QUEENS OF TO-MORROW

Evening Star, Issue 20135, 27 March 1929, Page 14

QUEENS OF TO-MORROW

BEAUTIFUL PRINCESSES SECRETS OF THEIR LIVES LIFTING THE VEIL. To lew people arc the real personalities of European woman royalties known. Unlike our own Royal Family, many of them live in regal seclusion, awaiting the time when they may be called to a throne. Entrenched behind the strict etiquette and formalities ' of loreign courts, do these queens of to-morrow share the common joys and interests of girls of their own age in the world from which they are hidden? A special correspondent of the ‘Sunday Chronicle,’ Miss Constance Drexel, interviewed seven of Europe’s loveliest princesses, and here lifts the veil on their everyday life. CROWN PRINCESS OF HOLLAND. “ 1 have never known how other people really feel in the real world outside courts,” Queen Wilhelmina said one day, and resolved that her daughter, an only child, who will one day ho a queen in her own name, should suffer from uo such disability. Accordingly tier mother sent her to Leyden University, where she lives the life of an ordinarv student.

“ Oh, I am so happy to be here,” the Princess told me when 1 interviewed her after a lecture cm international law. “ I wanted to be treated just like the other girls, not in any special way; I want lo do all they, have to do in university life. “Till recently 1 have had no companions of my own age—no brothers or sisters or even cousins to grow up with—always being in the society of older people. “To carry out my mother's wish that 1 should learn how others feel, 1 live with three other students iu a villa on the coast, five miles from Leyden, going back and forth by motor car.” Her villa, of concrete, with tiled garbled roof and gaily painted wooden blinds, is called “ The Nook.” .It is a homely little place with potted red geraniums nodding at Hie windows. The princess spends her week-ends and holidays with her mother and the Prince Consort at the Hague. The girls living with the Princess were chosen at random. Only one of them belongs to the court circle. .She is a student of biology. A second girl is the daughter of a small merchant, and is a student in the Faculty of Medicine. The third is the daughter of a pastor of French name and descent. Mademoiselle-' Michcliii. She is preparing to be a teacher. PRINCESS IRENE OF GREECE. By a stroke of good fortune 1 found myself in the same train as the exiled Princess Irene, her brother, and I’ l incess Elizabeth, on their way I rein i Paris to Florence. j As J. gazed upon the trio during lunj cheon. unnoticed in my corner, it was : difficult to realise that they had been i principals in one of tbe. dramas of j the world war. They looked such gay i young people,, unusually handsome, j well dressed and aristoci’ntic. j 1 noticed that neither of the girls ate dessert; instead they smoked cigarettes out of smart, jewelled eases, lighted from gold lighters. Princess Irene had not changed from her fash- ! ionahle Parisian afternoon costume. Just twenty-three, Princess Irene is I a groat beauty, of dazzling fairness. ! and golden bair. with large sky-blno | eyes rimmed with long, dark lashes She has the figure of a Venus or a Goddess Athena from her own native I Alliens, but one mii.4 exclude her hair, ultra-modern iu its outline and cut—a Greek goddess with a ‘'shingle”! At our subsequent interview Princess Irene spoke to me in perfect .EngI lish. She never wavered from a quiet I dignity and restraint, so different from ! the nervous and restless manners prevalent among fashionable young women - to-day. But then Princess Irene never forgets (hat she is a “royal highness” ; trained to certain standards. ' PRINCESS MARTHA OF SWEDEN. ft was while she was on a visit In her sister. Princess A.strid, the new : Crown Princess of Belgium, that 1 was ■ received liy Princess Martha, the only 1 unmarried daughter of the Scandi- ; navian royal houses, who. still iu her : early twenties, is “out” in .society. < Princess Martha spoke such perfect I English that it seemed as if she must . have learned it in England. i “Oh, no.” she said, “I have never I been in England more than five days j at a time.” ! “ We have all had a truly Swedish i education,” she explained. " We went - to a housekeeper school for two years ' learning lo cook and all the other de- i fails of housekeeping, and then we j went to a nursery.” j “A nursery?” | “Yes. a nursery for belli sick and , well babies—one of those homes where j poor mothers may firing their children | while they work. There arc physicians : and nurses iu charge, but most of the : rare of the babies is undertaken by ; young Swedish women of good position. \ who thus get a practical training in | infant welfare. At ilie same time we j had courses of studies on this subject. ' “In addition I was taught to sew, • and learnt a great deal about farm- j ing—of vegetables, chickens, and j cows.” ; A thoroughly practical princess! | PRINCESS ADELAIDE OF ITALY. | As the representative of the House j of Savoy in Northern Italy, uo .Priu- | cess holds a prouder position in Europe I than .Princess Adelaide. And no one | has a more modest and unassuming \ manner. i With her relatives, Princess Ilona an ! Prince Konrad, I was introduced to j her Royal Highness informally iu flic j grounds of a hotel at Cortina amidst ; the scenic beauties of the Dolomites. \ I as.ked her how she spent her life j at the big palace at Turin, of which j she lias been mistress since the death i of her mother. _ i “ It is a pretty hard life.” she said : “ First of all I. have an enormous daily ! po-t to contend with. And there are j ever so many public engagements for me to fill, such as opening bazaars, baby clinics, and exhibitions, and I charity affairs. | “ My lather's home i> a very large establishment to run, hut unlike ! several other European princesses, I I haven’t much to do with the kitchen j and household matters generally. I’m not interested in the arts of domestic science, I am afraid. No matter ; how many duties ! have to perform, 1. generally manage to practice at the piano every day.” , Lithe, slim, and athletic, the princess looks more of a sportswoman , than an artist.. 1 was not surprised : when she admitted that she was loud - of tennis and ski-iug. “In fact. [ like all sports,” she J said. “ Uufortunately some of them : don't like me. Most of my friends ; ride; I would like to ride too. But the smell of horses gives me a sort of : hay-fever! ” ! Princess Adelaide is also a keen ' motorist—and a speed queen! It was | Princess Bona who told mo this while \ her sister laughingly shook her head. | “ She drives her car so fast that she | nearly frightens me to death when 1 I. go out with her/’ said Princess

