepted three 2d packets of chocolate, thp King laughingly commented: "We spera to be 'pinching' all the stuff hero." He left richer b.y a packet of 20 cigarettes. John Brown's yard was also visited, and here Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, was in attendance on Their Majesties. For 10 minutes they were cheered by 30,000 Clydeside workers. When Mr. Churchill came on to a small balcony the men in the yard shouted: "Three cheers for Winnie." "Giving Jerry a day off?" "How about a U-boat for tea. Winnie?" He waved his cap at the men.