Edward VIII's huge properties as Britain's King were last week pouring income into the British Treasury at the rate of some $6,500,000 a year. Out of this fund the British Government annually pays its King and his family a set sum, under a contract first made by insane George III and regularly renewed by Act of Parliament. Last week the new Civil List for King Edward was submitted to the House of Commons. Smaller than that of his father by $300,000, it totaled only $2,050,000, leaving the Government $4,000,000 for profit.
To support the King the Select Committee of the Commons allotted $550,000 for the Privy Purse. Two months ago His Majesty asked Parliament to make provision for two hypothetical relatives. One was the bachelor King's future wife, to whom the Commons was last week asked to allot $200,000 a year out of the Privy Purse.* This will be kept by the Keeper of the Privy Purse until King Edward marries. The other was the hypothetical Queen's first-born son. Last week the Select Committee allotted the non-existent Prince of Wales an annual $125,000, to start accumulating at once. Thus, even if Edward VIII marries within the year, the next Prince of Wales on his 21st birthday would step into a fortune of at least $3,000,000, in addition to his income from the Duchy of Cornwall.
The new Civil List raised the King's household salaries and pensions $115,000 to $670,000; cut his household expenses $94,000 to $764,000; allowed $66,000 for charity. The usual $100,000 for repairs and $35,500 for "leeway" were abolished.
Contrary to general belief, the royal properties on which the Civil List is virtually a token payment of income belong not to the British Government but solely and legally to the head of the Royal House of England. They include mines, forests, farmlands, beaches and rivers the length & breadth of Britain as well as the King's "rights" on fish taken from his rivers, coal from his Welsh mines. To him belong London's New Gallery and His Majesty's Theatres, Holborn and Criterion restaurants, Carlton Hotel, the southern side of Piccadilly Circus and both sides of Regent Street, pieces of Kennington slums, Finchley, Hampstead, Dalston and swank Carlton House Terrace.
To the King also belong the draughty palaces of Buckingham, Windsor, Sandringham, Balmoral, St. James's and livable little Fort Belvedere, all valued at about $25,000,000; their collections of old paintings valued at $5,000,000; books and documents worth $2,000,000; George V's stamp collection appraised at $2,000,000; the late Queen Alexandra's $3,000,000 jewelry collection; and the 1,000-piece gold dinner set in the vaults of Buckingham Palace ($10,000,000). Total: $47,000,000.
The King's income-producing properties are managed by what is in effect a holding company, the Crown Lands Office. Its unsalaried front man is the Minister for Agriculture, now 36-year-old Herbrand Edward Dundonald Brassey Sackville, Earl De La Warr and Viscount Cantelupe. The Commission's two potent drudges are Permanent Commissioner Charles Lancelot Stocks and Assistant Commissioner G. P. Best. They pay the Crown Lands monies to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who pays out the Civil List in turn to His Majesty's Keeper of the Privy Purse.