THE CIVIL LIST AND THE EX-KING.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20679, 18 March 1937, Page 6

THE CIVIL LIST AND THE EX-KING.

Although the presentation of his Majesty’s Civil List invariably provokes occasional outbursts of Radical opinion, it can be said that generally speaking the views of saner members of the Socialist Party harmonise with those of Sir Pethick Lawrence, who expressed the Radical view when he said that he and his colleagues were satisfied that the waste and extravagance of former days had been eliminated. “We recognise,” he said, “that Royalty cannot be run on the cheap.” The phase of the Civil List of King George VI that will attract attention, however, will have relation to whether or not provision is made for the Duke of Windsor. So far, however, no one has given any indication of the ex-King’s financial position, although Mr Lloyd George, who claims close friendship with the Duke of Windsor, has voiced a strong protest to the committee framing the King’s Civil List, against the lack of State provision for an income for the ex-King. The demise of the Crown or any change in the monarchy, renders it necessary for renewed provision to be made for the Civil List, and the formal opening of the procedure is a message from the new ruler to “the gentlemen of the Commons,” placing “unreservedly at their disposal those hereditary revenues which were so placed by my predecessor,” and indicating those members of the Royal Family for whom it was desired that provision should be made. After various changes in the Constitution and control of the Civil List, especially in regard to tiie position of hereditary revenues, it was decided by Act of Parliament that it should be subject to the condition that the State should assume complete control:

Queen Victoria surrendered her life Interest in the hereditary revenues of the Crown, and the total amount of the List was fixed at £385,000. Following the death of the Prince Consort in 1862, and the Queen’s long retirement from all ceremonial functions, there was a good deal of anti-monarchical sentiment. The late Mr Joseph Chamberlain asserted in a letter to “The Times” that “the Republic must come, and at the rate at which we are moving it will come in our generation. The greater is the necessity for discussing its conditions beforehand, and for a clear recognition of what we may lose as well as what we shall gain." Republican sentiments, however, did not get a very good hearing from the general mass of the people, and there were riotous meetings. A motion for an inquiry into the Civil List was rejected in the Commons, after much uproar, by 276 votes to two. On the demise of the Queen the Civil List totalled £471,000. This had increased during the reign of King Edward VII to £543,000, but the Committee of Parliament which dealt with the matter fixed it at £470,000 for King George V, with extra provision for other members of the Royal Family amounting to £146,000. For King Edward VIII the List was fixed at £410,000, the reduction being due to the fact that the King was unmarried.

So far, however, only the King’s requests have been embodied in the Civil List. It can be taken for granted, however, that because the report of the Special Parliamentary Committee now considering the claim of the exKing for provision out of the national purse, will be the subject for a lively discussion in the House of Commons, that the conclusions of the committee are awaited with world wide Interest.