NO TIME TO SQUABBLE.....by CUMMINGS
THREATS
"My goodness, Silverman! What with the economic situation and the news from Europe, for half a second one could almost forget party politics!"
London Express Bervice
THE CHINA MAIL," SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1952.
WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE WANDERING MONARCHS?
Umberto, a 26-day king,
talks of comeback
T
Ily
Sidney Rodin
ho
Estoril (Portugal), Once Umberto could live HE man who wants in 40 palaces in Italy and to be King of Italy in half hundred sumptu- will be on the long ous shooting lodges on the distance
estates. telephone royal
Now to Rome many times during the next few days to see if his throne is moving any nearer. It may do just a little..
merely rents this villa in Portugul-"I've no idea of the rent"-with its 20 rooms and banks of geraniums.
The Atlantic tosses only The man's name is Une 50-yards from his front door berto. He was on the he is in fact, at the throne for 26 days in 1940 westernmost tip of Europe, before the Italians thought clinging to the Continent they had had enough of he feels he dare not leave. monarchy and
uncere-
moniously threw him out. Tax-free refuge
"with a couple of suitcases,"
as he told me.
Once he
"I have no fear for that. It is safely locked up in the cathedral Wants To Be King. of Monza," said The Man
Who
T
THE TOUGHEST MAN ALIVE. Part Four Continuing The Expletis and Philosophy of OTTO SKONZENY, tho man Miller, chose to carry out his most spectacular exploits, Skorzeny, hunted for many mouths, tua told his story to CHARLES FOLEY.
HERE when
arc
D
times million
men can be saved
by the removal of
a single obstacle..
The obstacle,
in the
story I am going to tell,:
So I had to
was Admiral Horthy, Re remove
gent of Hun-
gary, at the moment when he had decided to be- tray Germany and make a
rolling up in parade order with- out permission from the
tle.
So much for the sentries. Another mile to go. Machine- gun posts -- we passed them nonchalantly.
རྣ
The castle square loomed up. Three big tanks faced ull, guns turned to the sky, a barricade of building blocks. Now!
one man to
save a million
separate peace with Stalin. Today Admiral Horthy is by way of a neighbour of mine he has a "villa over the Portuguese border at Estoril.
The last time I saw Horthy I had the honour of escorting him to Germany under a guard.
Fuehrer. provided by the
raust add that his enforced de-. perture followed rapidly after that of his 'son Nicholas, who left by aeroplane in still less
conventional circumstances,
It began ps usual, with my being called to Hitler's front headquarters. To a group of us-Himmler, Tubbentrop, Keitel and Jodl were there - Hiller sald:-
"Regent Horthy negotiating with
Stalin.
Ho
BORTHY ... escorted.
whistled for a German com- pany we had hidden round the corner.
As they camo up at the double the Hungarians rushed into the house next door for shelter. German hand grenades
Down
came
the
brought down the doorway and bottled them inside, is secretly
German pollee from Nicholas Horthy's room, carrying the regent's son All were and three Titlsts. struggling violently. To avoid
has offered unconditional eur
render.
the It
Hungarian salient collapses a million Ger- man soldiers, or even a million and a half, will be lost."
HE
ORDERS
turned then to me. "You. Skorzeny, wijl prepare
to seize the regent's castle at Budapest. I will give you the most extraordinary written powers."
On a sheet of State paper with the German engle and iron cross in gilt, I read that I had been charged by the Fush- and rer "ip execule personal
orders confidential
of the highest importance. All
mill- tary and civilian services must
possible help the bearer and must comply with all hla wishes. Signed,
Living in style bring every
How fare the other once- crowned heads who graced the thrones of Europe in former cars?
ZOG OF
is the longest exiled of all fallen monarchs. When Mussolini in- vaded his country on Good Fri- day; 1930, he fled to Greece with his pretty Queen Geraldine and baby Crown Prince.
ALBANIA, aged 55,
He
now lives in style in swam from his Alexandria on £1,000,000 worth Private beaches on the shores of of gold. the Mediterranean.
Son of a bandit chieftain Zog swims where the ordinary-succeeded, to the throne by sheer- people of Cascais bathe. force of personality.
-Now
be
"But I feel just the same with- out all those palaces, yachts, and hunting," smiled Umberto.
