LIFE IN WARTIME

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21036, 12 February 1940, Page 5

LIFE IN WARTIME

QUEEN’S THREE-FOLD BURDEN The one thing the war has not changed at Buckingham Palace is the Queen’s smile. In the first hour of the war, as she sat at the King’s airraid shelter at Buckingham Palace, after the sirens had gone off, Queen Elizabeth made up her mind to become the real as well as the titular head of Britain’s women at war, states an overseas correspondent. Today she bears the heaviest burden of any woman in the Empire. She sees her task as threefold: First and foremost to be a wife to the King, to comfort him in his anxieties and share in his joys. To play her own part as Queen, and keep alive in war time all those women’s interests that she has so close at heart. And—most important this—to run Buckingham Palace, the largest household in England, as a comfortable home. No one who meets the Queen can help but be encouraged. , A few days after the war began she went with the King into a still uncompleted airraid shelter in the basement of a house in a gloomy street in Pimlico. As she emerged, a poorly-dressed grey-haired woman cried: “God bless you! Now I’ve seen- you, I am ready to go through anything.” Since the war the Queen has taken a more personal part in running the domestic side of the Palace, and she has determined that there shall be no waste in the kitchens. Frequently she goes “below stairs” to supervise the catering arrangements for the servants of the household. Problem of her Daughters The Queen’s greatest wartime problem is, of course, her daughters. The two Princesses have remained in Scotland since the war began, and only once has the Queen been able to find time to go up to see them, while the King is so tremendously busy that he cannot take enough time off to go to Sandringham, let alone to Balmoral. This separation is very hard for both the King and Queen to bear, and the Queen would dearly love to have Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret brought at least nearer London, so that she and the King could spend week-ends with them. But this might encourage other mothers to bring their children home into the danger areas, and so, as always, when wishes clash with duty in the Royal Family the Queen has put her own desires aside, and agreed that her children shall stay in Scotland. Outside the Palace, the Queen’s greatest interest today is in the three women’s services, of each of which she is Commandant-in-Chief. Though she has yet to appear in uniform —actually none of the three uniforms is included in her wardrobe —she has paid many surprise informal visits to depots of each service, and, besides this, has made many suggestions for the welfare of the women and girls, and in quiet, friendly talks with their leaders and chiefs has helped to smooth out many difficulties.