Queen on Eggs

While the King-Emperor lay battling for life in Buckingham Palace (TIME, Dec. 3, et seq.), the royal and imperial authority was exercised in an adjoining room by the Regency Council, presided over by Queen Mary. Last week the U. S. Department of Agriculture rushed to news-publications "for immediate release" the text of "An Order in Council issued at Buckingham Palace on Dec. 21, 1928," and apparently just discovered by the Department.

Exemplifying the very essence of august Sovereignty, this Order in Council, duly signed by Her Majesty the Queen-Empress, reads:

"It shall not be lawful to import any hen or duck eggs in shell into the United Kingdom, nor to sell or expose for sale in the United Kingdom any imported hen or duck eggs in shell, unless they bear an indication of origin.

"The indication of origin shall be conspicuously and durably marked in ink on the shell of each imported egg in letters not less than two millimetres in height."