“King of Poland” Wants to Return To Mew Zealand

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26792, 8 June 1948, Page 6

“King of Poland” Wants to Return To Mew Zealand

For the Daily Times, by Harvey Blanks.

LONDON, May 26.

If he can sell his printing press for enough money to buy his passage, his Majesty Wladislaw V, King of Poland, Hungary and Bohemia, Grand Duke of the Ukraine, Lithuania and Silesia, Hospodar of Moldavia, etc.—in fact, Geoffrey, Count Potocki de Montalk—will return to his native New Zealand. t He still strides about London in purple robes, bronze chains and sandals, with flowing shoulder-length hair, but these days he is a king without a court, consort or subjects. So he has decided to establish his court in New Zealand and await more favourable times for pressing his royal claims. “I’m ruddy well fed up with Britain,” states his Majesty.

I There can be no doubt that Potocki’s fortunes are at present at a fairly low ebb. London Poles, who at one time during the war were prepared to lend a- certain amount of support to the claimant to their throne, are annoyed With Wladislaw’s publicly expressed sympathy for the “ Nazi martyrs of Nuremburg.” In fact, he says, “The perpetrators of these trials will be punished by the Deathless Gods.” For Fptocki these days is a self-proclaimed pagan, intent upon restoring the ancient Greek deities and forms of worship. He was once a sun-worshipper, but, unhappily, there is little sun t' Worship in smoky, grey-skied London. iSo, his “subjects" having disowned hjm, his Majesty is living in a basement room in Islington, a suburb where he enjoys a considerable local reputation for being an expert judge of offal and cheap cuts of meat at the local butchers, where he queues every Saturday morning, in purple robes, with a paper shopping bag dangling from his arm. Potocki de Montalk was b.orn in Remuera, Auckland, on October 3, 1903, at 11.30 a.m.—the time being important, he emphasises, in casting the horoscope which led him to establish his dynasty. His great-grandfather was a Polish count, and it is through him that he traces his allegedly royal descent. His grandfather was. a professor of modern languages at a New Zealand university, and his father was. the architect who designed Auckland’s first exhibition. His mother was English. Intelligent Youth Potocki seems to have been an intelligent youth, winning scholarships and becoming a pupil teacher at th age of 15. while still wearing shor' trousers. He took a short course at ? theological college, but soon joined the ranks of the theosophists, and took up the study of magic and witchcraft. When he was 20 he married ' into theosophist family, and has a daughter still living in New Zealand. In an interview he once commented with evident amusement and satisfaction that “ it’ll put the wind up the Pope when he learns that the Heiress to the throne of Poland is a fourthgeneration theosophist.” Separating from his wife, Potocki saved enough money to get to Europe, and for a while eked out a precarious living teaching languages in London "and Paris. It was while living In France that he announced his claim to the throne of Poland,, adopted the rank of count, and took to wearing medieval costumes during his spare time. In 1932, his Majesty ran into considerable trouble. He took a number of poems he had written to a printer to have them set up into type for printing on his private press. The printer took one horrified look at the manuscripts and rushed off to the police. On February 8 Potocki appeared in the dock at the Old Bailey, wavy hair descending to his shoulders and dressed in a scarlet robe and white scarf, with golden sandals. He was charged with publishing an obscene libel, but in his defence claimed he was conducting a private literary experiment designed to uplift people’s minds.

took in boarders and grew herbs. He had a new printing press and displayed considerable ingenuity in his long campaign against Regulation 18b, which detained Fascist sympathisers, including Sir Oswald Mosley. But on December 6, 1942, Potocki quarrelled with the Fascists, “ because of their damnable ingratitude,” and from that day onwards, as he carefully points out., “ the Axis began to lose the war.” Royalist Campaign Potocki then launched his grand Royalist campaign. He issued a manifesto, founded the Polish Royalist Association, held court for Polish servicemen in England, conferred knighthoods, rewarded valour and merit with hereditary titles and deeds of land grants. Occasionally, if he later changed his mind, he issued royal rescripts taking them back again. Another blackout offence summons was served on him, but he did not appear, sending instead a royal representative to court. On this occasion, the judge referred to him as “ the king of humbug” and Potocki immediately issued a writ for libel. This did not prevent him serving a further sentence of two months.

