Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 10 May 1949, page 3


Paris Stir Over

Princess

PARIS, May 9 (A.A.P.). -Pictures of Princess Mar-

garet bathing on thc Isle of Capri have caused a stir in Paris.

Paris police on Saturday night seized copies of thc French news-paper "France Dimanche" because it contained a picture of Prin-cess Margaret in a bathing cos-tume on the Isle of Capri.

Inspector Finault, of the Paris Prefecture, ordered the seizures because the pictures "would have angered the King of a great and friendly country."

One of the pictures allegedly showed Princess Margaret get-ting into a boat at the Isle of Capri. Her bathing suit was not apparent.

Another showed a rear view of what looked like a nude woman or girl on seaside rocks.

The paper said it did not know for sure whether this was the Princess or another woman.

The newspaper was seized under a law governing "insults to the head of a foreign State."

Thc French Foreign Office said to-day thal it had initialed the police action at the request of the British Embassy. Embassy officiais denied having made any

request.

The editors of the paper to-day denied that they had printed any photo of the Princess. They said it was a member of the Prin-cess's entourage.

One of the photographs showed Princess Margaret tripping down to a beach to bathe with a shirttailed escort.

NO GATHERINGS

The newspaper "Ce Matin," which said the picture had been taken by an irresponsible photo-grapher, said it woulú cause a scandal in England, not because the picture showed "the splendid figure of the young Princess," but because her escort-Major T. C. Harvey, the Queen's private sec-retary-was wearing a hat while leading the Princess.

"Ce Matin" said this was "a little off-hand".

Parisians have been asked not to gather in crowds and stare at Ihe Princess when she visits here at the end of the month.

The newspaper "Paris-Presse" said: "The best way to let the Princess appreciate the true face of Paris will be not to bother her by staring curiously and to sparc her the assaults of jour-nalists and photographers which so spoiled her stay in Capri and

Rome.

"Queens of the stage and

screen are accustomed lo these excesses. For a young Princess, whose dearest wish is to get to know the authentic life of our

! country, nothing would touch her more than this simplicity which

comes from the heart." Í -