It is all to the good that the historic buildings
in and around London (or indeed elsewhere) should be called into service for ceremonial purposes, and it was no doubt no more than an undesigned, and probably unnoticed, coincidence that on Tuesday evening, while the body of Field Marshal Birdwood was lying' in state in the Royal Chapel at Hampton Court Palace, the Government should in another part of the palace be giving a reception and supper to members of the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers and other invited guests. Nothing could have been more attractive. The supper was served in the Orangery, the State Apartments, with their splendid collection of pictures, were open for inspection, as well as the Great Hall, and an English summer so far forgot itself as to permit the sun to shine intermittently for more than an hour (the wind mean- while attaining gale force). This should be repeated. It is easy to take conference guests to Hampton Court by coach, and most non-conference guests have their own cars ; if not, there are public means of locomotion. The Minister of Works in the last Government, with most questionable wisdom, banished most of the London Museum to the relatively remote Kensington Palace in order that Lancaster House might be used for various Govern- ment functions. There are no doubt some conveniences in that, but the superiority of Hampton Court for such purposes is overwhelming.
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