1952-04-19 — Page 11

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURLAY, APRIL 19, 1952.

Man who knows all the Palace secrets

A

is the Old Guard link with

N American re-

porter asked Sir Alan Luseeiles. whether he WI.1 related to Lord Harewood, whose family name is Lascelles. Sir Alan said he was. "How?" pursued the legiti- reporter. "Quite mately," said Sir Alan.

Third of the Series

THE PEOPLE CLOSE TO

THE QUEEN

So "Tommy" Lascelles, private secretary to the Queen, has a donmish wit, the fruit of a car- dunic sense of humour. He has, further, the erudition to sustain a datuched outlook; and you will not pose # situation to him for which he will lack a Shake- spearian or Biblical quotation.

private Lascelles, who was secretary to the late King, is the only member of the Queen Household so far to be appoint formal audience of the Queet, el. And, as you would expect. For the Queen goes serons to The man who must guide the

the State rouma the USE of State and Queen on matters

Puluce, On slack days, when he retires-he is policy sintil

the Queen's visit is unnecessary, 04-need

then a rige Laseciles will keep in

touch detachment,

And with her by telephone. nees background,

When news cames that Me Lascelles was a dista

01 any other

dis- relat.vc of the sim went Churchil Marlborough, Let on MA at tinguished statesman is to call on the Queen, Tommy Lascelles Trinity College, Oxford, and un

is there to see the visitor first, M.C. in the Bedfordshire

Lascelle, knows all. manry.

Tommy

Nov

mure

Experience

TOW that, in the circles that have decided these things, is unimpeachable.

He has the key-the small tubular key which opens Cabinet derpatch boxes, und he is the only Palace officiel to possess vine (the Queen hos another). He

the top

Covensx-General

REES

Mr. Churcht with Sir Atan Larcoltes.

neve:

No. 10

private estates at Sandringham and Balmoral on a paying fool- ing.

He was not above calling in an hotel expert to cut Palace

LOCUST PLAGUE IN IRAQ

By Jack Saul.

Baghdad, Iraq. expenses. The cost of feeding THE government has step- officials.

ped up its war clerks, and servants Wid worked out to a decimal locusts, a scourge since the of a penny,

times of Nebuchadnezzar in this ancient land of shifting sand.

To Sir Ulick, of Eton, Sand- hurst, the Coldstreamers, and the Marlborough Club, the Queen may present her personal expense account. Ant as it to set the tone in economy he is one of the fuw Palace officials to drive himself around in a Sunbeam Talbot,

Major domo

Was

Piers

Master

of

100.

is,

On

Wave after wave, they In from oil-rich sweep Kuwait and the vast ex- panses to the southwest.

They come to lay their eggs and ent into the heart of Iraq. They are met by science-20th century pol-| ND then Lieut-Colonel Sir Hona and spotters in Jeeps,

eddying "Joey" Legh, who Their

flight s the Travéliers, in Pall Mall,. The material rewards for

tho King's charted by watchful experts Alan there to eat and to meet politi- Sir

Lascelles' unique Household,

and who,

using walkie-talkies. the pleasure of the cians, Civil Service heads, and responsibilities are not

neg!- awaits

Queen's appointment. He dis- gible. His salary, Armed Services chiefs.

at 61, the youngest of the Old For away-from-it-all rezres clores, is reputedly £3,000

lim. and Besides his grace-and- Guald triumvirate, to the year. tion

venture on he will members*

at pavilion

Lord's favour home at St. James's, he slight, a wit and a golfer. strolling has others-Winchester Tower, him You

CHRY

at Windsor Castle, and Auchna through the Landon Zoo Sunday morning-if you are a gussieh, near Balmoral. member too. When the Court is at Balmoral; then it is Lascelles vo:sus the Dee for trout.

And Lascelles, no slouch with a rou, usually wins.

こ

Neighbours

on a

If precedent is followed he will become a pec:; he will write bli memoirs at a later date; he will slide smoothly into the history

books.

The deadly locusts began appearing in south Iraq to- wards the end of February, have been and they since

who submits the menus, drafts clouds.

He is the Poluce májor dome ( coming in ever-increasing

the Court Circular, makes and breaks domestic appointments down to the cleaners, and ar- ranges the dinner parties, balls, and entertainments.

