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The Seaforth News, 1962-10-11, Page 6Princess With A Mind Of Her Own Orc of she must popular :reel determined moult:wa of mu' Royal Funnilythat as Pitn:e .s Marina, faorsnerl,y Dindwes of Kent. Through the years the thinness has endeared tact self to the B it- ish public by her persotiallty, and charm. DM even a.s ai^ child in her stmt Greece she had the sate endearing qualities, as well as being one of the loveliest of children with her gold -brown eyes and hair. In those far-off, tar away days she learned her beautiful I1ng- lish from her Governess, erne a Miss Fest, and cvi'n t t.itsten-on saying her goodnight pi'ayer•s lit English, When her grandmother, Queen Olga asked why =hi. wutlkln't pray iu Greek elle replied: "I y e :i rcutred it w•itll God. i told hien 1 liked to talk to }lire m English best, :aim He said: 'Please yothiself, Marine. All tan, iumei are the same to hie.'" • Otiu cve.tiug she was told to go to beet at six o'clock and say her prayers like any other good littler girl. - "Lots -of other little girls are going to bed now." she argued. "God must he terribly busy lis- lennig to all their prayer,. "I: I go to bed later on, the rush will be over and Gad will nano more limo to listen to me.„ Iter father, Prince Nicholas, once lectured her for some mis- deed, telling het she ought to tell God . he wac sorry for being naughty. Locking him straight in the rye, site aastvcr,•d: "What would be the use? If God knows every- thing He :oust know I'm sorry without beim; told. 1 don't want to waste His- time," She didn't like music lessons, so her father sat down at the piano and began picking out nursery rhymes with one finger while she solemnly watched. "Colne along," • he said. "you see Papa trying, don't you?" "Yes," she replied with a quick, Mischievous smile, "that's why I don't." Papa retired. defeated. Her French governess, Mlle. Perrin, said of her at the age of six: "I remember how delighted she was when I had a headache, "She would come into my room pretending -to be the doctor and put cold compresses on my fore- head, In doing en she saturated my hede1othes!' These stories are recounted in an admirable. bio- graphy H,R.II. Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent by J. Went- worth Day. As a young girl Marina was re- solved to marry only for love. Once she overheard the family solemnly discussing the upheaval caused when her elder sister Olga suddenly broke off her en- gagement to the Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark. , "Why on earth," she broke "should Olga marry him if she doesn't love him? I wouldn't..." Smiling, her mother comment- ed: Out of the mouths of babes. , ." A game she loved to play with her two sisters and friends was "keeping house" up in a fig tree en en island where the Prin- cesses spent their summer. Baro- ness Helena von der Hoven, a family friend recorded: "Each member of the party had her own branch which rep- resented tier 'room' and all the figs cn thi: branch were entire- ly hut property. - "0ne could visit the other and exchange fruit which was care- fully passed over on fresh green leaves. "It needed a 1e11 of agility out to diem any and if su i a mis- fernme happened .t was greeted with c ;.:it ',f merry laughter and -Thoegli one :.,t the youngest. i rinees:?.farina was always the :sing -leerier :and kept the company to i1;; of i:uahter by mimicking ISSUE 39 — 1962 hes geveraess." More than mire during her girlhooet war and revolution dreve the f:un,ly into exile. 1u. _n Genie, bee,une 0 re put,'ic under Vemizeles in 1922 sono k ii g Cunstaatine, her uncle, hitt his etuntry for ever, Print'e. -Nicholas nccontpami'd hint to 1'a111ela, 511110, lie alr,'ri cabled hi;- wile and two elder daughter,. hi Pari.,, and Marina. who had Been seal to England. to join hien. And there the family -remitted. Once snore, says Wentworth Day, their runts had been torn • up,- Their old hoose had gone, Their fortune was confis£ated, For the second time they were wanderers on the fare of .the earth Marina, then a tall, slender sixteen, looked. at her parents and said, with that tesueh of miss chief which sometimes lit her face. "We really needn't. have unpacked our trunks." Later, e r, in