Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-05
Meet Pontiff in Throne Room
and Talk Behind Guard
ed Doors.
FIRST RULERS OF UNITED
LAND TO ENTER HOLY SEE
Hundreds of Thousands View Royal
Progress Amid Splendor With
Many Courtiers.
BY the Associated Press.

! By the Associated Press.
ROME, December Skiing Victor
Emanuel and Queen Helena paid their
| long awaited visit to Pope Plus XII this
morning. In so doing they made his
tory, being the first soVereigns of United
Italy to enter the Vatican, which only
recently ceased to be a place of self
imposed imprisonment for the pontiffS.
The King and Queen journeyed to
Vatican City, the newest political entity
IN Europe, with an imposing retinue of
CourtlerS, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Dino Grandi and Count de Vecchi,
Italian Ambassador to the Holy See.
Their majeSties and his holiness met
in the Vatican throne room. They were
alone there, doors were closed and
guarded and what they said was not
disclosed
But their conversation, whatever it
was, marked TIE tacit approval of both
10 the treaties which made it possible
those signed at the Lateran Palace last
February IL ending the 60-year-old So
called Roman question"
Thousands See Royal Progress.
Hundreds of thousands of Romans
and Italians from al parts of the coun-
try saw the royal progress through
Rome III closed automobiles. There was
some disappointment that the visit was
not made in carriages of state, as had
been planned. The automobiles were
accompanied only by an escort of
cyclist police. The imposing military
olSplay usual to royal professions was
absent.
Houses along the route FLEW the tri-
color and papal yellow and white. The
King was dressed in his full uniform as
general, wearing the Order of the
Annunzlata. Queen Helena was dressed
exactly as an American woman would
= oreseed for an audience at the Vati-
can-ln black veil over a white gown.
with long sleeves and high neck. She
wore no jeWelry.
The King and Queen entered Vati-
can City at the Arch of Charlemagne,
where the Piazza Santa Marta begins
where they were met by a recention
party consisting of Prince Massimo,
papal postmaster general; Commenda-
tore Serafini, governor of Vatican CITY:
commentators Beccari, secretary GEN
eral OF the city, and Commentators de
Mandate, head of the armed corps
under the jurisdiction of the governor,
Band Plays Royal March.
A squadron of ,papal gendarmes pre-
sented arms. The band of the papal
gendar1nes played the royal march for
the first time in its history. except in
practice. Outside the Campane arch
was detachment of Swiss guards in
1ull uniform, wearing their breast plates
ana helmets and carrying halberds. A
squadron of gendarmes heralded the
arrival OF the sovereigns with trumpets
ana then the band of the Palatine
guard sounded the royal march.
In the courtyard of San Damaso an
other group of Vatican dignitaries
gathered to receive the Sovereigns. While
the Palatine guard presented arms,
Prince AlesSandro Ruspoli, as grand
master of the sacred hoSpice, assisted
the King and the Queen in alighting
from their carriage.
Accompanied by the papal retinue,
the royal pair assembled the great stairs
from the courtyard to the papal recep-
tion rooms, a detachment of Swiss
guards Saluting them at each landing.
Next to the door of the grand staircase
hung the papal flag with the three tiaras
and the keys.
From Clementine Hall, where another
group of eccleSiastics waited to receive
them, the royal and ecclesiastical party
went through a series of rooms known
as the rooms of the tapestries, to the
papal anti-chamber, where they stopped.
The door to the papal throne room was
| closed.
In Throne Room Alone.
Appraised of the arrival of the King
and Queen, the Pope entered the
throne room from his private library.
The door to the throne room opened
and, the King and Queen stepped in,
alone.
The Pope was walking toward the
door. The King and the Queen walked
forward They met half way across the
room The King and the Queen bent
and kissed the Pope's hand. The Pope
raised them up.
The door was closed. the Pope and
| the sovereigns were alone. If the walls
had ears they were the only ones who
| heard what was said.
outside the closed doors the digni-
! taries of church and state conversed in
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