1955-04-02 — Page 5

Page

William

Hickey

Uncle Fred

Goes Hungry

London.

OU have the great advantage over me," said Lord Woolton "of hav-

ing had lunch."

It was nearly two o'clock and he had just arrived at a meeting which had been"

· preceded by a buffet lunch.

It was Sir Winston's fault;

I'm afraid, that Lord Wool-

ton went hungry.

There had been a Cabinet meeting and it had lasted longer than expected..

I'm sure that in this case hunger had not been used as a weapon to obtain agree- ment.

But I have heard of board meetings and conferences where the approach of lunch-time has done wor ders.

Men who have held out resolutely against an item on the agenda wilt when the clock shows half-past one.

Strategy!

I remember hearing about one post-war conference be-

tween the British and the Russians when the Foreign Office men guarded carefuuy against the temptation of thirst and hunger.

The Russians, in previous conferences had shown re. markable powers of

en-

durance. And it was felt that it had helped them get

their own way.

. But this time the British stored sandwiches and a Tusk in a place not normally equipped with victuals. I am told the plan had quite a

success.

Still, Lord Woolton looked very well. And I thought it was good of him to come to“) the meeting because a de-·| puty chairman, Mrs Herry Brooke, had stepped intó his place.

Incident

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"Florrie - did you say that as it is Mothers' Day your husband was going to cook lunch while you had a game?”

THE LOVE AFFAIR THAT AN EMPEROR

TRIED TO HUSH UP

ONE OF

THE WORLD'S STRANGEST STORIES

T

HE news renched But it was with the motives Vienna within a few of the lovers that three genera

ions of writers, dramatists, and hours.

Gini-makers have played so The first hint that treely. They have always been as driven to a suicide something was seriously shown wrony came when the Empact by an overriding passion peror's aide-de-camp" rushed and because they could not face into the courtyard of the

separation.

1. 100, believed this version

The shooting lodge at Mayerling.

MYSTERY AT

MAYERLING

By FELIX

"the

BARKER

his-

Imperial Palace and ordered until six years ago. Then I But the subject was one the band to stop playing. learned the real facts about

greatest romance in to interest Lord Woolton.

Meyerbeer's overture to tory My informant was Count Robert McKenzie, a Cana- "The Ruguenots" petered Cari Lonyay, who was in London dian scholar, was giving a

in 1948 completing his re searches into the whole affair........... talk or his book, "British out in perplexed discords.

was the Count Hoyos Political Parties,"

A former officer in the Aus- And "Uncle Fred" Wool-bearer of the ill-tidings. as chairman of the Over frozen roads he had Tory Party, knows as much raced by coach from Mayer- as anybody how it reallying to Baden and there had

ton,

works.

.

To prove his point that the Tory annual conference is a democratic affair he re- minded us of the famous in- cident at Blackpool

stopped the express from Trieste so that he could get quickly to Vienna,

trian army, a historian, and the nephow of Prince Lonyay (who Rudolf's widow married Stephanie). Count Lonyay per-

me to spend many hours in his flat in Hallam Street going through all the documente

he had assembled fron and family archives.

FULL STORY

state

When he reached the palace there was a flurry of backstairs the royal discussion when

among officials about who should break the news, and it was decided I then felt justified in explod- that first the Empress should be ing all the romantic theories and told by

to tell the full arid her companion- claiming secretary and should in tura only authentic story for the first

time. inform the Emperor.

the leaders had to accept an increase in the housing tar- get from 200,000 to 300,000. "I accepted that," Woolton said firmly, Then he smiled "I was afraid that in two minutes it might have gone up to 400,000,"

The Crown Prince - sought .solace

unlappy for an

marriage.

Rudolf had spent with a former mistress, Mizz Kaspar.

The young girl's body, which throughout the day had been callously left lying naked in a wood-shed, was dressed in a fur ecat and a hat was placed on her head to hide the wound. Then, lest any villagers who might be outside should catch a glimpse, through the window, she was propped up on the rest of the carriage between Her

As they folted over

frozen mountain roads the ant often becaine dis- lodged and had to be replaced.

せ

At midnight the body Vas carried to the monastery chapel. and placed in a coffin which had already been prepared There had not been time to dig a grave in the hard ground, so not until the following morning, in a heavy rain and a buffeting wind, was the girl lowered into a lonely, unmarked grave"

POST-MORTEM

What happened between the time Rudolf went to bed at 9 c'clock on the Tuesday and B c'clock the following morning when Loschek broke into the room?