Paris, Prince Niehn'las took a studio at Auteuil, painted all day, and sold his pictures at ;nod prices to augment the meagre family funds. He and Manua often went out sketching. One day a little girl with her mother stopped and stared at the couple, Busy with their paint boxes. "Are those musicians, Mum- my." she asked. "Do we have to rive them a sort?" After Constantine's abdication her uncle. Prince Christopher, reseeed hoe rattler's money and >e'ealitles and her mother's jew- ellery in a daring easeape from Athens at a time when five min- isters and a general were shot by. Venieelos's orders and her other uncle, Prince Andrew — Prince Philip's father—narrowly escap- ed the same fate. • Helped by his lawyer ane old tutor Prince "Christo" stowed the jewellery in an old wooden box with its bottom almost falling out. put on his oldest clothes. and drove clown to the quay. There the three boarded a small rowing boat, fearing every minute that the harbour officials would recognize and detain then. They'd brought with them a .large white Persian eat 10 a basket. Marina's mother's dear- est pet, It drew attention to them by yowling, Next a suitcase burst open. Storks, share certificates, money spilled out and were hastily stuffed back. When they reached their ob- jective, an Italian steamer, an armed Greek sentry with orders to examine every passport bar- red the gangway. Venizelos was staking sure that nce member of the royal family would get away on that ship. "Christo" ran up the gangway, gave the sentry a tremendous blew in the stomach which dou- bled him up, and rushed to his cabin, where the sentry had no power to arrest him. The tutor got past, too, with all the luggage, jewels, money, and securities. Despite all her family's mis- fortunes Marina. eventually found happiness in her marriage to Prince George, Duke of Kent, who said of her: "She's the one women with whom I could be happy to spend the test of my life," But tragedy. dogged her again when he died in an air crash in Scotland during the Second World War. Wentworth Day gives a reveal- ing account of her life and per- sonality, and the dramatic events that beset her family, in this first authentic biography. Today the Princess is an ele- gant and much respected public figure who shows little of the many, and sometimes harrowing, vicissitudes she has had to en- dure. -This timely biography can only further enhance the wide r. -teem in which she is held. Obey the traffic signs — they are placed thele for YOUR SAFETY. Gwendoline P Clarke For more than a decade readers of this, and many other Canadian weeklies, have followed with interest the happen- ings described in the column entitled "Chronicles of Ginger Farm". There was little of the sensational or headline -making in those happenings. Week after week, season after season and year after year the column chronicled the life of the Clarke family living — and working — on a Southern On- tario farm. Yet the charm, and above all the sincerity of the writing were such that countless readers came to look upon the family as personal friends. So it was with real regret that readers of the "Chronicles" learned a week or so ago that Mrs. Clarke has decided to bring the columna to an end; and on their behalf we extend to her congratulations for a job well done and best wishes for the future. The Editor Kidnapped 013 Her Honeymoon! The beautiful young bride had always dreamed of a luxurious honeymoon on the French Rivie- ra. But she and her sailor -hus- band had had such a whirlwind courtship they only had enough money far their hotel expenses. That was why Joachim Pros chnow and his twenty-one-year- old bride, Helga, were hitch -hik- ing down to the coast. "We'll have a honeymoon you'll never forget!" vowed Joachim, after the wedding at Cuxhaven, Germany, He didn't know how right he was -but it was not in the way he imagin- ed... An attractive girl doesn't. have to wait long on the highway if she wants a lift—even though she is not alone. The first car that stopped took them to Hamburg. Next day they had reached Basle, in Switzer- land. It was already dark es they tried to thumb a lift on the third stage of their trek. A big, fast car stopped, "Where do you want to go to, friends?" asked the swarthy young