The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-31
HOW KING GEORGE HANDLES HIS MAIL Very MethOdical in His Days Employment IS AN EARLY RISER Smokes Little, Confining Himself to Cigarette or to Small Briar
 Pipe-Queen Abhors
 Tobacco
IS AN EARLY RISER
From the Strand.

From the Strand
 lul letters addressed to the King and l Queen of England are sent direct from the general postoffice in London in spe-
 cially sealed bags to whichever of the
 royal residences they are occupying. In
 the case of Buckingham palace this bag
 arrives as a rule just as the King is fin
 sbing dinner
 It is taken charge of by the secretary
 on duty, who opens 1t and proceeds to
 sort out the contents. Such letters as will ultimately demand the personal attention of King George are placed before him 1 the same night but 1t is not often that ] he deals with them. al the moment, save in matters that will not brook delay. l He glances through them, makes few l brief notes upon them, and they are then placed under lock and key until he Is Teady for them on the following morning. He has barely had time to deal with these before the royal breakfast is served, and almost simultaneously an even larger bag of correspondence arrives. The con tents range from private communication from the Kaiser or the Czar to a letter from some amiable lunatic who considers that his claim to the British throne is su- perior to that of King George.
 This heavy correspondence is dealt with in remarkably quick time. Lord Stam- fordham, should he be on duty, opens very communication, and glancing at 1t places it in one of the large crimson leather baskets labelled with the tenor of the epistle
 Thus invitations to undertake public functions of one description or another go into one basket, charitable appeals into i another, the official report of the pro- | tI into smaller basket, letters of a per sonal or semi-personal character into Q fourth, and so on.
 At the finish there is a small but highly important little pile left. This is com posed of letters from the rulers of other states, personal reports from ambassadors abroad or communications from minis ters at home. These never for one instant leave the custody of whoever is entrusted with the task of opening them.
 There is a special box standing on the table with a slit in the top of it wide enough to take any paper. It is fastened with a patent lock, of which only the King, Lord Knolys and Lord Stanford ham have the keys that anything dropped in, even by accident, can only be taken out by one of these three.
 These are the first letters that are pre- sented to the King every morning, to- gether with memorandum reminding him of the duties he has to perform that day. In many cases he elects to write letters in reply with his own hand, but should this not be convenient he sends for one of l his secretaries and dictates his reply. King | George Is by no means a quick thinker
 and likes to ponder over every word that l he proposes to place paper. l In this respect he presents a curious
 contrast to his late father, who would
 reply to the most important letter in few
 seconds, and who rarely or never revised
 anything when once it was written Very
 careful record Is kept of every letter writ
 ten by the King in person and in due
 course these are sent down to Windsor to l be added to the private archives there l The room in which King George trans acts his business is conveniently placed l for his private suite and he makes it a rule only to receive official visitors in his | office" inviting such personal friends
 as call upon him to join him in his private
 smoking room. This is spne of the most
 handsomely fitted up of fhe whole of the private suites of the palace and was car
 ried out by the direction and under the
 personal supervision of the late King 1 Edward.
 It is not very large and Is a thorough l "mans room in every sense of the
 word. containing among other things ] shooting trophies, mostly testimonies to
 his skill with rifle, gun and rod. Oc- 1 casionally the King will suggest during
 the course of a busy morning that Lord 1 Stamfordham, Col. Sir F. Ponsonby or
 others of his secretarial staff should 1 suspend their duties for a short time 1 and accompany him to the smoking l room, there to have chat over a brief
 smoke.
 The King does not smoke to anything
 like the same extent as the late King l Edward, of whom it is on record that he never was seen on his way to his bath l room of morning without a cigar in | his mouth. It is very rarely that the
 King smokes anything stronger than a 1 cigarette, though when he is travelling on | the sea- as in the case of the Medina | voyage, he will light a briar pipe with obvious enjoyment. He could never, l however. be called a heavy smoker, and l this may be accounted for in some re-
 spect by the fact that the Queen does not like the smell of tobacco in any | room she enters.
 l The King IS an extremely early riser
 and likes to get his state affairs of the 1 day completed 90 far as possible before noon. About this hour he gives audi
 ences 10 such of his ministers repre-
 sentatives of foreign powers and others
 as desire to see him, and he then takes
 a brief rest before lunch Part of this
 time he devotes to a visit to the Queen
 and such of the royal children as are in
 residence This latter is a duty that he 1 never neglectS and he always contrives
 to give the young princes half an hour
 or so of his time either in the open air
 or should the weather be unfavorable. , In the royal nurseries.