i Bona. “ You ought to see tier driving round tiie narrow ledges of stecj -mountain sides—l ” :PR I NC'ESS (LEAN A OB ROMANIA. ■ The beautiful, young. unmarried Princess Henna ol' Rumania, ivho is the idol of her people, once had hei fortune told by gipsies when she was disguised m peasant costume, a dress she often wears. “ Your future will be very, very happy,” they said. take a fairy tale, ibis little episode; and the medieval castle at Siniai, perched on a pine-covered mountain in which I met her, looked like a fairy palace. All the lure and mystery of the Balkans were there. When I caught sight of the princess i felt that tlie gipsies’ forecast had already partly come true. Her expressive eyes and her whole demeanour radiated the joy oi life. Once when she and her mother. Queen Marie, visited an air force officer in a military hospital, they were shocked at its terrible want of medical comforts. There were not even enough sheets; the place needed SUO more beds. By the princess's own efforts she raised -1.U00.0U0 lei for the needs of the hospital. .INFANTA hi BAT RICE. The Infanta Beatrice, to whom, with her mother, the Queen of hqumi. I was presented at the Palace at Madrid, has grown into one ol the loveliest girls in Europe. Site has her hair waved and bobbed, and looks ju,-i like an English girl. “I, shall he having my ‘coming out ’ parly soon,” she said in English, which is the second language at her father’s court. “My mother came out. when -he was only seventeen. .Had she not done so at that age. perhaps both of ns might not have been here.” The princess was reierring to .he romantic meeting between_ the queen, our King’s cousin, and King; Alfonso, who lel I ill love with her at first sight. At. present the princess is working hard. She has her studio-—mu-ic and languages—to keep her occupied, hut she finds time. Loo, for enjoyment'. Her greatest “treat” is to go out with Iter mother. “ We arc the. best ol pais,” she fold me. “We ride, play tennis, and hunt together. We arc inseparables'. I don’t know what I should do without my mother.” PRINCESS MA R lE-JOSE OE BELGIUM. lake Ihe youthful Princess lieana of Rumania, her contemporary. Princess Marie-Josc of Belgium has a very tender heart, which feels acutely for the sufferings of her father’s poorer subjects. I stood in the famous conservatory of the Laeken Palace, built by Leopold Jl. at an enormous cost, and filled with gorgeously flowering exotic plants. I had already been presented to the princess’s mother when her daughter came in. “ AVhat have you been doing today?” the queen asked Princess Mario-Jose. “ Washing babies at the creche,” she answered, simply. For a long tome the princess lias been interested in child welfare, and in addition to finishing her education at the Brussels High School for young women, has attended a clinic run by a famous professor, where the babies of the poor arc looked alter white their parents are at work; “it was my inolher’s idea that I should learn all about babies,” she told me. “ Slio said that it should be part of every girl’s training. “Wo have lectures, but- I like it host of all when ce visit the nurseries where young children are left. 1 am allowed to act as nurse. It is great fun.”