QUEENS OF TO-MORROW.

Shannon News, 4 December 1928, Page 2

QUEENS OF TO-MORROW.

Europe’s Beautiful Princesses Are Modern and Practical

To few people are 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 celled to a throne. Entrenched behind the strict etiquette and formalities of foreign Courts ,do these queens of tomorrow share the common joys and inof girls of their own age in the -world from which they are hidden? A special correspondent of the ‘ Sunday Chronicle,” Miss Constance Drexcl, interviewed seven of Europe’s loveliest Princesses, and here lifts the veil on their everyday life. Crown Princess Juliana of Holland. “I 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 be a queen in her own name, should suffer from no such disability. Accordingly her mother sent her to Leyden University, where she lives the life of an ordinary student. ■ ‘ ‘ Oh, I am so happy to be here, ! ’ the Princess told me when I interviewed her after a lecture on international law. “I wanted to be treated just like the other girls, not in. any special way; I want to do all they'have to ao in university life. ( ‘ Till recently I have had no companions of iny own age—no brothers or sisters or even cousins to grow up wdth —always being in the society of older people. *‘ To carry out my mother’s wish that I should learn how others feel, I live with three other students in a villa on the coast, five miles from Leyden, going back and forth by motor ear.” Her villa, bf concrete, with tiled gabled roof and gaily painted wooden blinds, is called “The Nook.” It is a homely, little place with potted geraniums nodding at the windows. The Princess spends her w r eek-ends 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 Michelin. She is preparing to be a teacher. Princess Irene of Greece. By a stroke of good fortune I found myself in the same train as the exiled Princess Irene, her brothei*, and Princess Elizabeth, on their way from Paris to Florence. As I gazed upon the trio during luncheon, unnoticed in my corner, it was difficult to realise that they had been •principals in one of the dramas of the world war. They looked such gay young people, unusually handsome, well dressed and aristocratic.

I noticed that neither of the girls ate dessert; instead they smoked cigarettes out of smart jewelled cases, lighted from gold lighters. Princess Irene had not changed from her fashionable Parisian afternoon costume.

Just twenty-three, Princess Irene is a great beauty of dazzling fairness, and golden hair, with large, sky-blue eyes rimmed with long, dark lashes. She has the figure of a Venus or a Goddess Athena from her own native Athens. But one must exclude her hair,' ultra-modem in its outline and cut—a Greek goddess with/ a “shingle!” At our subsequent interview Princess Irene spoke to me in perfect English. She never wavered from a quiet dignity and restraint, so different from the nervous and restless, manners prevalent among fashionable young women to-day. But then Princess Irene never forgets that she is a “Royal Highness” trained to certain standards. Princess Martha of Sweden.

It was while she was on a visit to her sister, Princess Astrid, the new Crown Princess of Belgium, that I was received by Princess Martha, the only unmarried daughter of the Scandinaviau Royal Houses, who, still in her early twenties, is 'out” in society. Princess Martha spoke such perfect English that it seemed as if she must have learned it in England. “Oh, no,” she said, “I have never been in England more than five days at a time. ” ■

“We have all had a truly Swedish education,” she explained. “We went to a housekeeper school for two years learning to eook and all the other details of housekeeping, and then we went to a nursery.” “A nursery?” “Yes, a nursery, for both sick and well babies—one of those homes where poor mothers may bring their children while they work. There are physicians and nurses in charge, but most of the care of the babies is undertaken by young Swedish women of good position, who thus get a practical training in infant welfare. At the same time we had courses of studies on this subject.

“In addition I was taught to sew, and learnt a great deal about farming —of vegetables, chickens and cows." A thoroughly practical princess!

Princess Adelaide of Italy. As the representative of the. House of Savoy in Northern Italy, no Princess holds a prouder position in Europe than Princess Adelaide. And no one has a more modest unassuming manner.

