Holland Seeks Prince-Consort For Future Queen

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 June 1927, Page 12

Holland Seeks Prince-Consort For Future Queen

OYAL matchmakers are ij having their troubles finding a suitable husband for Princess Juliy ana of Holland, the i plump and pleasant young woman who will some day be Queen of the Netherlands. For some time now dispatches from The Hague have been guardedly mentioning the fact that Juliana will soon be 18 years old, and intimating that it’s about time she was keeping company with some nice young man. But so far no candidate of proper birth, breeding and just the right degree of royalty has shown a disposition to batter down the dikes to lay himself at her feet. There are at least half a dozen good reasons why it should be as it is, and the first of these is the fact that, she will one day be Queen of the Netherlands. Only daughter of Queen Wihelmina and Prince Wilhelm of Mecklenburg, she is the sole heir to the Dutch throne, and so she cannot go gallivanting off to some foreign capital with a foreign husband.

That immediately disqualifies all reigning kings who might like to marry her, as well as foreign princes who might ever be called to thrones, in the list of those so disqualified are the Prince of Wales and King Boris of Bulgaria, Crown Prince Umberto of Italy, and Crown Prince Olaf of Norway, and .the Prince of the Asturias, who will one day wear the Spanish crown. Were it not for the taboo, the Prince of the Asturias would be an ideal match for the buxom Dutch girl. Prince Olaf of Norway would be particularly welcome to the good Hollanders did not his heir apparency remove him from the list. Even in view of his “disability” because he is heir to the British throne, the gossips like to play with the idea of a romance between the debonair Prince of Wales and Juliana. It would have been a mating fascinating to those who like to observe the meeting of opposite temperaments. The Prince is as active and gay and cosmopolitan in manner as the Princess is studious and serious and unmistakably Dutch. To date he has shown a decided preference for beautiful and vivacious young women who can dance and talk and perhaps flirt a little, whether they be blonde or brunette. And even the most loyal resident of The Hague will admit that Juliana is no Follies beauty —albeit a wholesome, winsome girl, and intellectuallly worthy of any prince or king on earth. Any prince or duke who marries the Princess can never -hope to rule with her, and is doomed by- the constitution to remain forevermore, as expressed before, a mere prince consort. A prince consort is the'husband of a queen and not much else. His business is to be her amiable and adoring domestic partner, the father of ■ chil-

dren who will occupy the throne denied to him as not of the blood royal, to stand beside her at state functions, and to be her silent and, if possible, admiring supporter when it comes to affairs of state. The more silent he is the more efficient a prince consort. This is, perhaps, the main reason why none of the acceptable young bluebloods of Europe has, to date, been hurt in the rush toward her royal mother’s door. "Poor Juliana," say the court ladies of the Netherlands, contemplating the small field of suitors from which she may select, while they have their admirers by the score. “Poor Juliana,” sighs the romantic schoolgirl, shuddering as she tries to imagine what it must be like to have a court council picking ones futuie hU ßut n the plump little Princess goes her way and apparently is the only person in the tight little kingdom of Holland who is not worried in the the least. She is still fancy free, her intimates say, and probably cherishes the dream that when the proper time comes Providence will raise her up a prince consort who shall be of just the proper degree of royalty, just the right admixture of sympathy and gallantry and, of course, young, handsome and gay-