NOVANEWS
The private film – apparently shot more than 80 years ago at Balmoral – has been “exploited”, says a Palace statement.
Buckingham Palace has said it is “disappointing” that a private film which seems to show the Queen doing a Nazi salute as a young child has been “exploited”.
Apparently shot in 1933 and obtained by the Sun, it shows the monarch aged six or seven with the Queen Mother, her uncle Prince Edward, and sister Princess Margaret.
The 17-second clip was shot in the garden at Balmoral six years before the start of World War Two, according to the paper.
The Queen Mother is first to make the salute and the young Queen copies her.
A Palace spokesman said: “It is disappointing that film, shot eight decades ago and apparently from Her Majesty’s personal family archive, has been obtained and exploited in this manner.”
Prince Edward – who faced accusations of being a Nazi sympathiser – also performs the gesture in the film.
The two children then carry on playing in the garden.
“Most people will see these pictures in their proper context and time,” said a Palace source.
“This is a family playing and momentarily referencing a gesture many would have seen from contemporary news reels.
“No one at that time had any sense how it would evolve. To imply anything else is misleading and dishonest.
“The Queen is around six years of age at the time and entirely innocent of attaching any meaning to these gestures.
“The Queen and her family’s service and dedication to the welfare of this nation during the war, and the 63 years the Queen has spent building relations between nations and peoples speaks for itself.”
The Sun’s – which ran the story under the headline “Their Royal Heilnesses” – acknowledged in its editorial column that the images “do not reflect badly on our Queen, her late sister or mother in any way”.
However, it said the film gives “a fascinating insight in the warped prejudices of Edward VIII and his friends in that bleak, paranoid, tumultuous decade”.
The paper’s managing editor Stig Abell told Sky News: “A piece of historically interesting and valid footage has come our way and it’s in the public and national interest in my view quite simply to publish it.”
He defended the paper’s choice of headline and said: “I think the nature of the coverage as a whole places this in the correct cultural context.”
The Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter told Sky News: “I would like to think it was released inadvertently as a bit of harmless 1933 footage without anybody really knowing what was on it.
“I think what they (Buckingham Palace) would probably like to know is where it came from and who gave it to The Sun.”
Sky News understands the Palace is likely to be looking into whether the process leading to the publication of the video could have involved criminal activity and could also breach copyright.
Edward became King in January 1936 but gave up the throne after just 11 months to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson.
The couple’s meeting with Hitler in Germany in October 1937 – still two years before the start of the war – stoked accusations that he was sympathetic to the Nazi cause.
Apparently shot in 1933 and obtained by the Sun, it shows the monarch aged six or seven with the Queen Mother, her uncle Prince Edward, and sister Princess Margaret.
The 17-second clip was shot in the garden at Balmoral six years before the start of World War Two, according to the paper.
The Queen Mother is first to make the salute and the young Queen copies her.
A Palace spokesman said: “It is disappointing that film, shot eight decades ago and apparently from Her Majesty’s personal family archive, has been obtained and exploited in this manner.”
Prince Edward – who faced accusations of being a Nazi sympathiser – also performs the gesture in the film.
The two children then carry on playing in the garden.
“Most people will see these pictures in their proper context and time,” said a Palace source.
“This is a family playing and momentarily referencing a gesture many would have seen from contemporary news reels.
“No one at that time had any sense how it would evolve. To imply anything else is misleading and dishonest.
“The Queen is around six years of age at the time and entirely innocent of attaching any meaning to these gestures.
“The Queen and her family’s service and dedication to the welfare of this nation during the war, and the 63 years the Queen has spent building relations between nations and peoples speaks for itself.”
The Sun’s – which ran the story under the headline “Their Royal Heilnesses” – acknowledged in its editorial column that the images “do not reflect badly on our Queen, her late sister or mother in any way”.
However, it said the film gives “a fascinating insight in the warped prejudices of Edward VIII and his friends in that bleak, paranoid, tumultuous decade”.
The paper’s managing editor Stig Abell told Sky News: “A piece of historically interesting and valid footage has come our way and it’s in the public and national interest in my view quite simply to publish it.”
He defended the paper’s choice of headline and said: “I think the nature of the coverage as a whole places this in the correct cultural context.”
The Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter told Sky News: “I would like to think it was released inadvertently as a bit of harmless 1933 footage without anybody really knowing what was on it.
“I think what they (Buckingham Palace) would probably like to know is where it came from and who gave it to The Sun.”
Sky News understands the Palace is likely to be looking into whether the process leading to the publication of the video could have involved criminal activity and could also breach copyright.
Edward became King in January 1936 but gave up the throne after just 11 months to marry American socialite Wallis Simpson.
The couple’s meeting with Hitler in Germany in October 1937 – still two years before the start of the war – stoked accusations that he was sympathetic to the Nazi cause.
