THAT WINDSOR CURTSEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1939, Page 8

THAT WINDSOR CURTSEY

CONTROVERSY UNABATED. COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE’S OPINION. A controversy has raged almost unabated since the abdication on the fine point as to whether the Duchess of Windsor, who has never succeeded in securing the title “Her Royal Highness’ from King George and Queen Elizabeth. should receive a curtsy. The latest outbreak of this society dispute came into the light of day when the Countess of Pembroke told a newspaperman of a disagreement she had had on the subject with the former Cabinet Minister, Mr Alfred Duff Cooper, who resigned with the Eden bloc. She had “taken him-to task” because his wife, Lady Diana Cooper, recently curtsied to the Duchess in Paris. The Countess, who is an expert on Court etiquitte, maintained that since the Duchess had not been given the title of “Her Royal Highness”. it was wrong to curtsy to her. “I can’t think how the story got out,” Lady Pembroke said. “It happened' last weekend after a shooting, party which Captain and Mrs Euan Wallace gave at Lavington Park. “The only people in the room at the time were Lord Pembroke and myself, our hosts, Lady Diana and Mr Duff Cooper, and the Hon. Peter Beatty, brother ’of - Earl Beatty. “Lady Diana and Mrs Euan Wallace told me that when they met the Duchess of Windsor in Paris recently they both dropped her a curtsy. “I asked them why they did this, as the Duchess is not entitled to it. They told me they did so to please the Duke. “Ltold them that personally nothing would induce me to curtsy to the Duchess, as it is not customary inXhis country to curtsy to any but Royal personages. “l am afraid my reply rather angered Mr DUff Cooper. “If the Duchess is’ made a Royal Highness,” Lady Pembroke added, ‘then I shall be pleased to drop her a curtsy. Mrs Euan Wallace, wife of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, said she and Lady Diana had curtsied to the Duchess. “It happened at a private cocktail party given by the Duke and Duchess to Lady Diana and myself at the Hotel Meurice, Paris. “I did it to please the Duke, and not for any formal reason. I have been a great friend of the Duchess for a long time, and knew her when she was Mrs Simpson.”