WITH only days to go before she was due to launch the QE2, the Queen did not know if a financial crisis would lead to the last-minute cancellation of the ceremony, Cabinet papers released by the Public Record Office under the 30-year rule reveal.

The situation was so serious that thoughts were being given to abandoning the liner's construction at John Brown's shipyard in Clydebank.

Even if money became available, it was felt that the QE2 might immediately have to be sold off to foreign owners, possibly Greek shipping magnates.

As they prepared for what was arguably the biggest event in the long, proud history of shipbuilding on the Clyde, the Scottish public remained blissfully unaware that the Government was putting together a desperate rescue package for Cunard.

The newly-released papers reveal for the first time that the Q4 naming ceremony was saved from being scrapped with only hours to go (Q4 was how the liner was known before being launched by the Queen).

Prime Ministerial papers also show that Sir Basil Smallpiece, the then chairman of the shipping line, did not hesitate to break royal protocol rules by involving the unquestionable embarrassment to the monarch of such a decision as a weapon to steam-roller the Harold Wilson's Government into providing a loan to save his company.

In a letter to Mr Wilson, just 12 days before the launch, Sir Basil threatened to call off the ceremony.

''I am becoming increasingly concerned at the situation to which we are in danger of exposing the Queen, should a proper arrangement not be reached regarding the future of the Cunard company,'' he declared in a letter.

Warning that a decision would have to be made that October whether or not to liquidate the company in the absence of ''some politically and commercially acceptable form of Government participation in or support for it'', the launch would have to be abandoned.

''I have been speaking on the telephone to Sir Michael Adeane (the Queen's then private secretary) at Balmoral Castle this morning,'' he said in his letter, ''and he is anxious on The Queen's behalf that there should be no misunderstanding.''

Sir Basil said that in the absence of a rescue package, his board would have no option but to take steps to liquidate the Cunard company.

''For such a decision to be made public so soon after The Queen has launched this ship would, I am sure you will agree, place her Majesty in so embarrassing a situation that it must be avoided,'' Sir Basil told the Prime Minister in his letter.

Unless agreement in principle over the future of the company could be agreed with the Government, the Cunard chairman told Mr Wilson: ''I feel that my duty will be to advise The Queen that the company's future is so uncertain that the arrangements for the Royal launching of the ship must be reconsidered, in which case the reason for any change in arrangements would have to be made public.

''I need hardly point out to you the national and, indeed, international implications of the decision that is taken about Cunard's future; I believe I am not exaggerating the importance of the company when I say that Cunard is widely regarded as a symbol of Britain and all that Britain stands for.''

The letter came as a bombshell to the Prime Minister. He knew Cunard had serious financial problems, but had not realised they were so severe.

Immediately he took three decisions. The launch had to go ahead as planned; the QE2 had to be completed; and even if Cunard eventually went under, the new liner would not go into foreign hands, at least in the short term.

As a consequence, a new financial package was arranged with Cunard, which had already received a #17.6m loan to begin the Q4 project, ensuring the company would get an additional #6m loan. It meant the restructuring of the Cunard line, but more importantly ensured completion of the QE2 and guaranteed that her ownership would remain with a UK company even if Cunard did not survive in the long term.

The deal was finally agreed on September 18, 1967 - just three days before the launching ceremony.

The seamen's strike of 1966 had been the start of a disastrous period for the company.

The situation continued to worsen, culminating in the letter from Sir Basil to the Prime Minister.

Times have changed since those days. The Cunard company has long since disappeared. But the QE2 still sails on.