DASHING GUARDSMAN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 168, 3 August 1937, Page 7

DASHING GUARDSMAN

Air MaiL)

Incident of 40 Years Ago Recalled HITLER'S FOREIGN MINISTER

(Own Correspondent— By

LONDON, June 26.. Hopes that Baron , von Neurath, Hitler's Foreign Minister, will come to London in the near future have been exptessed in the Capital, and one who, doubtless, is interested in the proposed visit ie Queen Mary. Before her marriage tq the then Duke of York in 1893, she was the Princess May of Teck, living with her parenta. the Duke and Duchess of Teck, in Stuttgart. The present German Foreign Minister was then an officer in the Guards. One day fire broke out in the palace. The Guards mustered and rescued family and servants. Princess May was safe, but as she stood dn the eourtyard watching the flames licking greedily at the old building, her eyes filled with tears. Still in her room, at the mercy of the fire, were all her keepsakes, all the treasures ofher girlhood; framed photographs, birthday gifts from half th royalties of a Europe not yet mainly Kepublican. It was a eentimental age; both for the world and for the Princess. Yon Neurath learned of her regret, ftowed stiffly from the waist, clicked heels "in the Prussian fashion, and plunged back into 'the building, to reappear with his arm full of pictures and knick-knacks from the blazing room. Seven years ago Baron Konstantiu /on Neurath came to London as the Ambassador of Republican Germany. Though Queen Mary had not seen h'tn smce, Ihe moment he wenl to Buckii'gham lalace she reeognised in the t-uave diplomat the eager. chivalrous Guardee of the 'nineties.