DUKE AND DUCHESS OF WINDSOR AT HOME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 5 (Supplement)

DUKE AND DUCHESS OF WINDSOR AT HOME

THE Duke and Duchess of Windsor are to-day just two human beings trying to do their best in a job which Great Britain had selected for them, writes Helen Waterhouse, Bahamas correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor. They told me that in their new home at Nassau, Bahamas, where I was granted one of the few exclusive interviews which they have given to reporters since coming to their new post. . . \ week had gone by since my arrival in Nassau —a week in which I had been told how hurt they had been by some of the false reports in the American press and how they were loath to be interviewed again on account ot them. Word had sifted down to me through the first aide-de-camp, to the 'second, and so on, that the Duchess wa s so busy with the war relief work work that she really didn't have time for reporters. - Work for War Sufferers I had caught fleeting glimpses of ber. at church with the Duke. 1 had followed her to the home of the evacuee children and seen her stoop to gather them craciousl.v in her arms, while the Duke shot at targets with them. 1 had seen her enter the I'ed Cross headquarters, where she is in charge of much of the work of preparing garments for the war sufferers. And 1 had watched her as she stood with the Duke, reviewing the troops of stalwart negro inhabitants of the island, as they swung down over the Nassau hillside past the ancient fortress.

But this was to lie an official interview—in which I could question her at u -j|l— alu l the powers-t hat-be were franklv dubious about it. So it was with elation that Captain Drury. head aide-de-camp, approached me one day and said, "'i on are requested to visit the Duke and Duchess at their home to-morrow morning at SUIO." And as we wound our way by car through the narrow streets of the town teeming with lite and colour —- grass hats for sale on every corner, sail-boats lifting their masts at the

street ends. Captain Drury, recently over from London, instructed me <>u the correct etiquette when I should meet His Koyal Highness and his American-born Duchess. Ridiculous Stories The low, pink-roofed villa glistened under the rays of the tropical morning sun. The door opened suddenly and the pair stopped out. They turned to watch me as 1 turned to meet them. 1 found the Duchess saying unexpectedly, "You and 1 have been cor-

respondents for a long time, haven't we ?" .She was referring to the fact that when the romance of this pair broke upon the world 1 had written to her in Paris requesting an interview. And she had replied at that time that it she ever came to this country she would be glad to grant me one. The Duke said warmly, "We liked your story about us and the refugee children." The stories that they are Nazi sympathisers, the Duchess branded as "absolutely ridiculous and untrue." Then there was the story that the Duchess had removed Queen Mary's portrait from the walls of Government House because the Queen had refused to recognise her. "Wh v. on the contrary, she suggested that we move my mother's portrait from its rather obscure niche in a building adjoining Government House and place in on the walls of the main salon," averred the Duke, with some heat. A Real Task The criticism that they are spending their time in a round of frivolous parties: ".Just, because I plav a round of golf a day to keep fit, do they think I am not working?" "If the truth were known,"' interposed the Duchess, "the Duke doesn't leave his ollices at Government House until well alter o every day—later than most of bis secretaries, iu fact." The Duke, I know, has laid out for himself a real task—to start some sort of industry on the ring of outer liahaman Islands, which are fertile fields for the raising of cattle, ihe growing of certain crops, and the production of certain wood. 1 know. too. how the Duchess is planning to instruct the women of fhe Bahamas in the increased

uses of their natural grasses and the making of hats and baskets. As we sat on the broad, tiled porch where a splashy golden tropical plant furnished a fitting background for the Duchess in her blue-violet dross with the sparkling earrings and the one diamond clasp at her shoulder—the Duke rose once to speak to a negro boy who was painting letters on the side of a station waggon. "Dream of a House" "Don't paint the words _ 'Government House' so big," he said to the boy. "Alter all, we don't want to advertise ourselves, and some time we might want to tour the States in that waggon. What would ihe _ words 'Government House' mean iu the States!'" We stepped into the house- —a dream of a house belonging to a Uahaman resident, Frederick S»-grist, who has loaned it to the Duke and Duchess until their own residence at Government House is completed. Groat bowls of flowers stood on tables and stands everywhere. Rainbowlined zinnias, garden lilies, and azaleas were mixed with rare tropical blooms. The Duchess spends several hours each day arranging her flowers, she said. The wicker furniture was "homey" ami comfortable, there were books laid down with their places marked, and a backgammon board with the counters sfiil in position for play. The tropical suu shone through the windows on the Duke's blond hair. His three cairn terriers —I'reezv, Pookv, and Dot to —sported at his loot. Presently the black government limousine drew up at the door, and the Duke and Duchess announced that they must be about their day's duties. "Waving as they went, they were driven down the path.