The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-14
KING'S PRIVATE POSTOFFICE

the court postoffice is very heavy; all telegrams for the King are wired as they come in from the central postoffice to Buckingham palace, and are delivered to the Kings private secretary.
 There are three first-class operators at Buckingham palace, who are able 10 take down dispatches in French and Ger man as well as in English.
 The bulk of the telegraphic messages for the King are, as a matter of fact, sent in code, and have to be transcribed by the operators with the greatest care, for the least mistake in the wording of the transcription might alter the wnore meaning of the message.
 l When the King travels anywhere the sovereign's suite always includes the court postmaster and two assistants, who make arrangements for dealing with the Kings S mail matter wherever his majesty may stay. All the royal residences are fitted with private postoffice and served with telegraphic and telephone wires, but when the sovereign becomes a guest at a priv ate house the Kings postmaster has to | arrange to have it connected by tenn porary wire with the nearest telegraph Of flee. The temporary wire is removed at the end of the Kings visit.
 | The telephone department at Buckmg- ham palace Is also under the control of the court postmaster. There are three operators on duty when the King is m London, all of whom can take messages in French and German as we'll as in Eng fish. His majesty has certain telephone ! privileges, by the way, which are not granted to any other person In the king doin-not even to the Queen or members of the royal family.
 | When call is made by the King, or on behalf of the King, the required line is at once cleared of all other traffic and the royal call is put through at once. | If the royal call is for a number on some London exchange this privilege is of no special service to the sovereign, TOT the line on the London exchanges are cleared very quickly in the ordinary way; but if the King requires to speak to some, enc in the provinces or on the continent the privilege is of immense advantage. For example, say the King called for 100 Paris central" Now. there are only 1 TOUT lines between 1OHuOH anu fdIlS, ana they are usually reduisitioned early in the day by number of different persons, chiefly business people in the city, All the calls are put through in the order in which they come in to the trunk ex- change. Thus, supposing at Il o'clock there were 50 callers waiting their turn, it would be at least two hours before an- other caller could be put through. Tor fle would have to wait until the 50 caris that | came before his had been cleared But directly call from the King comes m | his majesty is put through as soon as the call in progress is finished. As the time | limit for call on the Paris line is three minutes, the King is never kept waiting g for a line at the outside for more tnar| l three minutes. z
 There is no time limit to a royai cas but the King is aware of the inconvess- fences it causes to business persons to hold up an important line for any length | of time, and a royal call therefore rarel y or never exceeds the normal limit.
 The organization of the postoffice, teie1 graph and telephone service at Buoking- ham palace has always been regarded as more perfect than that existing at any other court in Europe and the Kaiser has lately adopted the methods existing at the Kings postoffice in London at the German court postoffice at Potsdam.