All Big Three of the Old Guard were born into Debrett's all served. at one

time, the Duke of Windsor, and Lascelles wrote his best served King George VI.

speeches. All

of

VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN Now, a vigorous campaign against the scavengers crops and fertile lands is under way in the remote provinces of Basrah Arui Muntafi. Crows have been alerted-alsewhere for the

beekground; but seeret despatches to the Quee standards, - he moves-This 18-53-year-old They have grown elderly to plague is expected to spread | 2

Whatever the answer-and it

The

1

He has a grace-and-favour

! St. Janics's, neighbour fellow dyspepti: who was Keiper of the Privy Purce and Treasurer to the King in the late relin.

Alexander, tali and fragile and wise in the ways of the City.

Sir Ullck, who has spent hulf his life in royal employ and who man

the Lady Bedchamber, is

expected to as Treasurer stay on Queen until he thinks it timely to hand over to Brigadier Loxi Tryon, his 45-year-old assistant.

can be helt, then, on current a question has altered through Trom

restricted world. And recent royal events: Is it the and Prime Ministers of the in

Oh, yes, Lascelles when King George VI used to Dominions only kind of background for a

say, "Nobody ever tells me uny- Palace counsellor!

knows all.

Too many secrets, however, thing," he was regretting, per

contacts did haps, that Palace is in the making, as we shall may be bad for the stomach, for

not extend to a wider crois Is he has not rid himself of the section of his people. Clarence House-it see, at certain that a man who is to dyspepsia he contracted in the

A: Clarence Houre now the advise the Queen in any kind of first world war. But, like any

royal must have emergency

Englishman, he knows how to former :elinuz

couple, as they wait for in- accumulation of experience.

House- corporation in the new Sir Alan Lascelles can straw Though

food in the hold, may be broadening for richly

is. He is familiar Household dining-room is both ever um bis.

the scope of those con- with the Empire outlook, for he free

and good, he wilt walk tacts. It 13

development the D was A.D.C. when Lord Lloyd 'ocessionally to his only gluh, devoutly to be wished. was Governor

when

of

Bombay, und was right-hand man

Lord Bessborough Was Governor-General of Canada. And he has been in royal service, since he became on and cit,

assistant private secretary la

the Prince of Wales, now Duke

elux.

the

of

the

married

*

ol

to the

01

und.

Sir Ulick has held City direc torships. Jie has friends the boards of the banks

biggest tompanies. No surprise, then, that he put i

BRITONS PREFER TO

New York.

WEEKLY meat ration

of Windsur. He was 33 then. A the sins of a packet ar

Lascelles, obviously, musl

gether in a polished tradition.

London Express Service)

AND NOW a new and vigorous reign is under way in a more rugged and plain- spoken age. At Clarence House, round the Queen and her lively Consort, a new type of courtier is in evidence.

young

Next Saturday THE NEW GUAÚN AT CLARENCE HOUSE

STAY HOME

From Frederick Cook

The rest are largely also-

was 3,036

even

tudy the political and inter-cigarettes. Not much chance level): Most favoured nation, the French quota nutional climate of

before 1960. Greal Britain, with 05,721 and 2,000 came in almost as day. But he must do more. For of a new car

allowed in every year. Next on he is the liaison

many Germans, with their 235,- between the Shortages of fuel. Cold

the list. Germany, with 25,867. 957 queta, arrived in America Queen and No.

10. Downing houses and chilblains. These Third, Eire, with 17,853.

as Britons did with 65,721; from Street.

Holland, with Though he complains that are the reports Americans

a quota of 3.135,, 3.102 emigrated;

Bittle paper work at the Palace keeps are always reading from rats. Poland's yearly quota is a Portugal sent 384 or her per him from the wund of dinners England in their daily news- more 6.524: Italy's 5,077; France's mitted total of 440. which MPs attend, he on papers. What they do not no more than 3,080. Russia's first-name terms with every

understand is why so many 2,798. member of the Cabinet-and every member of the Opposition put up with it when the

dour Front Beach.

open.

Influence

THIS potential political influence H'S 1 is considerabls. What, then, are his own pelilies? As a royal nide he is Boze. But royal siden ле el burn in a vazuuri. And belcre he lastame a Palace aillefet 32 years am, he was to

the Lett rather than to the Right of Centre.

.

Lascelles wurks a nine-to-ten hour day in a lalty room on the Creand lor of Buckingham Palace. And then he will often lake work; to his grace-and- favour trent and rates free apartments 12 St.. James's Palace. Stele papers may keep Isim

busy until I p.m. It is a full-time job.

