Evening star., 1927-11-16
ROYALTY bAFFLEO
BY QUEENS WILL
Disposition of Treasures
valued at s15,OOO,000 De-
Iayed by Scrubbed Notes.
BY W. r. ROBERTS.
Correspondence OF The star.

Correspondence of The Star
LONDON.-Recently there was
hurried and important gathering of
the royal family at SandrinSham to
discuss Queen Alexandria s Will ana
the disposition of her property.
That there have been difficulties IN
distributing the enormously valuable
collection of gold and silver treasure.
furniture. tapestries and objects OF ART
Is we'll known. This has been talked
about in every club in the West End
for months.
One of the reasons for the delay IN
the Prince OF Wales going into resi-
dence at Marlborough House is the
difficulty over the disposal of the prop
ertv
Ting Edward left Queen Alexandra
eli his personal property at RuckinS-
s,4r Palace and the uSo of all his pos
sessions in the way of furniture. pc
'ares. plate. etc. at Sandrlngham Tor
fsf life. these possessions to revert 10
J.ing George on her death.
Transferred Treasure.
Wheh Queen Alexandra made Mari
borough House her London home she
Lad transferred there all King Ed
wards personal possessions that were
at buckingham Palace. How valuable
these possessions are may he judged
from the fact that the silver and gold
treasure in the way of massive gold
CUPS. tea services. candleStickS. pill
grim bottles tsilver and gold). some 3
feet in height: shields. etc. tha King
Edward left were valued by court gold
and Silycrsmiths at e. 600, 600 sterling.
All the trea sures was placed in the
plate room at Marlborough House. Ut
was apparently Queen Alexandra 8
Intention to leave the bulk of this
treasure to Prince Olaf, heir to the
Crown of Norway, and her favorite
grandson.
But whatever hcr intention was.
what she apparently did was this:
From time to time she scrubbed on
half sheets of notepaper how she
wished her personal possessions dis
posed of after her death.
The last note of this kind was made,
It would seem. two months before she
died. These sheets of notepaper un-
signed constituted her will.
Left Little to Prince
At the time she was making those
notes Queen Alexandra was in failing
health. Many of the notes were con-
fused and contradictory. and from
them il would be impossible to deter
uilHc Nitn any SAdtbiIuhH IIoN ici
majesty wished her property distrihut-
ed. To Prince Olaf she apparently left
only a small portion of the valuable
contents of the plate room.
1t became obvious there must he n
disposal of the contents of Marlbor-
ough House by mutual consent of
those presumably having some claim
to the possessions. The names men.
toned by Queen Alexandra in her
notes were those of Prince Olaf. the
Princess Mary, the Princess Victoria,
King George, Queen Mary and their
sons.
The Prince of Wales declined TO go
into residence at Marlborough House
until some settlement was arrived at.
The prince is ready TO waive his claim
TO any of the possessions, hnt he does
not wish TO go 10 Marlborough House |
In the position of being in charge of
re bulk of the valuable contents |
which remain materially as they were |
when Queen Alexandra died.
AT the family gathering it seems |
no final arrangement was reached to |
make King George custodian of all |
the valuables. furniture. etc. at MARI |
borough House until settlement |
among all interested parties was |
made
Law Suit Unthinkable.
So at present the position would
appear to be this: Property valued
roughly at $500 900 sterling ff2.000,-
600 being the value of the contents Of
the plate room) is to be left at MARI
borough House in charge Of King
George and nothing can be moved
from the house without his consent.
The furniture. pictures. etc. have
been removed from the apartments
the prince desires to occupy and
placed in other rooms. so the work of
getting the suites ready for the prince
may proceed.
The plate room has been sealed and
the KEYS given to the King. But If
the Prince of Wales sticks to his res
olution not to live at Marlborough
House until a settlement of his grand
mothers WIFI has been made. it may
be long time before he goes there.
law suit on the will is unthink-
able. but the disposition OF the proper
tv may drift through years. Royal
ties do not relinquish what they be.
heve to be their just claims to Naiu-
able property any more readily than
other people.
DOWNRIGHT 1927 in all countries nv North
An,lrlean NeM-nane- All-4nce-