THE PRINCE AT THIRTY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 January 1925, Page 8

THE PRINCE AT THIRTY

“HE NEEDS A WIFE.” , i A CINDERELLA FROM THE COLONIES? We are at a moment of stock-taking in respect of our good fortune in possessing our Royal Family (writes a London correspondent under date December 2). To-day Queen Alexandra celebrates her 80th year at Sandringham, and one of our reviews makes the occasion of its December number one for publishing a study of “The Prince of Wales at Thirty.” While we are all familiar with the things that endear the on© and the other toi us, w© make no apology for giving our readers an idea of the contents of the Fortnightly Review’s article on H.R.11. Beginning this saga with an account of his early days in White Lodge, Richmond Park, where the King and Queen, then Duk© and Duchess of York, resided and brought up all their six children iust like any other well-born Britons, it goes on to tell of the thorough training with his tutor (Mr H. P. Hansell), who has so big a share in making the Prince as unspoilt and natural as “the best and nicest type of English public school, ’Varsity Englishman of good family, something 3 of a scholar, a great deal of a sportsman, and an athlete, a grave and gentle giant, a strange and rather touching contrast with ' our still boyish-looking Prince. ’ ’

The Prince was fonder of football than cricket. At the age of twelve he was captain of a football eleven a.t Sandringham. Of that team of small boys nine served in the Great War; all were wounded except thee Prince, one was invalided out of the Army, and four died. The Prince, as all the world knows, escaped but narrowly, perhaps his nearest shave being that on which his car was Smashed by a shell and liis chauffeur killed during his brief absence from the car.

Unlike King George, the Prince is not keen on shooting, but lie does like fishing, as New Zealanders well know. The Prince’s training, first for the Navy, then at Oxford and a few months in Paris, is all described,; and of the latter the author recounts a born mot current at tlie time the Prince was in Paris in Mr Hansell’s charge —that the. Prince had “too much Hansell and too little f Gretel,” from which we may take .it that Mr. Hansell saw to it that gay Payee did not absorb too much time from liis charge’s more serious studies. The Prince was at Oxford when the war broke out, and had already “marched, fought and camped with the /Officers' Training Corps.’’ He was then very thin and weedy. A Tommy, it is related, having heard the Prince’s voice commended, said, “Sings, does he. Well, so’e ought by the look of his legs.” He has altered that by his keenness to keep fit. Just before the Rumanian Royalties came over this year he found lie had put a couple oi pounds to his weight. “This won’t do',” ne said, “the Rumanian Royalties will oe here, and I won’t, he able' to get into mv uniform.”

This is an article which I feel sure every New Zealander would like to read, but as there are many who may not ba within reach uf a Fortnightly, 1 cannot forbear quoting the eiid. Did we not all think that the Prince had left his heart down under? Hear, then, what this writer says

“The Prince at thirty seems quite happy, and lie makes other people nappy, wherever he goes. . . But tlie heart knows its own sorrow, and in the Prince’s cup of bliss there is just a touch of acid, one imagines. Yes, lie needs to settle down. Above all, he needs a wife. Here we approach very delicate ground indeed.

Whom will he marry? Some young princess from the Continent? The choice has always been restricted by consideration of religion. The daugh ter of some old English family of high degree? The Prince’s associates reply with a laugh that they haven’t the slightest idea, on the point. Even Queen Mary they think is in the dark. One can only speculate idly, remembering that we are in a time of quite sensational transition —a time when a British Cophetua might almost choose a beggar maid, or, at any rate, a Cinderella. Perhaps there is a Cinderella waiting somewhere in the - colonies, or in Perth, shall, we say. or Monmouth, or the County Clare? Perhaps in New York. Whv not? Perhaps close at^hand in London.