HIS BODYGUARD.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 17 (Supplement)

HIS BODYGUARD.

Detectives Will Watch Ovter Prince George. TOUR OF AUSTRALIA. J)URING HIS TOUR of Australia Prince George will be attended night and day by two Scotland Yard detectives as well as a private aide, probably a naval officer of high rank; a private secretary; a valet; and three or four other attendants. In addition to these attendants Federal Public Service officers and State officials will accompany the Prince during his tour of the Commonwealth. War-Time Major as Aide. Comptroller of Prince George’s household, Major James Ulick Francis Alexander, M.V.0., 0.8. E., will accompany the Prince on his South African tour, which has already begun. He will probably be a member of the. personal staff when Prince George sails for Melbourne in September. Major Alexander, an intimate friend of the Prince and the director of his affairs since 1928, is 44 years old. A product of Eton and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, he served throughout the war in France and Egypt, and was mentioned in dispatches. lie retired as a major in the Coldstream Guards. Major Alexander, a popular figure in London, was for sqjue years secretary to the Earl of Athlone when the Earl was Governor-General of South Africa. Another leading member of Prince George’s official staff is Major 11. W. Butler. Lord Hugh Tristram de la Poer, the young Irish sailor who will be attached to the Prince during his African tour, * s r the third son of the Marquis of Waterford. After having passed through the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, he was commissioned sublieutenant in the Royal Navv in 1930 He is now 25. Larger Staff. The Prince’s staff will be larger for the Australian tour. There are comparatively few in the South African staff, because the Prince is not going to South Africa as a representative of the King. A Federal Cabinet sub-committee which will probably include Sir Harry Lawson as the representative of the Prime Minister, and the secretary to Cabinet (Mr Marks), has been appointed to take full charge of the Commonwealth side of the arrangements for the Prince’s visit. An organising secretary who will probably be chosen from the senior ranks of the public service will be personally responsible to Cabinet for the successful running of the programme. The Public Service Commissioner (Mr Clemens) is mentioned as a likely choice for the position. May Accompany Tour. The Assistant Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department (Mr Frank Strahan) will probably be the senior

official representing the Commonwealth in the party which will conduct the Prince on his tour within the Commonwealth. Mr V. C. Duffy» who was formerly attached to the staff at Australia House, and who helped to organise the arrangements for the visit of the Prince of Wales, may also be a member of the party. During the Prince’s visit to Canberra the local side of the arrangements will be in the hands of Messrs C. S. Daley and H. R. Waterman, of the civil branch of the Department of the Interior. In recognition of the Prince’s rank, the chief of the Commonwealth Investigation Branch (Colonel Jones) will be attached to the official party during most of tile Royal visit. Several important functions are being arranged to take place during the Prince’s visit. Notable among these are requests that Ilis Royal Highness should lay the foundation stone of new buildings, and attend various other ceremonies of particular significance in the development of the Federal Capital.