THE PRESIDENCY: Here Come the British

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Incalculable tons of water had cascaded over Niagara Falls between 1776 and a summery night last week when the great-great-great-grandson of England's George III was trundled across Niagara River to set foot in the U. S. A.—first British sovereign ever to do so. A royal red carpet was spread on the station platform at Niagara Falls, N. Y. and when the blue & silver royal train slid in, Secretary of State Cordell Hull & wife stepped up to welcome the visitors. Mr. Hull said: "Your Majesties, on behalf of the Government and the people of the United States, I have the honor and pleasure of extending to you our warmest welcome. All are delighted with your visit. ..."

Mrs. Hull bowed (no curtsy) to the visitors. Animated talk began. They all boarded the train, rumbled through the night toward Washington. In Pennsylvania, the pilot train was halted with a hotbox, streaked at 85 m.p.h. to try to catch the royal train at Washington. It was eight minutes late and all the ace correspondents who had trailed Their Majesties across Canada missed their first meeting with the Roosevelts.

A Wellsian telescope on Mars might have detected human congestion in the U. S. Capital that morning. Some 600,000 people, many of them standing on peach baskets, walled the royal route from Union Station, past the Capitol, down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. The 32nd President of the United States was at the station. Mr. Roosevelt said: "At last I greet you." King George VI said: "Mr. President, it is indeed a pleasure for Her Majesty and myself to be here."

Visiting Year. Historically, this visit climaxed an unparalleled era of international visiting and friend-making. With the war clouds hanging over Europe, there was no telling when friendly neighbors' roofs would be needed. Within two years, four out of six Balkan rulers had visited London or Berlin. Mussolini had visited Berlin, and Hitler repaid the compliment. King George & Queen Elizabeth had been to Paris, and in turn had received President Lebrun in London. To make the utmost of their trip to the U. S.,* the King had at his elbow Secretary Alan Frederick Lascelles, who wrote his speeches, and Canada's Prime Minister Mackenzie King (the Queen's kinsman), who edited them.

Crisp and bonny, Her Majesty at once became the heroine of the occasion. People noticed that King George was less tall than they expected (towering Sir Ronald Lindsay dwarfed him), that his smiling muscles stood out rigidly, that he looked young, fit and earnest. Elizabeth was the perfect Queen: eyes a snapping blue, chin tilted confidently, two fingers raised in a greeting as girlish as it was regal. Her long-handled parasol seemed out of a story book. She wore an "unselfish" off-the-face hat and the parasol failed to save her Scottish skin from Southern sunburn. Washington was 94° that day. Along the processional route, 500 people collapsed. So did 60 Girl Scouts, waiting at the White House to be reviewed. From the Boy Scouts (he was one) the King received a neckerchief ring made of a fossilized shark's tooth.