“Sniping” At Wedding Of Princess Deplored

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29179, 13 April 1960, Page 23

“Sniping” At Wedding Of Princess Deplored

(Special Correspondent NJZFJI.)

(Rec. 10 pan.). LONDON, April 11. The “Guardian’s” columnist today hit at the “snipers’ fire” which is being printed in several London newspapers about Princess Margaret's wedding, particularly the suggestion of a boycott by European Royal families. “Nearly everyone has a corner in him that enjoys malicious gossip,” he writes. “In the past, this human weakness has often found an outlet in comment on doings of the Royal Family. One need only think of the Hanoverians. Several of them fostered scandal on a grand scale and some may think that the resulting uproar was healthy. “But the parallel does not fit the snipers’ fire with which part of the press seems to be working up to Princess Margaret’s wedding. The latest plot is to suggest that because some Scandinavian Royalties will be unable to attend the wedding, there must be something wrong. “Scandinavian journalists in London are astonished at this. They .point out that these kings and queens have previous engagements, one of them nothing less than a State visit from the Shah of Persia, and that only those holding an out-of-date notion of the supremacy of the British Empire would expect them to change their plans. “Strange as it may seem, they say, the wedding, seen from Oslo or Stockholm, does not look like an event of world-shaking importance. "Before that, we had the withdrawal of Mr Jeremy Fry as best man. For several days before the announcement it was clear that at least one paper was gunning for him and now it looks as though we may be in for a series of bursts, each more unpleasant than the last. “One might think that however important a best man may be, an ex-best man is not important —that he is in fact a private person and there is no reason of public interest to stop him from remaining one. "Healthy Hanoverian gossip? The Hanoverians, after all, have stood at the heart of a tight political and social world within which most of what they did was public. “Things are very different now. It is bard not to detect a spirit of spite for spite’s sake—perhaps the obverse of gush for the sake of gush.” The European royalties unable to attend the wedding include:

(1) King Olav of Norway. He has another engagement, but court officials today firmly denied British press reports that the Norwegian Royal family was ‘boycotting” the wedding.

A court spokesman said: “Reports in British newspapers that

the Norwegian Royal family will not attend the wedding because Mr Armstrong-Jones is a commoner are sheer nonsense.” (2) Crown Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands. An official spokesman said the Princess would make a two-day visit to Limburg Province on May 6 and 7. The visit was arranged in February. (3) King Baudouin of Belgium. A source close to the Belgium Royal household said it was “unlikely” that any member of the Belgian Royal family would attend. The source failed to give any reason for this, but confirmed that King Baudouin had an engagement on the day of the wedding. (4) The Spanish Pretender, Don Juan, and his wife have been invited to the wedding but will not be able to attend, a secretary of Don Juan said tonight "There is no special reason," he said. "It is just because they are too busy at the moment" (5) No members of the Swedish Royal family are likely to attend because of the arrival of the Shah and Queen of Persia on May 5. It is not known yet whether an invitation has been received by Prince Rainier of Monaco and Princess Grace.

"Blow to Prestige” The London “Daily Sketch” in a front-page report said British diplomats all over the world were reporting to the Cabinet that British prestige had suffered a heavy blow by the refusal of European royalty to attend Princess Margaret’s wedding. The newspaper said the "batch of excuses were thin," and added up to what "can only be regarded as a snub.” Officials believed that others would publicly join the “we won’t come*’ brigade so that it should not be thought they had been left off the list invited by the Queen Mother, ths "Daily Sketch” added.