Italy is gong to the polls to decide its municipal elec- tions. The monarchist partles boast that they will win many more votes.
The contest in every town is a curtain-raiser for the parliamentary elections Estoril is known as the "royal next year, when, maybe, morgue of Europe," because it Umberto will really dis- is the favourite tax-free refuge cover if he has a chance of of dethroned sovereigns. returning to his people again and leading them, he hopes, between the evil of Communism and Neo- Fascism.
Sneered at
It was in his yellow-and-
chocolate-coloured villa at
*
RUMANIA,
MICHAEL OF by the Kremlin in 1947, Poorest aged 32, was forced to abdicate of the royal exiles, his personal fortune of £2,000,000, including 159 castles, is "frozen" In Umberto's main Income is the Rumania. interest from the £1,520,000 life Recently with his wife he has insurance policy taken out by lived at Lausanne and also in never cashed. He has his grandfather in London and England. A licence authorising also a repairs costing £3,800 has been thare of the £3,500,000 allowed granted for his new home in the flalian courts to seven of England, Ayot House, Heris, the by his relatives.
property of Lord Brocket,
Although Umberto Ands plea- cure in the comparatively "sim- ple life"he runs only two cars
*
PETER OF YUGOSLAVIA,
with two chauffeurs, he drinks aged 28, lives in a small villa in next to English and other tourists Geneva' with barely enough Cascais, near Estoril, that at the club bars of sunny Estoril money to supply his ex-queen, ex-King Umberto II-once-court protocol is observed at formerly Princess Alexandra of sneered at by Italians as the villa,
Greece, and his seven-year-old "the smiling fool of Europe"
Alexander.
escaped to England when received me.
The household of 25 servants
Carabinieri.
In controlled by a former Italian the Germans Invaded and work- Air Force general. I was brought ed in New York as a motorcar He is 47, slender, 6 ft. into Umberto's presence by his salesman after Marshal Tito tall, with large, brown eyes alde-de-camp, a handsome young stopped tils £10,000 a monik and thinning hair. He wore "x-captain of the
Jer tax-free allowance. a.light fawn check suit of Dast u tall, white-gloved foot- man, his sombre grey livery en-
* * tropical weight, a cream silk üvened with silver buttons shirt with buttoned cuffs, crested with the arms of Savoy. plain nigger-brown tic, and To the miniature exiled court, brown, "loafer" shoes.
Umberto has not lost his smile but there is much sad-
ness in his face.
The "smiling fool" is
much wiser now.
Umberto is "His Majesty."
Preserved
SIMEON OF BULGARIA, aged 14, in. youngest and most tragle of the exiles. He was only six when ho succeeded his father, King Boris, who died mysteriously following a visit to Hitler in 1043.
Now Simeon and his mother, Queen Joanns, aro
living THE villa is lined with paint- luxuriously as Franco's Cucats in
ings of old Dukes and Spain. Duchesses of Savoy, while many
THE
Umberto told me he did treasures in porcelain and silver not wish to talk politics. embellish the rooms. "As a king, I am above all
"They have been rescued by parties," he said gravely, friends and followers in Italy, "Not oven the monarchist explained Umberto. parties aro my representa- tives
"I am distressed by news that reaches me of he fate of man
of the family treasures.
for
"I don't want these things myself, or Over for
"My political faith is that only, the monarchy, which is for all classes, can give my country the calm she needs for formulating wise counsel, as most of the
CAROL OF RUMANIA, aged
59, ex-Kint Michael's father, Ilves quietly in Estoril, Portugal, with his books and doga and with his wife, Princess Helen, Madame Magda formerly Lupescu.
DEL
my son. They are as much the LEOPOLD OF THE posscasions of the Italian people. GIANS, aged 51, who obdicated
collections at Buckingham Palace and Windsor
undistorted by partisanship. belong to the British people." And so I shall return to tho
But one valuable is still care throne only if it is clearly fully premrved in Italy. It is the will of the people." like crown, Lit
favour of his son, Baudouin,
In 1951, maintains residence In Belgium but in at present on a South American holiday with his wife, the 37-your-old Prins
de Rethy
and
another street scene we rolled them into carpets.
Thus, rendered both harmless speechless, they were driven to the airport and ship- ped to Germany.
