A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
I, T is very right that the nation should have been told at once what there was to tell about the King's health. Sinister rumours spread fast, and it is well to hold them up before they start. Admittedly the news in Wednesday's papers—the contents of the bulletin signed by nine doctors, coupled with the Queen's unexpected return to London from Balmoral—was dis- turbing. But there would not seem, at present at any rate, to be cause for serious alarm. The phrase " structural changes in the lung " may mean much, but it may equally mean little. Naturally in such a case every safeguard must be taken, and the tour to Australia may have to be given up after all ; on the other hand, there is clearly much to be said, particularly where lung trouble is concerned, for exchanging the worst part of an English winter for an Australian summer. The King is in no sense an invalid. He was out whole days on the grouse-moors near Balmoral before his return to London last Saturday, and has resumed all his official work since. The Queen's return on Tuesday was not really surprising. Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were flying to London from Aberdeen that day anyhow. What more natural than that the Queen, in the circumstances, should decide to accompany them ? Everyone will be glad to know that she is at the Palace to give (in a phrase more familiar in a quite different context) aid and comfort to the King at a time when, whatever the actual state of his health, the attention centred on it must necessarily be depressing. * * • * *
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