Foreign News: $3.20 Per Mile, Empty

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With 2,000,000 men on the dole, with steel-trap Chancellor Philip Snowden set to catch every extravagance at the exchequer, thoughtful Britons learned last week that it costs $3.20 per mi. to run the Royal Train—empty.

When passengers are carried, royal & imperial or otherwise, a surcharge for each equal to the regular First Class fare for the distance covered is paid.

It is 600 mi. from London to Balmoral, Scotland, whither the Court traveled in the Royal Train last month, whence it will soon return.

Meanwhile London General Omnibus Co. laid off last week 194 busses and 250 busmen, announced that in these hard times unprecedentedly large numbers of the populace have begun to save pennies and ha'pence by walking.

What the Royal Family "costs" no man knows, many question, argue. The annual revenue of the Crown lands (1928-29, £1,210,000 net) no longer goes to His Majesty but (since 1760) to the exchequer. Simultaneously Parliament grants and the exchequer pays to Their Majesties an annual civil list of £470,000, to the rest of the Royal Family £106,000.

Thus, if the revenue of the Crown lands be regarded as "really" the property of the King-Emperor, he and his family cost the Nation nothing, may reiurn a handsome profit of more than 50% per annum. But if the people think that they "really"' own the Crown lands, then British Royalty are a luxury 28 times as costly as the President of the U. S. Distinct from all these calculations are the "private fortunes" and incomes therefrom of President Hoover and George V, both millionaires.