THE King and the Queen were kept busy when they visited Scotland in the March of 1941. in Aberdeen the Queen opened a new bridge across the Dee. In a Dundee shipyard she operated a hydraulic riveter and punched two rivets into the bulkhead plate of a ship under construction. In a jute factory in the same city the royal couple spoke to an employee, one Miss Chalmers, who had worked there for 52 years. In a ‘Scottish town’ - war-time reporting restrictions meant that the Glasgow Herald could go no further than that - they met General Sikorski, the Polish commander-in-chief. In Edinburgh they arrived, to cheers, at Scotland’s first community feeding centre, and also visited a rubber factory and an engineering works. The morale-building royal visit had got underway in Glasgow. At Ibrox stadium they examined numerous examples of what had been achieved in Civil Defence. The King, a practical engineer, looked over a stirrup-pump with interest. Some 1,600 people, in uniforms of khaki, blue and green, and representing the Home Guard, the fire brigade, the Red Cross, the women’s police corps and other organisations were on hand. The Queen met 15 women who staffed centres for people who might be made homeless. She learned that the ‘E.R.O.’ on their armbands stood for Emergency Relief Organisation, and was told about its work. “That,” she said warmly, “is splendid.”