ROYAL WEDDING PLANS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1938, Page 14

ROYAL WEDDING PLANS

KING GEORGE'S PERMISSION GERMAN PRINCESS ENGAGED

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, December 29.

The Privy; Council held at Sandringham House on December 26 to give the King's formal assent to the marriage of Princess Frederika of Brunswick to Prince Paul of Greece, was the first since the Great War to be held on a Sunday, and the first to be held at Sandringham since the one called a few hours before the death of King George V. The fact that it was held on the day after Christmas and attended only by members of the Royal Family, made it a still more phenomenal meeting. It was felt that Sunday was not an inappropriate day in view of the happy nature of the business. Had the meeting concerned any other matter, the attendance of at least one member of the Government would have been required*.

The Council was held in accordance with the Royal Marriages Act, which requires the King?s assent before the Privy Council to the marriage of any

Mrs. Rose Gillis, who for fifteen years has been a leader in British women's athletics, first as a competitor and now as an organiser, is accompanying the girls who are representing England in the Empire Games, in the capacity of "fostermother" She sees that the girls go to bed at 10 o'clock, eat the right foods, and take regular training exercise. Mrs. Gillis first won sprint titles and broke international and British records in 1924. descendant of George II who is under the age of 26, except in the cases of children of Princesses married into foreign families. Had Princess Frederika been 26 instead of 20, therefore, the meeting would not have been necessary. HISTORY OF THE ACT. The Act was passed at the instance of George 111 as the result of the marriage of one of his brothers, the Duke of Cumberland, with a Mrs. Horton, and of another, the Duke of Gloucester, with Lady Waldegrave. This was in 1772. A generation later it was broken by George Ill's eldest son, afterwards George IV, when he secretly married Mrs. FitzHerbert. As Mrs. FitzHerbert was a Roman Catholic, George IV brought off "a right-and-left" by breaking the Royal Marriage Act and the Act of Settlement at the same time. -The Duke of Sussex followed this up in 1792 by. breaking the Actthrough his marriage with Lady Augusta Murray. George 111, when he heard of it, took advantage of the Act to have the marriage annulled by the Court of Arches. Morganatic marriages such as that of William IV did not break the Royal Marriage Act, and were in fact largely created by it. PALACE CROWDED OUT. Arrangements for Princess Frederika's marriage, which is to take place on January 9, are being pressed ahead in Athens. The major problem is that of accommodation for the Duke and Duchess of Kent and other Royal and distinguished guests who will go to Athens for the wedding. During the Republic the old Royal Palace was turned into the Parliament building. To reconvert it would have been hopelessly expensive. The King, therefore, lives in the Crown Prince's Palace. It is small —about the size of the house in Piccadilly in which the King and Queen lived as Duke and Duchess of York. It is also overlooked by a block of flats, the occupiers of which can any day see King George II eating his lunch. Tatoi, the beautiful Windsor Castle of the Greek Monarchy, is nearly as far away as Windsor is from London. Also the work of reconditioning is not complete. Most of the Royal and other guests will therefore have to be accommodated in two hotels, the Grande Bretagne and the George 11. These will be taken over for the purpose. VIVACIOUS BRIDE-ELECT. Princess Frederika is dark, roundfaced, pretty, and one of the most vivacious of the Hohenzollerns. She is not a stranger to England, where she attended finishing school. Prince Paul is tall, with high forehead, receding hair, deep-set eyes, and wears a monocle. He is 15 years older than his bride-to-be. The Princess is a descendant of George II both through her mother, the Duchess of Brunswick, who is a daughter of the ex-German Emperor, and through her father, who was a first cousin of King George V and the Tsar Nicholas. Prince Paul is brother and heir to King George of Greece, and a cousin of the Duchess of Kent.^ The Prince and his fiancee have a common ancestor in George 111. , Attractive for holiday wear is the huge coolie beret, of vivid linen, which has the virtue of packing flat, and yet when worn is smartly peaked. The Misses M. T. and I. L. McKechnie, and Miss M. B. Smith, all of Christchurch, spent Christmas and the New Year with Mr. and Mrs. McKeclvnie, in Dumbartonshire, Scotland, and intend touring England and Scotland before returning to New Zealand early next year