A London bartender pondered a picture of his King clad in shorts and soaking up the equatorial sun on the deck of H.M.S. Vanguard. "The papers say he's keeping in close touch with the situation," said he. "Well, 4,000 miles would be close enough for me, too." But many another Briton, shivering in the grip of the coal crisis, took a kinder view as the papers reported, inch by inch, the royal progress to South Africa.
For one thing, fashion reporters were finally permitted to disclose the breathlessly awaited details of the royal trousseaux. Hats were "off the face," for royalty may...