With her relatives, Princess Bona and Prince Konrad, I was introduced to her Royal Highness informally in tae grounds of a hotel at Cortina amidst the scenic beauties of the Dolomites. ‘ I asked her how she spent her &fc at the big palace at Tujrin, of which

/ she has been mistreaa since the death of hor mother.

“It is a pretty hard life,” she said. “First of all I have an enormous daily post to contend with. And there are ever so many public engagements for me to fill, such as opening bazaars, baby clinics, art exhibitions, and charity affairs. ; ;

“My father’s home is a very large establishment to run, but unlike several other European princesses, I have not much to do with the kitchen and household matters generally. . I’m more interested ,in the arts of domestic science, lam afraid. No matter how many duties I have to perform I generally manage to practice at the piano every day.” Lithe, slim, and athletic, the princess looks more of a sportswoman than* an artist. I was not surprised when she admitted that she was fond of tennis and ski-ing.

“In fact, I like all sports,” she said. “Unfortunately some of them don’t like me; 1 would like to ride,, too. But the smell of horses gives me a sort of hay-fever!”

Princess Adelaide is also a keen mo toi’ist- —and a speed queen! It was Princess Bona who told me this while her sister laughingly shook Her head. “She drives her ear so fast that she nearly frightens me to death when I go out with'her,” said Princess Bona. “ You ought to see her driving round the narrow ledges of steep mountain sides !” Princess Hena of Rumania.

The beautiful, young, unmarried Princess Ileana of Rumania, who is the idol of her people, once had her fortune told by gypsies when sire was disguised in peasant costume, a dress she often wears.

“Your future will be very, very happy,” they said. Like a fairy tala, this little episode; and the medieval castle at Siniai, perched on a pine-covered mountain in which I \mct her, looked like a faiv palace. All the lure and mystery of the Balkans were there.

When I caught sight of the Princess I felt that the gipsies ’forecast had already partly come true. Her expressive eyes and her whole demeanour radiated the, joy of life. She has found the secret of happiness in service to others. On the subject of her charitable activities she told me a story which has a bearing on what the gipsies said.

Once when she - and her mother, Queen Marie, visited an air force officer in a military hospital, they were shocked at the terrible want of medical comforts. There were not enough sheets; the place needed 500 more beds. By the princess’ own efforts she raised 4,000,000 lek for the needs oi the hospital. Infanta Beatrice. \ The Infanta Beatrice, to whom, with her mother, the Queen of Spain, I was presented at the Palace of Madrid, has grown into one of- the loveliest girls, in Europe. She has her hair waved and bobbed, and looks just like an English girl. “I shall be having my ‘coming-out’ party soon,” she said in English, which is the second language at her father’s Court. “My mother came out when she was only 17. Had she not done so at that age, perhaps both of us might not have been here.”

The Princess was referring tc the romantic meeting between the Qseen our Kings cousin, and King Alfontfl?, who fell in love with her at first sight. At present the Princess is working hard. She has her studies—music and languages—to keep her occupied, but she finds time, too, for enjoyment. Her greatest “treat” is to go out with her mother.

“We are the best of pals,” she told me. “We ride, play tennis, and hunt together. We are ineparables. I don’t know what I should do without my mother.”

Princess Marie-Jose of Belgium. Like the youthful Princess Ileana t Rumania, her contemporary, Princess Marie Jose, 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 11. at an enormous cost tnd filled with gorgeously flowering exotic plants. I had already been presented to tho Princess’ mother when her daughter came in!

“What have you been doing to-day?’ the Queen asked Princess Marie-Jose.

“Washing babies at the crecfte,” she answered simply. For a long time the Princess has bee- 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 are looked after while their parents are at work.

“It was my mother’s idea that I should learn all about babies, ” she told me. “She said that it should be port of every girl’s traininng. “We have lectures, but I like it best of all when we visit the nurseries where young children are left. lam allowed to act as nurse. It is great fun.” 6 •