1961-02-11 — Page 5

THE DEMANDS UPON THEM ARE HEAVY...YET THEY NEVER COMPLAIN

Are we being fair

THERE is no family

in Britain

widely loved

moro

than

the Kants. But is the affection which is

on

tho

showered Duchess and her children enough?

Are we as a nation being fair to them? that word And I use "fair" in a strictly fin- ancial sense.

For has it occurred to you that though we require the Kents to sacrifice their time and leisure in helping

**Lol of rublish on

It 10-night,

Grenze."

to the

Kents?

by Bernard Harris

to bear the burdens of the

chlidren at once

became the

pour relations of the Royal Family.

were

merely caked the financial struggle, They did not eliminate jt.

She has travelled throughout

It is true that grants greeting local made to her by the King and рег- Monarchy we do not give the Far East, them a pince on its payroll, notabilities, laying foundation Queen Mary out of their

sonal funds. But these payments stones, visiting schools, orphan Think for ♫ moment ages, and factories, how assiduous the

She has been in Ghana as the Duchess of Kent has Queen's special representative. With Princess Alexandra she been, year after year, in carrying ont public has toured Mexico and South

America, leaving behind her engagements for the

trail of good will for Queen.

wherever she went,

Ker

Britain the

daughter has been triumphant access as a stand in for the Queen on her visita 10 Australia und Nigeria.

Astonishing

A

Indeed few would dispute that with the Princess and the Duke moving into the top rank of royal personages the Kents are now shouldering a share then the Gloucesters of

Painful

To ralo

Rome ready money Duchess was compelled to sell her home in Belgrave-square. Even more painful for her was the necessity to send many of her husband's prized possessions and works of art to the auction rooms. But the need for cash was compelling.

a new

every

No less than £70,000 was net aside for this purpose of zate. guarding the Palace against the

risks of inflation.

The Duchess has again had to when' in London, to live on cold avall herself of the push-raising meats for a week at a time,

the auction opportunities of

rooms.

possessions to

And what about the spending hablis, of her children?

It is not for nothing that the gay and charming Alexandra has come to be known as "the pin-money Princess."

But

nt

the

a winter sports holiday. But it is rare to And him in a luxury bolel. Its inclination is for a modest pensieri, and on his journeys to Austria and Switzer- jand he has often shown himself content to travel second class.

Even without a town house to keep up she had difficulty in maintaining her unpreten- Thus only £25,000 was left, As recently as last summer she tious country home. Copplas And this, the conmultice said, sent a collection of works of art near Iver, Bilckinghamshire, on should be Available towards and other the fringe of Industrial suburbia. meeting

When on leave from his "the unavoidable Sotheby's

military duties he sometimes expenses of At the beginning of

those members of bigger reign

Among the things she has sold Civil List to the Royal Family for whom no

On glittering state occasions, oes night-clubbing in London. But here again his preference is boxes, clocks, photograph as when she represented

for the lesser-known spola. the burden falling on the Queen, provide for the Royal Family #nancial provision is otherwise are silver and gold cigarette

has to be prepared by a select made."

frames, bell purhes, menu hold- Queen in Australia and Nigeria, committee.

In the Army he has acquired The Duchess of Kent shares, buttons, buckles, parasol she wears dresses made for her

and cane handles. Even a can- by top-line couturiers.

a reputation as a sound, hard- So the accession of Queen in that £25,000.

Iren of silver, with 222 pieces

efficient offeer --- Is working, other times she Elizabeth, опр might have

How much of It does she bearing the royal cypher, was forced for reasons of economy qualities which he has displayed thought, WAS D splendid opportunity to make proper

cet? Ker share is kept secret, put up for sale.

to wear "off the peg" clothes. also in carrying out his public

duties. There is no clue to it in provision for the Duchess and

Would she have sold all these Her shoes, 100, she buys ready her

official documents family. But the

made. chance

the articles

if she had been free

One reason why the Kents was not taken.

nailonal accounta,

from Barelal cares?

And when she goes out with sland so high in the affections young people of her own age of the British people may, of she is often the least well-off course, be the cheerful, uncon- member of the party. Her cerned altitude they show to companions enjoy the solid the cach shortage which

of inherited family dogged them for nearly 20 years. problem backing

wealth. But Alexandra? She

But can WO AS A nailon the 1955, she was granted 8 grzec

Allow this to go on? Should full and favour apartment in Ken- dest monthly allowance

her mother. sington Palace.

And yet there is this cston- Ishing difference, AR темулги for the part they play in public life the Gloucesters draw £35,000 a year from the mungy which the nation provides for the upkeep of the Royal Family In the Civil LII,

But the Kents? They do not future in the Civil List at all.

Or ccurse the select com-

lileo was well enough aware

or

In theory, payments from this 225,000 are at the discretion of

that there were several inembers the Queen. In practice they are

in to devote their lives to

public

left to the Royal Trustees-the Prime Minister and the Chan-

The problem

Consider alt

the

It has been that way ever of the Royal Family who had

late duties and yet received no pay- cellor of the Exchequer. And which confronted her when, in has to depend wholly on a me-

day since that disastrous August 1942 when the Duke

of Kent's Sunderland flying boat crashed on a Scottish Hillside in the mist.

on

With h death the Kents' income from the State ceased completely, except for

£8-week pension fur the Duchess as the widow of an air commodore.

She had inherited barely any- thing from her parents. So, with the sudden and brutal ending of | the payment from the Civil List, she and her three young

ment from the nation,

I decided, however, against providing each of them with a fixed ruin each year.

Instead, it recommended that a lump sum of £95,000 a year should be made available to the Queen for "contingencies."

on

there is no obligation Trustees to pay out the amount in any year

from

we

has

not take real pride in making the same sort of pro- vision for them that we make for other members of the Royal Family?

This, then, 13 the crucial No staff was provided to go His choice question: Has this indirect and with that small and unelaborate unspecified payment from the home, and the Duchess round Ciull List solved the money it diffleult to keep servants both' The careful budgeting which

The splendld work they do for problems of the Kents?

at Coppins and the Palace. is forced on her is matched by us surely demands that they, that of her elder brother, Ike the others close to the With no cook to prepare hot although it is probable that he Throne, should get the rate for The most important of these

meals, it often happens that has now begun to draw on conte, the job and not be dependent contingencies was the risk that

the Duchess brings up to town of the money left him in trust on unspecified and concealed rising price might but the For look at what has hap- food which has been cooked in by his father,

payments whlett may be totally Quéên's Budget and make the pened since that curious reśl- her country home. And it has This happy. healthy young inadequate. original grant inadequate.

been known for the family, man has often been pletured on

The available evidence sug- gests it has not.

sion of the Civil List.

-{London Express Service.)

B

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