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estate had no job. 'You may be sure that I will do all I can. We certainly want better times brought to these Valleys.' 57 The King was taken to houses that had been carefully chosen by the organizers of the tour: it had been decided in London that the party would 'drive slowly round the Estate stopping perhaps at one or two selected houses which The King might enter. These would of course need to be chosen with some discretion ,' 58 This conflicted with the King's own and clearly expressed wish - that he wanted to see some working-class houses, but 'not only the good ones!', as Hardinge had explained to the civil servant who was drawing up the King's itinerary at the Ministry of Labour. 59 But Edward was not to be fobbed off. He duly visited the selected houses, asking with interest whether there was electricity in the district and if it was going to be installed on this estate. And he then went to a house that had not been specially chosen. According to the local press, it was occupied by a family who had lived there for nine years, for seven of which the man of the house had been unemployed. The King knocked at the door and, when it was opened, asked if it might be possible for him to come in. He was welcomed and ushered in, where he shook hands warmly with the family and chatted with them about their daily lives. 60
    Edward had been visiting the industrial areas of Britain ever since the start of the economic depression in 1929. On all these visits, commented the New Statesman , he had 'always shown a welcome desire to look beneath the surface.' 61 In the spring of 1936 he had visited the slums of Glasgow, after a ceremony to launch the new ship, the Queen Mary. 'Visiting the slums, HM was really at his best', wrote Hilda Runciman, the wife of Walter Runciman, the President of the Board of Trade, in her diary. She added,
    He understands how to do that perfectly. Eg. He knocked at a door and when the woman opened it he said 'I'm the King, may I come in'? And then he asked all the right questions about washing cooking etc. He had told W[alter] that he had seen worse slums in Durham and also that he and his brothers had picked up vermin when doing their slum visiting. 62
    From Pontypool, Edward went to the Snatchwood Junior Instruc­tion Centre, where girls and boys were being given 'useful occupation and instruction during the enforced leisure produced by unemploy­ment' - woodwork for boys, and basketwork and weaving for girls. For several minutes he watched the daughter of an unemployed collier making a brooch in 'petal' work, and was then delighted to be given it as a gift. Noticing that the glass between the girls' workroom and that of the boys was frosted, he asked for the reason - and was told that it was to stop the boys looking through at the girls. 'I see. You want to keep their minds on their work', laughed the King. 63
    Ernest Brown, the Minister of Labour, kept close beside the King throughout the tour. 64 His presence on the royal visit had been objected to by Aneurin Bevan, and he was 'inclined to arouse boos', noted Lambe, the royal equerry. 65 This was because Brown represented the labour policies of the National Government, which was widely criticized for doing little to address the problem of long-term un­employment. The Government was called 'National' because it was a coalition and its cabinet was made up of ministers from all three major parties. But most of these ministers were Conservatives, and by 1936 the policies of the National Government were dominated by the influence of the Conservative Party.
    At one unemployment centre, recorded Lambe,
    the King, E. Brown and I went into the cellar where men were repairing boots. The King left E. Brown talking and, no sooner had he gone, than the whole party crowded round Mr B, talking rather threateningly.
    'I've a wife & 5 kiddies and all I gets is so and so - 'ow d'you expect me to live?'
    He let them have their say & then said 'Now look here you fellows -