Now, while the Queen by still at Clarence House and she will be for months yet Lascelles leaves his home at 9 am, to call

on her. A car from the royal

news takes him on to the Paluce.

There, most mornings, he will recelve 1he diplomats. the envoys, the plenipotentiarios, before they go upstairs" for

Give

to America stands..

through Amarah, Kut, Ker. bala and Hillah.

"Daytime operations tre 10 endless chase" an expert sald. "A swarm is located, its position kiven to us and we proceed in mediately to deal with it, but when we get to the site we (nd-

It has already moved off."

So far, 28 killer-units have been sent to southern Iraq, and the agriculture director-general, Sayld Darwish al-Haidari, has ordered another-20- units to be held in reserve.

.

In each unit are 18 men and

Jeep, accompanied by trucks faden with potent insecticide.

The government has enlisted

the aid of desert-wise tribesmen War

them just as keenly as ever we to aid in correlating the did-may be the difficulty of being waged by police, as intent bringing money with them. A ant dedicated as if they were man with business

the home

swarms.

very well move uns cannot fighting a human enemy. government won't let him have

PIN-POINTED his capital, whatever it may be.

Haldarl, proudly indicates a "Another factor we have al-gigantic map on hls office wall ways noted is full employment, and says. "These are the daily When à country has that, few results." On the map are count- teave, however poor their living less pins-cach showing the last standards may be compared known location of the locust with what they could get here. Said the State Department in And in Britain you have the The present invasion consists Washington: "It is of interest cradle to the-grave Docial mainly of locusts in the yellow, that although the British quota - security system that

make egg-laying stage, he said. "The was raised to 65,721 under the people feel they don't have to department's units are dealing "national origins plan, at no worry,

with them when they settle on time with the exception of 1930

the ground for the night. and 1931 did the number ad- "And, of course, there'r an-

The infested areas now are might have come to the U.S.A.. mitted exceed 7 percent of the other factor, maybe after all mostly desert territory.

ull the last year-ow

lond of opportunity, admissible. The Irish Free they prefer the British Empire, Heidari said he has enough

many did? total of 16,300, Gone to waste of 17,853 in 1930 and 38

A State exhausted all of its quota But they don't seem to be mov- insecticide to wipe out the per- ing cut to your own wide open present invasion. If he runs were 19,421 hard-to-get quota cent of it in 1931."

spaces as fast as one would sup-short, there is money to buy numbers which thousands in

pose, if life in Britain is so grim. more, because in this land no Do you suppose they've just last one takes the locust lightly.- the pioneering lastinct?"

Que 05,721 Britons who

Only a tiny fraction of BN- tons who might ereas the At- lantic and selile here are doing to every year. It is not because Britons are not wanted here, They are many thousands W more than take the chance that other lands would have seram- is waiting for them. "It just doesn't make sense to me," said bled for,

Washington ofcal,

In 1950, when, the permissible quota was the 'same (and no In the two years just before unused numbers may be carried the war, there was a terrifle de- forward from one year to the mand for German quota num- next). 17,155 took the oppor bers, but the British did not

48,500 numbers move above normal. any affered.

This leads were not taken up. It has run American population experts to for years now at about the game believe that immigration into

the U.S.A. is intimately tied up more with political oppression and racial persecution overseas theri with hard times, which aro something that will pass,

Since 1924, the United States have been letting foreigners in for permanent settlement on a level, quota basis, Foundations of no scheme are complicated. But its purpose is plain: to let ende wys in in grants on the basis of national origin to ensure that the largest flow comes from Northen Europe, thus support ing "the preponderance of that strain in American life,"

Highest year in the past de- 1946, when 27,774 came in. A year later the de- eline set in again, with a total of 23,774, All-time low muck was in 1933, when only 1,274 of the permitted 66,721 thought it worth while to cross over wid try the new life in America,

And let those who think Bri- tons unpopular here consider By contrast, 5.207 Itallana

"Just the sume," rnid An American spokesman, “we wón- der sometimes if things can be as tough in England as we are led to belleve. People certainly en nat seem to be in much of a hurry to leave. One of the

Britain--oh, sure,

the current quots (which has came over in 1940, out cr a things holding back people from run for yours now at about this total quota of 5,799. In

me

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