DUAL THRONE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21990, 27 June 1933, Page 7

DUAL THRONE

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY HAPSBURG AS MONARCH (United Press Association.) fßy Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, June 26. (Received June 20, at 10 p.m.) The Daily Telegraph's diplomatic correspondent says that, in order to placate the Little Entente, the Archduke Otto and ex-Empress Zita have agreed to tht> revision of the so-called 'lron Crown Oath," which the Hapsburgs have hitherto taken when they became Kings of Hungary. In future there will be no claim to territories within the Little Entenl" other than the Danubian States. The Archduke Franz .losef Otto of Austria was born at Villa Wartholz, Lower Austria, on November 20. 1012. He is N the eldest son of the ex-Emperor Karl I of Austria (who also was King Karl IV of Hungary), and of Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma. His father died in exile at Funchal, Madeira, in April, 1922. In November. 1918, the family was expelled from Austria and took up its abode in Switzerland, living first at Schloss Hertcnstoin on the Lake of Lucerne. When the ex-Emperor and Empress after their two abortive attempts to regain the throne of Hungary were banished by the > Allies to Madeira in 1921, the children were taken to Schloss Wartegg, Switzerland, the seat of the ducal family of Bourbon-Parma, whose head is the step-brother of exEmpress Zita. Later, when she was allowed to go to Spain, her eight children were taken there. In April, 1922, a conference of the Legitimist parties in Hungary declared that it regarded Otto' as King of Hungary. The Queen-Mother, the statement added, was to be the guardian of the King's interests. But in November, 1922, the Hungarian Government replied to this declaration by decreeing the abolition of the entire Hapshurg dynasty so far as Hungary was concerned. This decision, however, is not recognised by the Legitimists on the ground that it was arrived at under pressure from the Entente. As the representative of the Legitimists, Count Josef Karolvi was in attendance on the ex-Queen and was charged with the supervision of "King Otto's" education. The count in February, 1925, stated that the lad was learning the Magyar, German, Croat and French languages. The family, he said, was entirely dependent on the revenue of a Hungarian estate, which amounted to 10,000 pesetas a month. Out of this the ex-Queen had to provide for 22 persons. Finally he declared that any forcible solution of the dynastic question would not be in the interest of the young " King." After a visit in the spring of 1927 to the Grand Ducal Court of Luxembourg the Archduke Otto was sent there in the summer to continue his education, receiving lessons at the Benedictine Abbey of Clerf. In the autumn of, 1929 it was decided that he should attend Louvain University and his mother, with her eight children, left Spain and took up her abode in Belgium in order to be near her eldest son. There has been talk from time to time of Archduke Otto being chosen as King of Hungary on condition that he renounced his right to the Austrian throne to. placate the Powers, but on this point his mother was obdurate. He came of age in 1930, however, and will be able to decide for himself, if the' crown is offered him.