INTIMATE ROYAL LETTERS

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1929, Page 9

INTIMATE ROYAL LETTERS

SENSATIONAL BERLIN SALE

LONDON NEWSPAPERS’ TACT

SUPPRESSION OF EXTRACTS

By Telegraph- -Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian Press Association. Received Jan. 29, 10.5 p.m. Sun Cable. 'London, Jan. 29 A furore has been created in newspaper circles by the receipt of a News Agency despatch from Berlin describing the auction of intimate letters, allegedly from King George, Queen Mary and the Prince of Wales to relatives in France.

Extracts from the letters, particularly one written by the Queen when evidently under great emotional stress after the death of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence in 1892 and another after the King’s illness in 1925, were transmitted to London. Immediately at least one London editor took steps to secure the supression of the extracts in England on the grounds that their Majesties’ private correspondence should not be disclosed without their consent. Furthermore their Majesties should be spared the pain of seeing family confidences in the public Press at a time when the King is lying ill and the Queen is occupied with great domestic anxiety. Lord Claud Hamilton, the King’s equerry, interviewed by the Daily News ht Buckingham Palace, said it was impossible offhand to decide whether the letters were genuine, but it was exceedingly probable they were authentic. The Queen’s letters about- the’Germans, for instance, vibrated with the, feeling of that time. Lord Hamilton expected the Germans were writing and feeling much the same about the English at the time (the death of Lord Kitchener), “There is nothing we can do,” said Lord Hamilton. “If the letters were sold and paid for they are now the purchasers’ property. We are powerless.”

Later the News Agency withdrew the quotations for 24 hours at the request of Lord Hamilton, who will make a statement to-day. One letter dated April 16, 1916, fetched £ll 55.. One written in 1893 was sold for £4 6s, The Morning Post’s correspondent states some were bought by a German Prince, others by a Berlin dealer. The intention in both cases was to send the letters to England. The letters are in nowise sensational, being merely comments on current events and family affairs. The texts are not being published pending inquiries.