JEWELS AND OLD LACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 867, 10 January 1930, Page 9

JEWELS AND OLD LACE

BRILLIANT PAGEANTRY AT ROYAL MARRIAGE AIRPLANES DROP FLOWERS United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright ROME, Thursday. Throughout the marriage ceremony of Prince Umberto of Italy and Princess Marie Jose, of Belgium, the young bride bore herself with simple but compelling dignity. Hundreds of white doves were released from a turret on the Quirinal Palace, giving the news to the crowds in the streets that the marriage had been completed. This caused cheers throughout the city. Around the neck of each dove was hung a tiny card on which were the initial letters cf the Christian names of the bride and bridegroom. Another feature of the celebrations was that hundreds of airplanes circled over Rome. These had been gathered from all parts of the country. Their pilots dropped flowers while the marriage was being celebrated. The 64 Royal personages present included ex-Kings and Princes, who were welcomed in spite of the loss of their kingdoms, in recognition of the inherent rights of the blood Royal. They Ranged from the Comte de Paris, a; tall young Bourbon, to the sallow Amanulla. There were longtrained Princesses, Greeks and Portuguese, also Prince Rupert of Bavaria, in an old German uniform, and the Archduke Joseph of Austria, who wore a marvellous Magyar dress of fur and plum-coloured velvet. The Duke of York escorted the Duchess of Vendome, who belongs to the former French Royal Family. MUSSOLINI, THE CONTRAST

The women all wore light-coloured dresses beneath white lace veils, which included the world’s greatest lace treasures. Some of the women were decorated with jewelled crowns and tiaras. They looked like brides gathered to meet the Princess. An extraordinary contrast was Signor Mussolini, walking alone, in his Prime Minister’s uniform with a bine order across his plain coat. He possesses an air of remarkable vitality and seems to go through life with an invisible wreath of laurels on his brow.

The Duce smiled repeatedly as most distinguished women lifted their arms in the Fascist salute.