THE YOUNG COUPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 51, 29 August 1934, Page 9

THE YOUNG COUPLE

SEEN AT SALZBU-Ra

ENGAGEMENT EXPECTED

(Received Angust 29, "1 p.m.)

LONDON, August 2S.

Humours of the engagement were- rif a on the- Continent at the weekend as tho couple were, present-.at the-musical festival at Salzburg, where they heard "Don,'' Giovanni,"- but,- directly questioned, Prince George asked a newspaper man to deny it. "Please say there is no truth in all these rumours." He reached Yugoslavia on his present visit by an aeroplane lent by tho Prince of Wales, flying via Le Bourget and Munich over tho Alps and Carinthia' Lakes. ■ ■ . , ■

The "Daily Mail" said: "Princo George, at present at Salzburg, last night attended the performance of 'Don Giovanni' accompanied by Princess Marina, sister of Princess Olga, and her husband Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. During the interval Prince George was seen affectionately guiding Princess Marina by the aim aa he went out to smoke a cigarette, sihilingly watched' by the Austriaa nobility."

Prince George's grant on the Civil List is £10,000. There will be. a further £15,000 a year when he is mar* riea. ' :

Prince George Edward Alexander Edmund is the fourth son of the King and Queen and the first child bora t« their Majesties after they had beconw Prince and Princess of Wales. He was born on December 20, 1902, and threo months before his fourteenth birthday: went to the Royal Naval College a'fc Osborne, in obedience to his father's desires that he should follow a naval career. The Great War was then at its height. ■ •.

Passing out of Dartmouth as a midshipman 011 January 15, 1921, he was appointed to the Iron Duke, flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet.

After two years in the Iron Dnka Prince George- was transferred to tha Queen Elizabeth, and in May, 1923, ho became acting sub-lieutenant, and spent four months in the flotilla "leader Mackay. After completing the courses at Portsmouth with a view to qualifying for the rank of lieutenant, the Prince was appointed in January, 1925, to the Hawkins, flagship on the Chjna Station. His term of duty coincided with the serious troubles in the Yangtze Valley. ■

Prince George passed his examina* tion for lieutenant in February, 1926, gaining a second-class certificate in seamanship and "thirds" in navigation, gunnery, and torpedo. During a short spell at home he qualified as an interpreter in French, in which capacity-hcv served in tho Nelson in the Atlantic Fleet.

The Prince then served as interpreter on tho West Indies Station, on board H.M.S. Durban. The state of the King's health recalled him home, and later it was announced that, for reasons of health, he would retiro from the Navy and enter tho Foreign Office. This he did in 1929, and it was stated that ho was being trained for a post as Gov-ernor-General of one of the Dominions. At tho end of last yoar he was chosen to make1 a trip to South Africa, to be followed by a visit to' Australia and. New Zealand, but the strain of tho tour proved too great for him and he was replaced by the Duke of Gloucester, for tbo Antipodean visit, returning to Britain last April. Princess Marina, of Greece, is tho third daughter of Prince Nicolas, of Greece, who married the Grand Duchess Helene Vladimirovna of Russia in 1902. Tho Princess yf&s born on November 30, 1906, and her father is the uncl' of ex-King George of Greece.