Now for the costlo. It was already in state of siege. with all roads
Herthy broad- p.m. Admiral cast from its centre: "Hungary has now concluded a separate peace with Russia."
SURRENDER
First
проо Too late? It is never too late. we demanded that mines and barricades on the road
castle should be removed 50 that German diplomats, whose embassy was on the hill, should come and go.
I signalled to
a glant Panther to crash the bar- ricade. We rush- ed through the beach, bounded
up the castle stairs. An officer came at me with a pistol. I did not give him time to think. "Teko
[me" I cried, "Ho your commandant at once."
I said to the commandant: "The castle 10 already in our hands. You must surren= der." He ordered the cease- fire.
I took up residence myself as the new commandant. In the great hail where the kings of Hungary were crowned I ad- dressed tho Hungarian off-
cers:--
10
"Do you want to fight against your enemies the Russians against us--your ellies?”
DEATH ROLL
Horthy's
apart-
Aments were empty. Having
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Govern- ADD GLAMOUR TO YOUR DESSERTS
sought to betray us to the Rus- sians, he had died for refuge to the German Embatsy.
A new Hungarian ment was formed at once to
war. carry on the
A inlilion Germans lived to fight again. And Hungary fought on beside us to the very end.
The quicker the action the slighter the sting. To capture a fortress by textbook. rules would have cost thousands of casualties,
a ten-
death roll in minute skirmish by our encir eling forces totalled four. The Hungarians lost three men. The entire operation Jasted hal an
hour.
We had a joint funeral with much official pomp to
ernst the last traces of bitterness, banqueted and that night we together, German officers Hungarians, to celebrato the
and
with
to up to the Vienna Gate of the deliverance of our armies. You REAL WHIPPING CREAM!
Adolf Hitler."
With this warrant I would have turned Germany upside down. In fact, I decided nat to use it,
our
I hoped to use more defeate cans. I believe a touch with the finger at a vital point will accomplish what the most man- sirous of a
cannon cannot do.. Budapest was the core of all communications in the south. If Bghting started open- ly, German troops and police would be outnumbered five to one by Hungarians.
As for the Hungarian armies facing Russia, they, too, would roll back and turn against us. The whole front would col lapse.
moment For the allies. We must remain so all would be lost.
we were
br
arrived in Budapest in the gulse of a civilian, Dr Wolff, to find out what was happening.
1 learned that Horthy was tical playboy in the thirties, as using his son Nicholas, a poll-
his agent for secret peace talks. Here was the weak spot 1 al- ways look for.
AMBUSH
THE peace talks were going
on in Budapest itself. Stalin had sent in a group of Titoists as intermediaries. They were to meet the following Sunday in a building on the Danube at 10 a.m. A chance to bag the lot.
I drove up to the building in time to see two German police- men walk up to the door. Ireiently the shooting narted.
Hungarian troops were every- where the house next door was full of them. They were In the gardens opposite. They were firing from a truck be- hind my car. A double am- bush.
My driver was hit. One of the German policemen roljed down the steps to my feet. fired back as best I could and
POCKET CARTOON By OSBERT LANCASTER --back from holiday
"Darling, it was heaven, blazing sun, Disg ses, and not a pound to be heard arcept American admirals. ............ dropping-bricka t'i #DRA
This being agreed, it was time for the great rumble.
German troops silently took up positions all round the hill. A3 am. I explained my plan to lead a column straight up to the Vienna Gate as if it were the most
Sunday natural of morning jaunts,
man to
My orders: Every sit upright in his truck, safety catches on all weapons; no shooling.
We started up the slope at I stood up in my 6 am. truck all the way. Behind me, bat- a group of tanks and a and steadiest in Germany.
best talion of paratroops, the
Now we were at the Vienna Gate.
A group
of sentries. They stared at us, but never did they suppose we could be
may be sure we had the best wines from the cellars.
THE GUEST
to be
NEXT day I was presented formally to the regent. He had already received a press- Hitler's ing invitation guest. I accompanied him on his last journey to the station. In Admiral Horthy's magni- ficent train-built for the Em- peror Franz Joseph I made myself responsible for his safe- ty until he reached a castle in Bavaria where he remained very secure, indeed,
(World Copyright-London Express
*Service.)
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