Was that Nazi salute filmed by the Queen's own father?
Palace lawyers will also try to decide whether there are separate grounds for legal action over possible breach of copyright.
It is highly likely the film was shot by the Queen's father – therefore there is no question of where copyright lies, a senior Palace courtier told The Mail on Sunday.
Royal historian Christopher Wilson said: These are quite clearly home movies and the one person missing from the shot is Bertie, then Duke of York. He would have been handling the camera.
And it is quite clear from the footage that it is the cameraman – the future King George VI – who is encouraging first Elizabeth, then her mother, and lastly the Prince of Wales, to make the Nazi salute. Publication of the images in The Sun yesterday caused widespread dismay, with many historians and commentators insisting they were entirely playful, insignificant and should have remained private.
People do silly things in front of cameras and in 1933 there were lots of children mimicking Hitler, said Royal biographer Hugo Vickers.
But Shadow Culture Secretary Chris Bryant described the film as a matter of historical record.
Surprisingly, the Palace is unaware of exactly where the clip came from. We are checking our archives. Nobody is familiar with this footage. You would have thought somebody would have been, said one courtier.
We will be looking at copyright and whether this has involved any kind of criminal activity.
In the film, the seven-year-old Princess Elizabeth is seen with her sister Margaret, their mother and their uncle, who would become Edward VIII.
He appears to be showing them how to perform the salute, which signalled obedience to Adolf Hitler.
At the time, late summer, the family were in residence at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate.
The future Queen, in a tartan skirt, is shown playfully grabbing a Royal corgi before looking at the camera and straightening her arm in a salute.
As Margaret waves excitedly with both hands, Elizabeth breaks into a jig. And when the Queen Mother raises her right arm aloft, her eldest daughter again follows suit. One respected historian suggested that the controversial footage was most likely removed from the Round Tower at Windsor Castle, the home of the Royal Archive.
Security there is very tight, you even get followed to the toilet, he said. 'A researcher or author has got more chance of getting files out of the KGB than from the Royal Archive. But a disgruntled member of staff would be able to get around the security procedures there.
'That's where I'd be starting my investigation.'
Others suggest the film may have originated from the British Film Institute, which stores Royal Family home movies and newsreels dating back to the 1920s at its archives in Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire.
One intriguing, if rather sketchy, explanation was being offered elsewhere in Royal circles. It is that the film was shot on a camera belonging to the Queen's uncle.
In the late 1980s, reels of cine film were said to have been found at Edward's grand villa near Paris. The property and its contents were bought later by former Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed. An archivist he hired to catalogue Edward's valuables is said to have found 'bathtubs full of photographs and cine film'.
The film's release provoked a 'Twitter storm' of reaction.
Comedian Ricky Gervais posted a picture of himself as a child sporting a side-parting, joking: 'Never mind the Queen, I actually looked like a tiny Hitler when I was 7.' Other users sympathised with the Queen, with one tweeting: 'Less focus on a 7 year old decades ago doing a #NaziSalute more focus on Neo-Nazi's still doing it now all over the world.'
However, another user questioned the Queen Mother's role, tweeting: 'This #NaziSalute has made the Royal Family look ridiculous. The Queen was so young she wouldn't understand, but her mum certain [sic] would've.'
Source: Daily Mail