22 FEBRUARY 1952, Page 5

Millions who listened to the funeral service in St. George's

Chapel at Windsor must have marvelled at the smoothness and order with which the whole proceedings went. In fact, I gather there was more than met the eye, or ear. I have received a bitter complaint about the treatment of the Press, who, having stumbled through an ambulatory stacked, so I an assured, with " planks and screens, benches and chairs, pew- cushions and doormats, pots of paint and paste " (this within a few feet of the royal coffin), were so placed that, thanks in part to a row of dignitaries standing in front of them, they could see virtually nothing at all. Yet they „were there to describe the proceedings not merely to this country but to the world. They were compelled in effect to describe what they did not see. This could surely have been ordered better.

* *