WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 171, 18 January 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") KING ALFONSO AND HIS AUNT A PRINCESS' BOOK FORBIDDEN. A sensation Tupture has taken place between the Infant Eulalia and hei nephew, King Alfonso of Spain, owing to a book which the Infanta is publishing under the name of Countess Avila (writes the Paris correspondent of the Daily Mail on December 3). The Princess received the following telegram:—

Palace of Madrid, Dec. 2. Astonished to read in the newspapers that you are publishing a book under the name of the Countess Avila, and by other news that I have heard about you. I suppose it will cause a great sensation. I order you to suspend publication of this book until I have seen it and until you have received my authorisation to publish it. The Infanta sent the following reply:— Very much astonished at the 'book being judged before it is known. Such a thing could only happen in Spain. As I have never liked Court life and have always lived in retirement, I take this opportunity of bidding you farewell, for after this proceeding, which is worth}' of the Inquisition, I feel myself free to act in my private life as I please. The book referred to by King Alfonso Is called "Au Fil de la Vie," which might be rendered by "On Life's Stream," and has not yet appeared. Although the Countess Avila figures as authoress on the title page, the Infanta assumes the responsibility of her work in a preface signed, "Eulalia, Infanta of Spain." The book is in French, and is a briskly-writ-ten treatise in which such subjects as the general causes of unhappiness, the agitation of the will, the complete independence of woman, the equality, of the classes through education, Socialism, religion, marriage, prejudice and tradition, arq handled in a vigorous and unadorned stvle.

In her book, the Princess speaks in favor of divorce, but says it should be a just law, and not, as often, a passing accord to cover libertinage. She declares that in principle woman is the equal of man, and insists that woman, should become the useful helpmate of man without ceasing to be his generous companion sharing his sorrows and joys.

INTERVIEW WITH THE PRINCESS.

The Infanta Eulalia is a leading figure in Parisian society, and occupies a residence near the Bois de Bolulogne. She always rises at 7 a.m. and has a cold .bath. Much of her time she spends out of doors, where, notebook in hand, she records her observations of nature and humanity. " A The Infanta Eulalia gave me the text of those telegrams in an interview whicli her Royal Highness granted me this afternoon in her charmingly furnished partments. The Princess, who speaks English almost like an Englishwoman, and with an extraordinary command of idiom, said: "I welcome this opportunity to make a public protest against the way I have been treated. I ask you to publish what I have -to say, in order to make my position clear in the eyes of puklia opinion in my dear England. ' "I have written a perfectly moral book which contains no attacks on Spain or the Spanish Court, but because I advocate divorce in certain circumstances I am to suppress it. I was awakened at two o'clock this morning by this astonishing telegram from the King of Spain forbidding me to publish a perfectly moral book, which, by the way, his Maj'- sty has never seen.

"He actually sent the Spanish Ambassador in Paris yesterday to try to persuade me to suppress it. I refused. The whole thing is worthy of the Inquisition, and I decline to submit to it. Fancy the King, my nephew, addressing me, his aunt, in such a tone! But I will not be sat on.

"I will not have my personality annulled. The only things I value are my personality and my work—my work because it comes from my intelligence. I do not attach any importance to my birth, because I cannot help it. . "Rather than be crushed I have broken off all relations with the Spanish Court and am going to retire into private life. I never cared for Court life, and I have not been back to Madrid since the King deprived my son of all his titles for toarrying Princess Beatrice of SaxeCoburg, who-is a Protestant.

"I have no community of ideas with the Court as things now are in Spain. The Jesuits rule supreme, and as they hold shares in all our great national 'services they run the country and impose their point of view on the Government. Why, there is less freedom in Spain un : der this so-called Liberal Government of to-day than in the time of the regency. "I know why my book is. to be banned. It is because of my chapter on divorce, which does not exist in Spain, and because I outlined a positive morality which is outside of religion. That is a thing which Jesuits do not admit. I presume I shall now be excommunicated.

"I have sent copies of my book to many friends.. Among other people who have read it is the King of the Belgians, and I have received nothing but the warmest congratulations from all sides. Why, then, should I suppress it? My lister, the Infanta Maria de la Paz, who lives in Bavaria, is allowed to write, .simply because she writes for the clerical press.

"My ideal now is to live in England, my dear England, the land of liberty. France and England are my ideal resid.ences—France because of the wonderful inspiring intellectual atmosphere one finds, and England because I love the English and the English life. "I adore sports; I like tea and bread and butter and jam, and these nice English things I learned to know from the English governess I had when I was at the Sacred Heart Convent in Paris, where I was 'brought up from two to fourteen years of age. 'I have lived in little places in your beautiful Cornwall, of which doubtless many English people do not know. My dear daughter-in-law, the Princess Beatrice, is half English. She is told she will not be given her rightful title of Princess if she goes to the Court of Madrid, although her husband, my son. is on service with the army in Morocco. "As the result of my rupture with the King the appanage I draw from the Court of Spain will probably be suppressed. That will only be another reason for me to devote myself henceforth to my work."

HATS TO BECOME SMALL AND ARTIFICIAL HAIR BARRED. ALL FAllt SEX TO BE BEAUTIFUL. That the coiffure "hat" was doomed, the harem skirt tabooed with welldressed women and that hats would be very small this winter, were three of the style announcements of a titled milliner, the Countess de Villelume-Sombriel, who arrived in New York recently. The Countess de Villelume-Sombriel is connected with a millinery establishment in this city, declaring that in France no titled woman would dare go into business, but that in Xew York society women gave her every encouragement. The

harem skirt was doomed as far as women in best society were concerned, she announced.

"But the hats. Ah, they will be veree chic, veree small, and the coiffure will be small. Rats are doomed. Hair will be worn without artificial puffs and will be wound tight around the head. This will make beautiful women more beautiful and will make homely women beautiful." SMART SET AND SLUM WORKERS. A SOURCE OF PERIL TO ENGLAND. The declining birth-rate was again deplored by well-known speakers at a meeting at Westminster Abbey. The Bishop of Durham said he would be tempted to look on the gloomy side of the matter if he did not know that the nation realised the present evils. Sir Hector Horsley criticised sharply the women. who seeiiied to care more for a lap-dog than a child. The "smart set," he said, presented a problem at one end of the scale, the women of the slums at the other. While the |Jormer class appeared incurable, the latter suffered from environment. Dr. C. W. Saleeby said we were in imminent national danger if we evei; let go the principle that every lifQ was sacred from the beginning, whatever its origin might be.

He commended the maternity benefit of the National Insurance Bill, and would advocate maternity benefits for the married and unmarried, if only on the grounds of the innocent life which would otherwise be affected.