(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Buckingham Palace has refused to be drawn into the debate over the royal family's private archives amid mounting pressure to release historical documents following the publication of a video showing the Queen performing a Nazi salute in the 1930s.
As palace aides launched an inquiry on Sunday into the leak of the 17-second home movie, the royal family refused to bow to calls from MPs and leading historians to open up the British monarchy's official archives held at Windsor Castle.
Respected historians said that releasing some of the material, which stretches back over 250 years, would add to the country's knowledge of the Queen and provide important historical context to the links between some leading royals and the Third Reich before World War II.
Mark Almond, professor of modern history at Oxford University, said: "Opening up aspects of the Queen's early years is not going to damage respect for the monarchy. It can only reinforce her standing with the public.
"This film reminds us of how many challenges this country has overcome in the last eight decades under the Windsors."
The black-and-white footage is believed to have been filmed by the Queen's father, the future King George VI, on the family's Balmoral estate in Scotland in 1933 or 1934. It shows the future Queen - then aged six or seven - raising her right hand in the air as the Queen Mother does the same. The group were apparently being encouraged by the future King Edward VIII.
The 89-year-old monarch appeared briefly in public on Sunday morning as she made her way by car from Windsor Castle to a nearby church.
Meanwhile, royal aides sought to downplay the film's publication, stressing that the palace was conducting "enquiries", not a full-blown investigation, and that it was "business as usual" for the household. There were no plans to cancel any of the Queen's future engagements in the wake of the disclosure, they said.
Dr Karina Urbach, of the Institute of Historical Research, who was approached about viewing the film 11 days ago, said the royal family were suppressing their own history in a form of censorship that had no place in modern Britain. "This is information that should have been in the public domain 50 years ago," she said. "The royal archives contain matters of state. The role of the monarch is not a purely personal matter. We no longer have the divine right of kings."
Ingrid Seward, a royal biographer and editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, added: "The Queen becomes Britain's longest-reigning monarch in September and any new information about her, however distant it might be, is of enormous interest. Archive images add to our knowledge of her. It would be great to see more."
However, Buckingham Palace said it was disappointed that the film was "exploited" by the Sun and was investigating how it was leaked to the newspaper. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, palace lawyers will look at issues of copyright and possible criminality.
"There may be an issue of copyright and there may be an issue of criminality," said a royal source who said it had yet to be determined whether the police would be called in to investigate. Royal aides said it was too early to decide whether a complaint would be made to the press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
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