elan at the wheel. "Anywhere to the South? Yes, that's the only sen - TAKING A BIG BITE --- Actor James Mason appears to be biting his lip as his ottorney, Joke Erlich (right), argues with Pamela Mason's lawyer, Paul Caruso, over the presence of Portland Mason (left) 13, at a separate maintenance suit conference of Santa Monica, Colic 7'l,e jurl-fie awarded Mrs. Mason (center) $7,000 monthly, pending hearing of her suit for divorce. Bible thing to do in this terrible wet summer. You're lucky, I'm going through to Marseilles," As the radio played soft music, the driver asked questions. When he discovered they were just married - and were on their honeymoon, he exclaimed: "What a pity! I am always too late," A few hours later the Algerian stopped outside a roadside inn. "I've run out of cigarettes," he said, turning to Joachim, "Will you get me three packets?" Joachim felt slightly uneasy, but he went into the inn to buy the cigarettes. Two minutes later, as he came out, he saw the tail -lights of the ear disappearing along the road! h1 the car Helga screamed in tereor. Stop. elle shouted, "or I'll Jump out;" The Algerian laughed, "To jump out of a car at 90 m.p.h. is suicide!" Meanwhile Joachim was in a frenzy, He knew that unless the Algerian was shopped something terrible would happen to Helga. The innkeeper was helpful, IIe phoned the police and found a motorbike w hich Joachim could ]tire, Leaping an the machine, ,Joac- him roared away in pursuit, In half an hour he was only a few yards behind the Algerian. Thun- dering along beside the Rhone - Rhine canal they reached a dan- gerotas bend. Neither slackened speed. • "Look out!" .screamed Belga. }jut it wes too late—the ear crashed through the barrier and plunged below the surface of the nano:. Ti.-1i•ing off his jacket. Joie:tore dived -in. flut be could neer no- thing in the) murky water. 'flies •suddenly tw'o heed:: bobbed to the surlaec, Joachim swam over to Helga and tried to calm her as cite struggled in the water. 'I'11on he peeped with relief as the police cars roared up to the acro, of the c•altai and played their :carehlightr on the water. The three were soon fished out. Amar.ingly, nuns of then) ova,,. hurt. - The Algerian is new in Madhouse jail, awaiting his trial, 1tetr a and Joachim ea-MI/mod -tlic:ir honegmoon. But they won't - der env more hitch -hiking,. tVhen the average husband looks around and sees the kind ef men most women marry, he can't help thinking that Itis wife has clone mighty well, Two Masterpieces For Price Of One It looked at first like a routine job. The palating just neecleci cle:aning . • nineteenth -century varnish had turned the lady's clucks a bide yellow ---and the canvt.s backing, which was dis- integrating from old rage; needed rcplacing. In Kansas City, some wcel,rt sago, jatncs troth, an ex- pert art cnitser'"•ator, quietly be- gan restoring C_cz:uene's "t"he Ar'tist's Si<trtn." The ptt!altig, owned by the 5t, Louis City Art 1'Vluseum, was one of eight Cesanues that -had .been. stolen a yeas' ago while on loan to an exhibit in Aix. en- 'Provence. France, the utist's bii'tltplac '. The stolen paintings were all found in an abandoned automobile in Marseille last April:- f'or'tunately the thieves had treated "The Ar'tist's Sister" gently, and it had suffered' al- most no damage: The thieves had only removed its frame. Once it was lammed.. the St. Louis 1itu- scum decided to have it cleaned and ielined, In his lab, Rohl started on the backing after Ile I'mished the cleaning jab. First he carefully cut the old liner .away -in strips with a razor blade. Then be at- tacked the unusually thick layer of glue tmdernenth, With wet packs of warns water -soaked gauze, he reduced it to a jelly- like consistency and began deli- cately picking the particles away with miniature spatulas. What 'emerged to Roth's surprise, was not the blank brown canvas he had expected to find but a heavy application of dark green paint. During three days of digging out glue, Roth watched as another Cezanne---a portrait of a peasant —gradually appeared. Last month, the St. Louis Mu- seum put its double Cezanne on view, suitably mounted so that the faces on both sides were vis- ible. Since the newly found one is upside down in relation to "The