From the evidence, assembled by Count Lonyay and * long Suppressed post-mortem report we know that Marle Vetsera died about ten hours before Rudolt. That he shot her there can be almost no doubt. She was At the time of the Mayerling

'not left-banded yet the bullet So it was that just about mid-

went into the left side of her tragedy Rudolf was just over 30 day on Wednesday, January 30, and for eight years he had been

head. Rudolf himself seems to 1889, Franz Joseph 1, the Em- unhappily married to Princess

have spent the rest of the night peror of Austris, deard that his Stephanie of Belgium. He

dy, the dead giri drinking, brandy, son-heir to the great feudal solace in a life of dissipatio

It was on Monday, January

beside

him, Summoning Up for the deer. It was Women 28, that Rudolf left Vienna by Hapsburg empire was dead. with a large number of women.

courage McKenzie was very

Among the list of these was coach for Mayerling, and on the not unul 6.30 am, that he spoke Four hours earlier the Crown bright. Here are some of the Prince Rudolf had been found Maric Vetsera, a dark, volup same day Marie Vetsera also to Loechek about the early call. full left for the forest hunting lodge. Sometime during the next hour facts I shall remember:-- in the bedroom of the hunting vous girl of 18 with

Mayerling, he shot himself with a 12 mm known In the last century the Tory lodge at Mayerling with his figure, tilted nose and sensuous Her presence

was the daughter of however, was not

to Service pistol Party at one fire was spending brains blown out.

In the bed lips. She £1 17s. 6d. per Tory vote cast beside him was the body of an official attached to the Aus- Count Hoyos and Prince Coburg trian Embassy and her mother (two other guests invited for had brought her to Vienna stag hunting) until the fateful The first reaction of the where she had launched her in morning of Wednesday..

Surprise!

In present-day values that girl would be about £15. By 1951

said

only is 6d was spent per vote.

In the Tory Party," McKenzie, cannibalism is not unknown in high places." It must have momentarily sur prised poor, hungry Lord Wool- ton when he heard that one.

It would be dreadful to think

that during long Cabinet meeting the more fleshy of the members were eyed hungrily.

But McKenzie's "cannibalism" a reference was only a

to the habit of the Tories of getting rid of leaders they didn't like.

And

I had heard before Balfour's remark that he would

was

that everything the more dissolute

а

section of

Legend prefers the romance

Emperor must

be done to bush-up the society. tragedy and the scandal ít involved. A commission

secrecy.

...

was

10

***

ON, THE BED

About the motives for the tragedy mystery still remains.

Certainly Rudolf had been preoccupied with the idea of suicide ever since his cousin Ludwig of Bavaria had dilled

"to have existed for two years, The Crown Prince had asked himself. Certainly he had told dispatched to Mayerling with strict instructions. Final letters but in fact the five did not meet to be called early with break- a number of people that he den tin and had were be confiscated. All before the previous November,

and were not lovers until Marle fast, but when his valet Loschek contemplated servants were to be sworn

Vetsera was smuggled into, the came to the door he found It even asked one of his fellow Crown Prince's apartments et locked, Repeated knocking pro- officers to commit suicide, with him an honour the offices de- the palace just 17 days before duced no answer.

clined. their deaths.

'Loschek became alsmed, and And-inal confusion to the on the authority of Prince

the Coburg the door was And a special edition of the story of a great romance Wiener Zeitung later that day night before he left Vienna down and he went into the

хост carried a communique issued on

À terrible

But even if we accept this, fronted him. There lying bent Marie Vetera's compliance over the edge of the bed, was

MANY LIES

as soon take advice from his the Emerpor's orders:

as from the party or- anisation.

Balfour ever the

elegant, courteous gentleman

did add that he would listen to them both with respect-

Flattery

FOOTNOTE to the Bangkok conference which. Sir An

thony Eden attended.

It seems that in Siam there is

á traditional colour "for

each.

In the course of this mOTR- ing Ha Excellency Count Jose Hoyos arrived from Mayerling to report that His Imperial and Royal Highness, Crown Prince Archduke Búdolf, had died suddenly of “ heart failure,

That was the first of many lies about Mayerling. And years later when part of the truth emerged legend was to playe even stranger tricks with the

of the week Every evening teach delegate facts.

the Foreign Secre Of course, the beart failure

and find in his hotel story could not be sustained for

room a pair of silk pyjamas of more than a day or so, there

the purrect colour, a pair Rippers of same shude,

the

his

of i were

.

too zadny rumours in

Možda Vetacra is a mature

| and | Vienna „about" shooding,

the Court Physician favourite while

might show fact in the death It was just part of the dertiente he would, nor perjura

A

scene

broken

COT-

EXTRAORDINARY

his master, the top of his head seems extraordinary. When I shot away" a pout of blood on asked Count Lónyay If he could the floor. Marie Vetsera, all solve this final riddle, he did colour drained from her lovely 60 in one utterly unexpected face, lay on the right side of the word "snobbery." bed. A bullet had entered her left temple

To die with the Crown Prince

of Austria, Count Cobyay be llevad, was reason enough. In

The horrified valet had only one of her last letters side askerl time to note a hand-mirror and for the honour of being diried

a pistol ou a small table of with him in the same

• chair by, Rudolf's side before he

Tushed out into the ante-zcom to inform the others.

grave

1 may seem utterly in- credible today but perhaps. such a solution becomes more

In the vain hope of conceal acceptable if we see her action ing Marie Vetsura a presence is is historical perspective and Franz Joseph ordered two of can comprehend the feudal re- her uncles to Mayerling, that verence with which the Baps same night they were to take burge were regarded. Such an her body to the nearby and may have been the ultimate monastery of Hell reiz foc fulfilment of this strange “gizi

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