Local Britons Hail Elizabeth As New Queen

The University community yesterday shared the world's sorrow at hearing the news of the death of 56-year-old King George VI of England.

"George VI ruled through 15 of the roughest years in British history," Elliott Perkins '29, lecturer on History, said last night. "Elizabeth comes to the throne at a horribly difficult time but I have no doubt she will perform her official duties excellently."

David E. Owen, professor of History, strongly regretted the King's death, but he thought Elizabeth's succession "will have no effect whatever on the attitude of members of the Commonwealth to the British connection"

The news hit hardest among British faculty members and students. Mrs. Perkins a native of England, shared her husband's feelings and commented upon the difficulty of the young queen's new job: She is just 25. She has a new home. She has two young children, and a husband whom she married only a few years ago

"She is scarcely older than a graduating senior and yet she has to face the prospect of a job like this. She may have been brought up to it, but surely nobody realized she would have to take on such responsibility so soon."

Another Britisher, W. Barry Pennington, Instructor in Mathematics, thought Elizabeth and her husband were already "extremely well-liked," and predicted the monarchy would lose none of the popularity it enjoyed under George VI.

Pennington, a graduate of Cambridge, predicted that the King's death will have a "strong sobering effect" on Britain's stormy party politics, and mentioned as evidence yesterday's adjournment of a bitter foreign affairs debate in the House of Commons when the legislators heard the sad news.