THE DOMESTIC SIDE OF No. 10 DOWNING STREET

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 2, 25 September 1937, Page 16

THE DOMESTIC SIDE OF No. 10 DOWNING STREET

Two women were intimately concerned with the recent change of Prime ' Ministers in Britain — Lady Baldwin and Mrs. Chamberlain. The house ' and its furnishings — many of them priceless— are a great trust; and it Is the duty of the Prime Minister's wife to make and keep a metieulous invehtory of every stick of furniture and every article, including the pots and pans, and to render them up i/itact on the day she leaves. « From the housewife's point of view, No. 10' has its drawbacks. Uncertainty as to length of tenancy is the greatest. Then, too, the average woman likes to work her own will with her own house, but this is not possible in an official dwelling supposed to be "furnished." Moreover, No. 10 Downing Street is not only a private house, but a warren of offices intermixed ih a way to harass any housewife's' heart. • lt requires thought and skill to combiue the graee of a home with the bleak gravity of a public office. That so_ many hostesses have achieved this is but another proof of women 's talent for home-making. With the exception of the Cabinet Room and the kitchen, it may be saidthat every room in No. 10 has been apporlioned differently from time to time by its occupants, but .those two remain untouchable. The basement kitchen is large, and has a vaulted roof, and a wonderful kitchen table, almost as long as the room, cut from a single plank five inches thick. One of the greatest difficultios is the domestic staff question,. for ever-yone engaged at No. 10 mnst bear the most searching scrutiny and investigation into charaeter and antecedents. No casually-engaged stop-gap can help this' busiest of hostesses out of a difficulty. The chatelaine of No. 10 has to^ entertain perpetually, and to entertain perhaps the most varied company in the world. For Eings • and Queens and foreigners of every country, the* Prime" Minister's wife has, to provide not merely the regulation fare on' such occasions, but agreeable and tactful conversation.