Evening star., 1937-02-28

for all his interests. Members of his
family and old friends foregather on
command. It isn't so bad, considering.
Considering -.
Alfonso's Exile Different.
Poles apart from the quietness OF
Doom is the exile of ex-King Alfonso,
who. after f1guratively spending five
years gripping a suitcase, today is
inclined to limit his travel-circle to
an area comprising the Italian lakes,
Vienna. Hungary, Bavaria. This rest
less rover's only base worthy of the
name must be the Hotel Imperial,
Vienna. where he is a somebody, as
part Hapsburg. in that rendezvous Of
the Austrian aristocracy. 1t was here
that he lunched with the Duke Of
Windsor. What unspoken thoughts
there must have been that afternoon,
of Spain and Of England!
The Paris dear to Alfonso has been
declared to be unsafe for such unmis-
taxable features as his. Other capitals
will not do for other reasons. Alfonso
has no hobbies and only one sport,
shooting. His personal circle has
largely evaporated or been killed. His
most faithful friend, the Duke Of
Miranda. died. His own family has
disintegrated with unheard-of rapidity.
His former Queen has taken a house
permanently in London. The Count
Of Covadonga refuses to leave the
United States. Young Gonzalez died
from trivial motor injury, victim
OF the family plague. The elder
daughter is Princess Torlonia in
Rome. The attractive younger girl
favors London Don Jaime has mar
ried an Italian girl and spends most
Of his time near Cannes The third
son and the one slender hope for the
throne, Juan, is wed to a cousin Of
6ourbon-Sicily: address. Paris Riviera.
In the life Of ex-Czar Ferdinand of
Bulgaria We find a better ordered and
perhaps happier exile. Ferdinand is
lucky. being blessed with the gift of
hobbies, and few old gentlemen of rs
have had more avocations. Luckily for
him. too, he can indulge them, having
obtained s1,750, 900 from London bank
vaults, ex-ahen enemy or not. Co.
burgs have influence. Ferdinand Is
settled at Coburg, though he travels
half the year. When he Is not in
Egypt he Is catching rare birds and
butterflies in South Africa. He has
hundreds Of birds at Coburg. and a
super-garden that holds his interest.
Hours are spent over his collections
OF coins and precious stones. A gourmet
Of life, now as always.
Finds Rock in Religion.
Another who once wore a crown is
the ex-Empress Zita. Still in the early
40s, this masterful woman finds a
rock in her religion, and in one ire
concilable determination. She shall
live to see her son crowned in st.
Stephens! Part Italian, French, Aus
trian, Spanish, the devout widow of
weak Karl brings all her mixed hertz
age of birth to the business of unceas-
Ing manipulation and intrigue in
young Otto's cause. She has become a
modern classic in the art of restora-
ton. Old ties are drawn and new ones
sought; the press is kept informed and
public opinion watched, as Zita essays,
without arms, to reconquer a country.
These are all "exiles of the front
page" the most prominent in an al
most interminable list of men and
women without country. The great
est tragedy is to be found among the
armies Of unheard-of exiles-never
listed by name, mentioned only by
number in the dull figures of Director
Hanson Of the Nansen Bureau.
Russians, 100000; Armenians, 24O, 900;
Assyrians, 1000; Saarlanders, 1000.
A special office has had to be created
to cope with the 10000 to 100000 ref
ugees from Hitlerism. No mention is
made, in Director Hanson's figures, Of
Italian outcasts, because the several
thousand still in exile on the dread
islands are cared for by the Duce at
q cost of about 6 pence q day. The
Nansen Bureau deals only in statelesS,
people, without resources.
without nationality, chivvied from
pillar to post at the whim of harsh
petty bureaucracy. Unable to find
work, not allowed to settle anywhere,
freely imprisoned as vagabonds-these
hundreds Of thousands of men, women
and children find themselves the VIC
tins Of q new and tragic push game
as they are turned back from one
frontier after another.
Better on in Exile.
The vastness of the tragedy stands
revealed in q single citation: In four
years all that 1t has been possible to
do with the teeming Armenians has
been to settle 10000 of them in the
Soviet Republic of Erivan.
Some among those whom call ''the
intellects In exile" tower above the
J (6o0fini1od - Tenth PA0o.l