Evening star., 1936-12-13

AL AZ w "A S1AA4No
Clever work: and can one see Duke
of Orleans doing the like?
Otto's representative in the home
lard is Prince Max. son of the muir
dered Archduke Franz-Ferdinand
and Sophie of Hohenberg. Baron
Winser Is the brain of the movement.
which this year may have to be guided
less impetuously than has been the
case i'll the past, if success is ulti-
mately to penetrate between the wills
of Hitler, Mussolini and Schuschnigg.
There have been signs-as when Otto
inopportunely appeared in Paris last
February with a view to preventing
Starhemberg from succeeding in a
certain interchangeable Zita is once
again erring tactically, as she did in
pressing Karl to make his two abor-
tive bids toward Hungary and his
crown.
Politically, Otto accepts the cor
porate state of Fascism (Which we are
still waiting to see function). But
there are still major obstacles in the
path Of a return, however much the
bulk Of the people may desire the
color and cult of their prince again.
Definitely. Otto has not been barred
by the Austro-Ger agreement. But
a great difficulty does present itself in
Hitlers treatment of the Catholic
Church. Otto, as Kaiser, could not
brook any of that for a moment.
Otto has seen every European
country save Russia and his own, and
here he and other pretenders have an
advantage over heirs who 60 straight
to their thrones. for they see foreign
lands Economically and close UP.
Now that he has money. the Haps-
burg hope does not stay too lengthily
in his turretted and moated Flemish
castle. He likes to golf in the Pyre-
nees. surf-ride on the Riviera, scale
the lesser Swiss heights, saunter un-
recognized in Paris. But he is a seri-
Gus young man. Gossip seldom men,
tions anything but marriage in his
regard. Chiefly with Maria youngest
Italian royal daughter.
Prince Napoleon is the dark horse
of this narrative. Until he came of
age last year no one gave him as
much as a thought. His Orleanist
rival might have been the solitary
French pretender. Since then, the
latest Aiglon has been more and more
discussed in Paris. along with q
steadily expanding Bonapartist propa-
ganda on stage and screen, in literary
and journalistic quarters. Young
Napoleon can draw on q vast fortune
which he shares with his mother, the
former Princess Clementine of Bel
giun1, who inherited so lavishly from
her father, Leopold the Unloved, of
Congo notoriety. This forceful woman
is pushing her sons cause by every
discreet means, now that her Hedging
has become the eaglet, and Republic
can France such confusion of hopes
and fears.
Rejects Political Liaison.
Slender and over feet in height,
bronzed and regular-featured, with
firm mouth. resolute chin and thick,
"a AoAACd-bdthy ddl n DlOWAl 1ldh, yO0AAk
Napoleon some while ago haughtily
intimated to a Bourbon delegation
from Paris that under no circum-
stances would he form a political
liaison with that rival house, whose
standard-bearer, the young Comte
de Paris, Is, incidentally, a distant
cousin, each young pretender being
descended from Louis Philippe. Yet
they both live in or near Brussels
(Napoleon with his mother in the
Avenue Louise), and both attended
the same university Uouvain). Social
meetings are avoided. or, II they dc
occur, are strictly formal.
There seems to be no doubt about
the Maison Imperiale gaining on the
Maison de France, though just who
supports Napoleon it would be hard
to say. Such things are not trumpeted
albeit one does hear it repeated that
Gen. weygand leads a powerful Bona
partist military clique.
Weygand was born in Brussels
and thereto hangs a story, too. The
big coup that Bonapartists are aiming
at Is the return Of the body of the Duke
of Reichstadt from the Capucine vault
in Vienna to the Invalides, fcl
'TAiglon" there to lie in glory beside
l'Empereur. What thrills, what mem
cries of glory that would evoke!
Besides his great wealth and re-
dected title to glory, young Napoleon
has q further asset in his being re-
lated, by reason Of his mothers Wig
orous Coburg blood, to the royal fam
lilies of Italy, Britain and Germany
For purposes Of propaganda IN France
the young man Is keen on pointing out
that he is not descended from the
failure of Sedan, but Is the great Ma
poleon's great-grandnephew through
Jerome, King of Westphalia.
The Comte de Paris had to go into
exile with his father, the Due de Guise.
10 years ago when the latter assumed
"the charges and responsibilities Of the
heir Of the forty Kings who in thou-
sand years made France" The
duchess, otherwise Madame" and her
daughters may come and 60 on French
soil as they choose, but father and son
are exiles in Belgium. Nor has the
tall and STOPPING nonseigneur, whom
history would have named Jean III,
enjoyed the long years Of severance
from his beloved France. At frst he
sought distraction In experimenting
his vsss sssass ssounA IArashA IN