DUCHESS’S COUSINS?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 762, 7 September 1929, Page 29

DUCHESS’S COUSINS?

MRS. ERNEST ANNOYED AT MELBOURNE PRESS THOSE GIRL MIGRANTS The bother over a Melbourne interview with Mrs. Marie Evelyn Ernest, a passenger by the Oratna, who allegedly claimed to be first cousin to the Duchess of York, was not continued in Sydney. “I do not desire either to confirm or refute the cable,’* Mrs. Ernest told a Sydney “News’* interviewer. Mrs. Ernest, who was supposed to have claimed to be shocked at the behaviour of some English girl migrants aboard, proved difficult to locate on her arrival in Sydney, and only by. accident was she found. She informed pressmen that she had given orders that no reporters were to see her, and she did not wish to discuss the matter further. “I made only a few remarks in Melbourne,” she added, “but the papers there built on them, and the reports have proved very distasteful. I intend making a statement to the right authorities in Sydney, but will not say anything to the papers.” When the interview was cabled to England, a reply came back that the Bowes-Lyon family was not aware that any relatives were visiting Australia. Mrs. Ernest was accompanied by two women companions, and when asked to be photographed, implored that she be left alone, as she was very sick. New settlers who arrived by the Orama included 61 nominated, 30 farm workers, and 50 domestics. Miss M. W. Henry and Mr. N. C. Nelson, who acted as welfare officers, said the girls were a fine lot and had behaved splendidly. Captain Hugh Staunton, who has taken the place of Captain Matliesou, remarked that he had never brought a happier or more promising type of girl to this country. Tie was satisfied that both the boys and girls had behaved splendidly.