ROYAL RELATIVES AS FOES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 239, 18 March 1915, Page 5

ROYAL RELATIVES AS FOES.

fc " F.ACIXC EACH OTHER IX FRANCE. A\ar is a breaker of kinship tie:-. as well as a destroyer .of homes, and the intermarriage ot European Royalty has resulted in some painful family' divij s'roiis. In the House of Commons a few 1 days ago it was .announced that the >■ annuity of .-£301)0 paid to the Duchess 1 «>f Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a member of the British Royal Family, who, by her ! marriage, became a German subject, has lucn suspended. The Duchess is a sis--1 ter of the, late Duke of Cambridge, and of {lie late Duchess of Tcck, mother of tiiieen Mary, was her younger sister,She was born at Buckingham P.-bice, and married the (irand Duke of .Meekhm-burg-Strelitz, who died in 1904. Not that the loss of £3OOO will scri- ■ ously inconvenience the Duchess, IV her husband was immensely rich and left her i well dowered. When a special war levy ' of U per cent was made on German fortunes exceeding £250,000 the possessions of the reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz were assessed at' £17,750,000. DISTRESSFUL SITUATIONS. H Tltc near family relationships of sev- ( oral of the more prominent combatants f on both sides must be the cause of much ' distress in European Royal Families. The Kaiser himself is the first eousiil to King Geqrge, and though no blood relation of the Czar, is first cousin to the Czarina, and some of her near relations are fighting for Germany. The only brother of the Russian Empress is a i German Grand Duke of Hesse, pre-um- ■ ably now lighting for the Germans, i while the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, who is fighting with the Germans, and who is reported to have divested himself of all his English decorations. Is the only son of the late Duke of Albany and grandson of Queen Victoria, and the brother of Princess Alexander of Teck. Should, therefore, her husband, Prince Alexander of Teck, go to the front, he would be opposing his wife's only brother in arms. What makes the resistance of King Albert of Belgium all the more heroic is the fact that both lie and his charming wife have German blood in their veins. Until the outbreak of war, among his Majesty's most Intimate friends were the Kaiser's son*. The Queen of the Belgians is also a namesake and goddaughter of the murdered Empress of Austria, who was her aunt, and she has always maintained the most 'affectionate relations with her uncle, the aged Emperor of Austria. Count MensdorfV, the. Austrian .Ambassador in London until the war broke out, is a second cousin of King George, jvhil? the Duchess of Cumberland, who is a sister of Queen Alexandra and the Dowager Empress of Russia, has a son who is fighting for Germany. If Prince"Arthur of Comiaught's offer for active service is accepted, he will noti only be fighting against his second cousin, the Crown Prince of Germany, but also against his mother's people* for the Duchess of Connaught was a German princess. Her elder daughter is Crown Princess of Sweden, a country remaining neutral, but which is credited with pro-German feelings, while her ■ other daughter, Princess "Pat" is working strenuously for the. British cause in Canada, German and English sympathies, too", must be peculiarly mixed in the family of Prince Christian, who married a daughter of Queen Victoria. The Prince, who is. of the Royal family of Sehleswigi Holstcin, is a general in the British'army, but his son, Prince Albert, was a major in the Prussian army, with an address at Fotsdam. The Prince's loyalty, however, cannot be - questioned, particularly as his elder brother laid down his life'for England in the South African War a dozen years ago.