April 10, 2001. Copyright, 2001, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Queen Elizabeth approaches another milestone
By Mark Samms

LONDON, April 10, Graphic News:  QUEEN Elizabeth II may be the head of the most celebrated Royal Family in the world, but she approaches her 75th birthday more in trepidation than confidence.

If the latest public relations disaster -- in which the Countess of Wessex made unguarded comments to an undercover jounalist beliving him to be a business client -- were not enough, a recent opinion poll, commissioned by the Queen and leaked to the British press, revealed that the majority of Britons believe their Royal Family to be irrelevant, out of touch and a waste of money.

The findings will have come as a devastating blow to the Queen, who believed she and her family had been successfully rebuilding their image following the damage it sustained in the immediate aftermath of Princess DianaÕs death.

The Queen herself, who celebrates 50 years on the throne next year, emerged relatively unscathed from the research, as did her grandson Prince William, but this will have provided scant consolation for a woman who has seen widespread respect and affection for the monarchy diminish over the years.

She came to the throne at a time when the crown was regarded with a mixture of awe and unquestioning reverence. To her immense sadness -- and despite her devotion to duty -- she will one day leave it with more of her subjects than ever before talking seriously in terms of a British republic.

And Another Thing:
In 1972, the President of Cameroon presented the Queen with a seven-year-old bull elephant to mark her silver wedding anniversary.