MAJOR’S QUEER JOB

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20733, 17 February 1939, Page 2

MAJOR’S QUEER JOB

ENTERTAINS ROYAL GUESTS PECULIAR EXPERIENCES (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, Jan. 4 When King Carol sat down to the State banquet in Buckingham Palace I last week he found caviare on his gold I plate that had been flown 2000 miles from his native Rumania, writes Donald Stokes in the Sunday Chronicle. I That was just an everyday task in the life of one-armed, bowler-hatted Major E. N. S. Crankshaw, Britain's offkiial host, who is allotted £45,000 a year with which to entertain important foreign guests in Britain. With his Jack Hulbert jaw, he is always in the background when kings and great statesmen come here. Major Crankshaw, old Etonian, is the only man in the country to have no private life. For weeks at a time he escorts guests of the Government on sightseeing tours.

Directly he has said “Goodbye” to one guest, there is invariably another to welcome. The man with no private life has no wife. He is a widower. He has a house in Chelsea, but very rarely sees it. His one great passion in life is hunting, and in spite of having only one arm—he lost the other fighting with the Royal Fusiliers in Flanders—he is one of the best horsemen in the country. Cured the Sheik He has to be resourceful. When an Arabian sheik insisted on going up in a fast bombing plane the guest was sick. The major produced a bottle of medicine that put him right immediately—and raised the prestige of Britain still higher. A black African ruler did not like beds. It was arranged that he should rest every night on rushes, in a room kept at a temperature of 90 degrees. A statesman from the Balkans, tired of uniforms and displays, wanted to see life in the East End. Wearing caps, the statesman and the major’s assistant went to Limehouse, ate fish and chips. Every year Major Crankshaw arranges at least 100 entertainments, besides elaborate reviews and military parades. And never has he slipped up in finding out beforehand the taste in food or pleasure of his guests. To mark its appreciation the Government has made him a G.M.G. When the King of Afghanistan came to Britain some years ago, Major Crankshaw learned in advance that Amanullah was fascinated by motorcars, so he was taken over some of the biggest car factories in Britain. The king was so impressed that he tried to introduce these and other ideas of the West into Afghanistan, but the tribesmen revolted. Amanullah lost his throne. His Biggest Worry A Hindu Prince was the major’s biggest worry. Leather is looked on with horror by Hindus, for they never know whether it is made from cows—sacred animals to them. So the major and his assistants went over the luxury hotel suite they had hired for him with a microscope. They removed every scrap of leather from the chairs and furnishings. Another difficult problem was presented by the then Emperor of Abyssinia when lie visited us. There was apparently no English food that he liked at all. When, as a last resort. Major Crankshaw put kippers on the menu the I Emperor was so pleased that he has j had them for breakfast ever since j Tile major's busiest time was during the Coronation, when he had a I thousand important guests on his hands