ROYAL ROMANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 10

ROYAL ROMANCE

KING'S FORMAL CONSENT PRIVY COUNCIL MEETING • [JTBOM a special correspondent] LONDON, Jan. 1 The first Sunday Privy Council to be summoned since the Great War was held this week at Sandringham, when the King gave his formal consent to the marriage of 20-year-old Princess Frederika of Brunswick, to Crown Prince Paul of Greece. The meeting ' was attended by the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and the Earl of Athlo'ne. .Under the Royal Marriages Act, the King, as head of the House of WindBor, must announce his assent before the Privy Council whenever any one •in the line of succession proposes to marry. The Princess is a great-great-grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, and therefore in the line of succession. Prince Paul is brother and heir presumptive to King George 11. of Greece. It was a sudden decision by the King which resulted in the calling of the meeting. It lasted only a few minutes, and the King, his brothers and their uncle then resumed holiday festivities. As the business- was formal and a " "family affair," it was not thought necessary to summon any but Royal Privy Councillors. If the Princess had been 26, this procedure would not have been necessary. The Act applies only to descendants of George 11., under that age. 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, to a Mrs. Horton, and of another, the Duke of Gloucester, to Lady Waldegrave.