Artist's Sister," a guard obligingly swivels it vertically in its- special frame for the benefit Of visitors. Museum director Charles Nagel has estimated that the find raises the value of the work to $225,000, $75,000 more than the current value of the original painting, which the mu- seum bought for only $7,500 in 193De4, lighted with his double painting, Nagel commented last month in St, Louis: "It's a nice little dividend. A fantastic turn of events — to have a painting stolen, get it back, and then find out you have two instead of one "It's a fully realized sketch with the full authority of Cezan- ne's talent," Nagel said. "It was probably done when he was in his early 20s, a few years before he did his sister in 1888 or '09, It's an obvious choice, if you had to cover one face or the other, which one you would choose, but it is stili a sketch of museum quality." Great Catastrophe Almost Forgotten. The most generally forgotten grand catastrophe in recent his- tory, except by those who were close to it, is probably the Jap- anese earthquake of 1923. Yet among all the natural disasters of which convincing records are available, this was the greatest in all history. In Tokyo alone, it resulted in a lire covering nearly twice the area of the fa- mous London, Chicago, and San Francisco fires combined. Some 60 per cent of the city, including 300,000 private houses, was de- stroyed. In Yokohama things were worse -80 per cent of the city reduced to rubble and ashes. The total loss of life was around 140,000 inane or the atom -bends or incendiary firer in japan dur- ing World War 11 was store de- structive plan the 1923 Tokyo blaze or approached it in .u•ea). One reason why the horror leas been so widely forgotten is the Japenese stoic genius for suffer- ing colossal damage and then get- ting en quietly with the repairs. Liftitig this curtain of silence, Noel 1. Busch has written a vivid, terrible, titin in many ways inspiring book entitled "Two Minutes Te Noon." The effect is 811 the stronger bectaise Sus+zh, an experienced journalist and writer 00 Oriental su.Ibjeets, now with Reader'sDigest, has e forte. al clarity of expoeit inn +sting would ceiteinly appeal 1) -`elle eltssic Japanese taste. The• start of all the vt1 51ot ^,s- atiol • was the e15111oei ghic :harks which began lar hOlore noon on Sept. 1, c•entr t in Sagrno :Bay some 17 h- wesr of Tokyo. Hi, pidly, the quakes slttttered the e iod :•mt paper J 1 pancse hmtrc. , it 1rIto buildings were mostly left t. 1111 tug); a myriad of fin 1:, ..c etlt; they were often fed by o11 111111 the bursting tanks cr <r1!I,i !coin industay;-tical staves 1,:.001 - ed over - the shores, :Ind es the appalling heat inland I .11<1. d vast updrafts, air lenient ie and formed whirlwincla and 1 ur:: which left fantastic c.,Y.1 One great twister, for exampleo'- ed through the open -pee.. bit Tokyo's Army Clolein, Depot, where 40.000 people i ati eia : sett to escape the fit until beet. t +nd when it had passed on;y .1 1011 hundred were 1:1t a',vi:.• ty nightfall, the fiery city =:reed as a reacting lamp for peep: 10 miles away. - Among the many sut;nner he interviewed, Busch is spe:ielle attentive to Dr, Eikic`tiu lkegu- chi, who lost hie wile and three children in the regime nm; furnace and was violently scoreleed him- self, Iie spent the following her. rendous hours convirued that his own death was near, but p- <inn- ately determined to have the bodies of his near and cleat re- covered and properly but'ied. Upon his pasting with Dr Ike- guchi, Busch makes the comment: "The Japanse, as is well known, have a custom of bowing when • they say good -by. I was glad to conform with this on taking leave of Dr. Ikeguchi." Anyone who isn't in debt these days is probably underprivileged. JUST KIDS --- Gay Bishop's two little buddies are just babies, yet they enjoy a friendly get-together, espec- ciolly when it's dinner. Peter the bunny, nibbles a hickory nut, -while Willy, the squirrel, sips milk from a doll's bottle. EVERYTHING SHAKES ---• it's a wiggly world as Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield give their oll in a twisting session during a scene for the comedy film "Panic Dutton,' bung filmed in Rome. Costarring with them are Eleanor Porker and Mike Connors.