People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 14 October 1915, Page 43

People We Hear About

_ The King of the Belgians has two sons: The elder, Prince Leopold, Duke of ; Brabant; is fourteen years of age, and has already been enrolled as- a private in the Belgian Army; . and Prince, Charles I Theodore, Count of Flanders,,is twelve this month. - ' r Take him all in all, Porfirio Diaz,was a great manthe greatest Mexico ever produced,' writes Mr. W. H. Sloan, formerly a Protestant missionary in Mexico, who knew Diaz personally. As a statesman, publicist, judge. of men, military chief, husband and father,-he can hardly be" overpraised; while as a man and. friend he was a most lovable character. It may be a century before Mexico sees another such ruler. It is an easy thing to call such a man a "despot," "dictator," "tyrant," but Diaz knew his people, and with patriotic love for them he strove for their advancement and best welfare. He did not foolishly promise universal suffrage to people who did not know what it meant, but he did seek their education and political fitness to rule, and if he had been left alone perhaps he would have realised his purpose.' ; . Prince Louis of Savoy, Duke of Abruzzi,. admiral of the fleet of Italy, is distinguished as an explorer and mountain climber, and at the time of the earthquake which destroyed Messina, as well as last January, when Avezzano and its vicinity were roughly shaken, he was a leader in relief work. From his earliest youth, the duke has made his life one of activity and of service. He entered the navy and went to the United States on board an Italian warship when he was eighteen years old. He became so interested on his first trip there that he returned some five or six years later, and then he returned about ten years ago. The Duke of Abruzzi won more renown "as an explorer and climber of mountain peaks than in any other of the pursuits to which he had given attention. He ascended Mount Elias, Alaska, made his way .to a height of 24,000 feet, the greatest on record, in the Himalayas, and he penetrated far into the recesses of the Uganda

district of Afi-ca. Italy's sea chief is only forty-two years old, and is more like an American business man in appearance than a European naval officer. On the occasion of the Queen of the Belgians' birthday (says the London Daily Telegraph) the heartfelt good wishes of her own subjects and of rightthinking men and women in every country were accorded to her Majesty. There were both tragedy and pathos in the circumstances in which the celebration took place this year. With her country devastated by the ruthless Huns, with her people driven into exile or fighting heroically for the last few miles of native ground which remain to them, Queen Elizabeth stands as an inspiring example of womanly courage and fortitude. A member of the Royal House of Bavaria, the Princess Elizabeth was born on July 25, 1876, at Possenhofen. In October, 1900, she married at Munich Prince Albert of Belgium, who succeeded to the throne of that country on the death of his uncle, King Leopold 11., in December, 1909. Their union was singularly happy, and until the dark clouds of war burst over the land their domestic felicity was unmarred. They have three beautiful children, of whom the eldest, the Due de Brabant, will be 14 years of age in November. Queen Elizabeth has been' an excellent mother, taking the greatest personal care of her children's education. Among the Belgian people she is extremely popular and highly esteemed. For years she has identified herself with leading works of philanthropy in her adopted country, gaining the approbation of all classes, who, though greatly divided among themselves politically, are unanimous in recognising in their Queen an intense desire to benefit every class, irrespective of religion or politics.