A Visiting Princess.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 March 1923, Page 4

A Visiting Princess.

LEFT £22,000,000, BUT SMOKES “GASPERS.” j AYKLLJXGTOX, .March 3. “f have twelve palaces and villas in ail the principal Continental cities, and inv husband, the Grand Duke Ivanowiteh, is now on his way out to Xew Zealand to meet me. I was left £22,000,000 by toy late husband, and 1 have a yacht worth .£.'300,000 which ( lent to my friends in San Francisco.” This statement was made on the vestibule of one of Wellington’s leading hotels last evening by "Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess Princess Jlenrictte ivanowiteh,” who arrived from Sydney by the Manuka this week. A “Times” reporter who sought an “audience’’ with her last evening was directed to the lounge. She was sipping a liqueur and smoking a “gasper” cigarette when he first noticed her, but she quickly put down her glass. “You are one of those awful reporters again,” she said, indicating a seat by her side, which the reporter availed himself of. "1 came over here as Mrs IJrewster-Fuller, hoping to escape your ateutions, and also to avoid the Bolsheviks, and now I suppose T shall have to talk to you.” She was an elderly woman, and her regalia was baldly in keeping with her name, for she was diessed in a stained skirl, with a much travelled fur coal, while she adopted rather un-regal manner bv lighting a match upon her shoe, showed a good deal of a pair of stockings, ami leaned hack with a languid air. ••Ye lie .ai(l .blowing a cloud 01 smoke ml., the air. "I am l lie Princess, and I am just awaiting I he Duke, when „a propo-c i" lour New Zealand, ami then tin Sou i h Sen Islands.’ ha; is lh | lioness's title:” the reporter asked. I hardly know myself.” She astonished everyone in the lounge | lit her answer . and interest circled round the room now thronged with vi-iior- who had come to peep at the regal visitor. . "GRAXD DPK K DFI.AYFI)." "The Grand Duke, my husband, should have been here by now. but he hits been delayed owing to trouble •with the peasants in Siberia. T: • poor wretched people! They are starving, and it is impossible to gel food. I am English, and we were only married eighteen months. I have never I been in Russia, much though I would | like to visit it. At presold it t- no place for a woman. ’ •My husband," she continued, "is heir to the Russian throne, hut he says that he would sooner die that; he the next Czar. "1 have a yacht, the llemntte. It is i- nsidered to he the most wonderful yacht alloat. Oh. how | wish I wits hack oil hoard again! 'ton should d ; it is simply magnificent. It ua - Imill in Glasgow, atel i osl ebon l half a million of money. KING GEORGE. OX THE YACHT. “When wo were oil hoard at Cowes hist before I lelt England. 1 It"d a letter from the private secretary in King George V.. asking for my per- j mission for the King and l.bleett to visit (hi .mil. Of t hm.l t c . ■ is, ini the.', came on hoar”, i King said to me: 'Duchess, I have never seen such a yacht in my lile. ! am the purchaser if it is for sale.’ "I told him that il would never he for >nle while it was in my possession. -.My boudoir on the HenrieUe is lined with pure tortoiseshell, set with solid gold. “We have a regular farmyard on hoard, cows, sheep, poultry, etc. Ihe I Duke won’t eat anything that has cornel elf ice. I have a Swiss dairymaid on I hoard. I sent quite a lot of Swiss mill; across to the poor, starving peasants in Ru-sin, hut the Bolsheviks sunk the vessels. The yacht eosl£'2o,ooo a year to run, and is manned bv 100 men. including the captain.

Complaining of the currency dicieulty, she explained Itetv £40,0!)(l transferred from a Russian hank was worth 2s Gd in AA'ellington. She still retained a unique collection of jewels, including Mary Antoinette's pearls. These jewels were at present in a special safe deposit in Paris, she explained.

AWKWARD AVJTUOET THE Al AIDS' “1 feel so awful without my maids." Mm complained, “for I lost two of them in Paris, owing to sickness. But I suppose I sh; II manage somehow,” she smiled, whimsically, then her cigarette went out. The reporter tendered one of hL own brand, which were the .same as she smoked. "T am now awaiting a cable front the Duke.” she said, and then relapsed into silence. As the audience was at an end, the interviewer withdrew, and as he looked hack lie saw Her Royal Highness deeply immersed in a liqueur. Bho smiled hack to him and lifted her glass, and the reporter for the first time in his life had had his health drunk by a Princess.! While in Sydney this remarkable ladv admitted that one name was nil assumed one. She stated that the reason lor giving this extravagant (ip , was to delude the Bolsheviks. She still maintains, however, that her husband is a Duke, and will arrive in New Zealand very shortly, ft was said that if the Duke follows the same method of concealing his identity as that

rdnoted by his “Royal Consort” he will probably arrive as the new ( star, it prince of the Royal blood, or a Russian violinist!