YOUTHFUL NAPOLEAN INSTRUCTED IN WAR.

Shannon News, 5 July 1929, Page 4

YOUTHFUL NAPOLEAN INSTRUCTED IN WAR.

TEN THOUSAND TOY SOLDIERS. CLAIMS ALL RIGHIS OF EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. Pi.q::a.".t di.-ehisures of how the last of the Xnpoleuns, a youth just turned 10, it; be:::,.: schooled in military tactics ( and diplomacy in the hope that one day he may repeat the glories of his fatuous forbear, were made to a newspaper correspondent in Brussels a few week* ' ago. Recently Prince Napoleon, the son of Princess Clementine of Belgium and Prince Victor Napoleon, who died in 192(3 at Brussels, was claimed by ln> friends to be the official pretender to »the throne of Napoleon. His fallow . ers, who "consider him a boy of genius and a born military strategist, ass-en that they are firmly convinced that om day he will return to France and setz' 1 power. Belli rid his highly specialised training -apparently lies this hope. Three years ago, when he was only 13. the young Napoleon's childish ambition was to make a triumphant entry into Parks, seate.l on a white horse ana ride under the Arc de Triompihe. Though he was born and has lived in cj.ile, he knows Paris by heart. In the rooms of the Bonaparte,mansion in Brussels, where he now resides, there is cne of the Napoleonic lore in existence.Young Napoleon has 10,000 leaden soldiers, miniature cannon, ambulances, war equipment, forts, railways, bridges, pontoons, and other toy war material. His professor of strategy often spends a week in aligning the opposing forces of soldiers and their equipment. When he had placed a small force in a tight predicament he calls in his pupil, explains the situation, and asks him for his opinion as to the best way to extract the hard-pressed army. "Napoleon never hesitates," the ini; i rue tor says. For a few minute x s he studies the situation, informs himself on the enemy strength, and seeks out the weakest spot with a dexterity that seems almost instinctive." Apart from military tactics, Prince 'Napoleon studies diplomacy, French literature, and French politics. Bonapartists have taken heart following the first public reception that young Napoleon gave on his birth-day. To a question put to him by his mother ir, the presence of tfie assembled Imperialists ho replied:—"l assume all the-re-sponsibilities, and I claim all the rights of the Emperor of the French. I love Fi-an.ce, and nothing will make me desist from my duty to bring her greater happiness." '