Potocki then moved to his present basement room at Islington, and continued to publish pamphlets, manifestos and maps showing Kiev included in his kingdom. He also issued a satirical fantasy dealing with a mythical partition of the British Isles. It is still extremely readable and amusing. In 1944, he decided to assume personally the leadership of the Polish Army, which necessitated the sacrifice of his long, wavy heir. It was ceremoniously clipped by a Polish chaplain and burned in the vestry hearth with myrr and frankincense. But something went wrong and his Majesty decided that running his court was a full-time occupation. Now his subjects have disappeared, the London Poles disown him, and, to aggravate matters, he suffers from chronic toothache. His cheek is constantly swollen, “ giving us,” so he states, “a deplorably unregal appearance.” But he sflll wears his robes and sandals, his scarves and bronze chains and clasps. He is so, common a figure in Fleet Street and down the Strand these days that few people bother to turn and stare. But I can’t heljj wondering how New Zealanders will receive him if he succeeds in selling his press and honours the Dominion once more with his presence. I can make a few shrewd guesses, though.

Commented the recorder: "You may call it poetry, but to me it is the sort of stuff a schoolboy would scrawl on lavatory walls. Literature must .be protected from this sort of offal.” So his Majesty went to gaol for six months Yet» opinion among fair-minded Eeople at the time was that Potocki ad been harshly treated. Some famous literary figures contributed to his defence, including H. G. Wells, Havelock Ellis, Bertrand Russell, Walter de la Mare, Aldous Huxley and T. S. Eliot. The gaol authorities took Potocki’s cloak from him, but he ; fought successfully to retain his long hair, and afterwards wrote a satirical pamphlet of real wit and merit, entitled “Snobbery with Violence.” Visit to Poland Robes and sandals became Potocki’s full-time dress when he emerged from gaol, and later the same year he left for Poland to establish his claim, being careful, for the purposes of his horoscope, to arrive on the date of his grandfather’s birthday. He lived for a time in a cottage outside Cracow, staying with a young count who lived on ewes’ milk. But they fell out, the count landing his Majesty with what he afterwards ruefully described as " a fourpenny one.” Instead of hitting back, Potocki summoned :the count for assault, and when the count’s sister complained that he should have fought a duel at dawn instead, sternly replied: “ Since when, madam, was your brother ray equal?” Back in England, he found himself in the Police Court again in October, 1939, for arrears of rent. He refused to take the oath, and swore by Apollo instead. When an order for possession wss made agsinst him, Potocki s reply made headlines: “Thank you. I sincerely hope Hitler Will win, your Honor.” , , , , , The fall of Poland, however, led him to proclaim the establishment of his court in London. A shield with the royal coat of arms of Poland appeared over Potocki’s door, and tne Polish standard was flown regularly from the roof-top. A notice outside read: “The Kingdom of Poland—His Majesty’s Secretariat ” _ . In July, 1940,; Potocki .was in the dock once more. ' He denied assaulting a policeman, .causing grievous bodily harm, and also pleaded not guilty to two lighting restrictions offences. The prosecution stated that he had ignored summonses on the black-out so a warrant was issued -for his arrest, policemen who called for him found the door barricaded with mattresses and books. . They ordered him to open UP “ Come in here, and I will clock you with this axe,” replied his Majesty. Tolerance Strained The British police are noted for their tolerance, but they were not going to be spoken to in this manner, do they forced their way in, .and the enraged Potocki threw an axe at one of them, hitting him on the head. In his defence, Potocki said he had considered that, as King of Poland, he was outside the jurisdiction of the court which had issued the summonses against him. The police “invasion •was “violation of the territory of a sovereign State.” . In the dock with Potocki, was a French woman referred to as Odile Juliette Aline Potocki de Montalk. Queen of Poland. She told the court she had married Potocki " according to the ancient pagan religion. The marriage was witnessed and a copy of the special certificate sent to the Registrar-general asking him to make the marriage valid under British law. The magistrate was not impressed, and imposed a sentence of three months’ imprisonment. The charge against the wife was dismissed. Out of gaol again, Potocki settled with his consort at Little Bookham,