PRINCESS ELIZABETH

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20784, 20 April 1939, Page 6

PRINCESS ELIZABETH

13TH BIRTHDAY TO-MORROW WILL MAKE HER DEBUT IN 1942 LONDON, March 24 A debutante who went to Court this month and made her first curtsies before the King and Queen remarked, rather surprisingly to her family next morning, that though she has enjoyed herself she envied her younger sister. The sister was a schoolgirl who hopes to be presented in three years’ time. To a'chorus of “Whys?” the debutante explained that her sister would probably have the added fun of being presented in the same year as Princess -Elizabeth made her debut. And she very well may, for plans are already being prepared for the coming-out of the Queen's elder daughter. This will be soon after she has been confirmed, at Easter 1942.

A month before her thirteenth birthday, the Princess has been promoted to stockings. For one who who is still considered a little girl this must seem an event of some importance. Yet, in the space of but three years she will be taking her grown-upness for granted, attending State banquets and undertaking public engagements in the company of her own ladies-in-waiting. She will then be considered old enough to have her own income, her own accounts, her own tradesmen and to be addressed as “Your Royal Highness.” At present, within the Palace, she is known simply as “Princess.” Never to Old Princess Elizabeth will discover that even for an adult of sixteen, lessons are not really over. They never will be, if she is to take her future Queen-ship seriously. Training to be first-lady-in-the-land is a life-time task. Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the American President, knows the truth of this as well as anyone. She has made well over 2000 speeches—but she still thinks she hasn't had enough practice! So the President’s wife is taking elocution lessons to train her speaking voice and doing laborious exercise to develop breathing control. Her teacher Mrs Elizabeth von Hesse, makes her repeat such sentences as, “seven times one are seven”; “Oh, open your folded wrapper where two twin turtle-doves twine.” Mrs Roosevelt once went to a school in London, and it seems that she caught the bad habit of pronouncing “0” in the English way. She is now trying to change her pronunciation for Americans prefer to hear a rounder sounding “0”