PRINCESS ELIZABETH

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24874, 21 April 1944, Page 3

PRINCESS ELIZABETH

HEIRESS-PRESUMPTIVE TO THRONE EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY

Written for the New Zealand Herald When Princess Elizabeth attains her 18th birthday on April 21, she ! will come of age, as Heiress-Pre- | sumptive, but remain a minor, like i anyone else under 21-, as one of her | father's subjects. | This paradoxical position has been I established as the result of intense researches into the law governing minors by Lord Simon, the Lord Chancellor, undertaken on (he instructions of the King, who is keenly anxious that every possible loosq end in connection with the status of 1 his daughters should be clearly and j firmly tied up. I As soon as she is 18, the Princess | can succeed her father as a full Queen, ! with exercise and control of nil the Royal powers and prerogatives, and | no necessity whatever for a Council of ' Regency to guide her. And from April i 21 onward, she is available and liable. | under the terms of the Regency Act of I 1037, amended at the King's request | last year, to act as one of the five | Counsellors of State who must act for j him in the event of His . Majesty's ! absence abroad or severe illness, i But not for another three years, till I April 21, 19-17, will Her Royal lTigh- | ness Princess Elizabeth of Windsor | be legally able to sign documents on | her own responsibility, deal with or j control the private fortune which was left to her by her grandfather, King George V., or otherwise act as a fully grown-up person, unless she hecomes Queen in the meantime, in which case she automatically assumes her majority, as did Queen Victoria, who acceded when she was just over 18. Knowledge oi World Affairs So much for the Princess' legal position. But what every one of the millions who will be her subjects in the future wants to know is what kind of girl is she. And because of the fairlv strict seclusion in which she has been brought up, that is a question to which few people know the answer. Tall and slender, the Princess has blue-grey eyes of a very lively intelligence, darkish brown hair with a natural wave in it, a quick brain, her father's and grandfather's eye for detail, and a manner of rather shy charm. Pier voice is clear and well modulated, and she sings in a pleasant contralto of not very great volume. In knowledge of world affairs, of history and geography, with special attention to the British Empire, she is well above the average of well-educated English girls of her own age. and she speaks French fluently, with little accent and a good command of vocabulary. Mathematics is not a strong subject with her, and Latin and Greek are also not her favourites. She has learned a good deal of German and knows many of the poems of Schiller and Goethe by heart, as well as, of course, having Ions: passages of Shakespeare, Tennyson and other English poets by rote, besides Francois de Villon and other French writers. An Outdoor Girl j But she is far from a blue-stocking. I The Princess is emphatically an out- ! door girl and she is never happier I than when cantering through Windsor I Park astride or side-saddle on her I chestnut hunter, riding at the side of her father, with whom she has the very closest bonds of affection. She began to learn riding when she was four years old, arid like a true horsewoman readily agrees that she is still learning to-day and will go on always learning more about horses and their ways. At present her riding instructor is Colonel Dermot McMurrough Kavanagh. the Crown Equerry, himself an officer of the Hussars, and a martinet for correct behaviour in the saddle whether his pupil is a Roval Princess or a newly-joined trooper. The Princess rides with a ramrod-straight back, and has naturally good, easy hands. She can jump equally well astride or side-saddle, and is looking forward, when peace comes, to adding to her I brief experience of hunting—so far she j has been out only once with hounds, j when she rode with the Duke of Beau- | fort's pack during a visit to Queen j Mary last winter. I One other outdoor exercise has great | fascination for the Princess —swimI ming and diving. She has been able to j get a lot of practice at her wartime ! home in the country, for there is a j river close by. Unfortunately the ! elaborately-equipped private pool which j the King had built on the site of the j old tennis court at Buckingham Palace J I for his daughters is wrecked as n result I of a Nazi bomb. Strong and Fast Swimmer Jn flic water. Princess Elizabeth is strong and fast as a swimmer, and she can dive well in n number of different styles. Without any question of the results being "rigged" she won. much to the King's delight, the last Open Children's competition at the Bath Club before that hath. too. was destroyed by a bomb Royal wilticisms do not have to he very scintillating to raise a laugh from courtiers, but Princess Elizabeth's sense of humour is genuinely keen, j and she can crack a joke with such a serious expression that the point is doubled. In the pantomime which the Princesses give each year in aid of the Royal Household Wool Fund, there were, last Christmas, half a dozen "lines" which carried barbed shafts of wit against various members of the Royal entourage. They were the work of Princess Elizabeth, and when the King hoard them for the first time he literally I doubled up with laughter, turning round to see how those victims who were in the audience were taking ii. j All the fun was good-humoured and j courtiers who had not been deal! with by the Elizabethan wit were verv jealous of those who had! Writing in a neat., round hand, not unlike the King's, the Princess, like < her great-great-grandmother. Queen Victoria, is an indefatigable diarist and. in addition, all through the war has kept up a daily correspondence 1 with Queen Mary. More Public Appearances This year will see a certain number of changes in the Princess' life. Her appearance at the England-Scotland match at Wembley was the forerunner of many more public appearances at sporting and other events which she will make after her 18th birthday, but the change will not be dramatic or : drastic. There is, for instance, no substance in stories that she will set up her own household, or be given a separate establishment by the King. She will continue to live, as she does now, with her sister Margaret, attended by one footman, a maid and her old nurse. Mrs. Knight, with Scots-born Miss Marion Crawford, the governess.- in general charge. Had it not been for the war, of course, there would have been a fullscale, elaborate "coming out" party for the Princess as the principal event of a more-than-usually glittering London season. As it is, the Princess tvill

by a Special Correspondent at Court have only a small private dance, of the kind the King and Queen have given several times in the last few months for her, as her "coming-oi-I?oyaI -a ge " eel ehra tion. She dances well, with a good sense of time and rhythm, a.s befits one who has had many, many hours oi tuition, and she can perform the intricacies of a Highland reel or fliny; as well a.s the simpler steps of a foxtrot or wait/.. "Hot" music does not appeal very much to her. She prefers quieter, "sweeter" tunes, and is herself an up-to-average piano player. She has her own grand, and on it often plays duets with the Queen, who lias been a music lover since her girlhood. Princess Margaret, too, sometimes plays with her sister while the Queen listens, and between the two Princesses, one four years younger than the other, there is a, very deep sympathy and understanding. Up to now they have been inseparables; and one of the features of her new life, as she takes a growing part in public affairs, which definitely does not . please Princess Elizabeth is that Princess Margaret will not always be with her. No New Title At Palace parties, for instance, where the King and Queen mingle separately with their guests, the two Princesses remain always together, talking to whom they will, but never apart, so that one fits into the other's conversation with charming effect. Everyone knows now that the Princess will have no new title on her birthday. Though the King will probably make her a Privy Councillor, she will continue to be known as Princess Elizabeth. But few people know that this decision was reached by the King alter asking bis daughter her own wishes. And the fact that she prefers the simple style and title which lias been hers since birth is a symbol of the straightforward simple character of the young woman who one day will inherit the greatest responsibilities in the world.