Thursday, February 18, 2010

Ileana's marriage may be delayed


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February 18, 1930

Tonight Roumanian Premier Maniu summoned the foreign correspondents to "give them a statement on the rumors which have been circulating regarding the character" of Count Alexander von Hochberg, who is engaged to Princess Ileana.
The rumors are inaccurate, the Prime Minister said, but the question of von Hochberg's suitability as the husband for a Roumanian princess "is to be investigated" by Roumanian legations abroad.

Count von Hochberg was "never sentenced by any German court, but was acquitted of charges said to have constituted blackmail." The Roumanian government will not interfere in Ileana's marriage plans "as governmental consent was required only for the king and the heir to the throne. There is great affection for Ileana in Roumania which has rendered the government "institute inquiries" into the allegations.

One of the most significant events regarding the possibility that the engagement will be broken is the "official announcement" that Ileana and Queen Marie's visit to Egypt will not end before April 27, which was the date of the proposed marriage.

The allegations against Count Alexander, whose mother, the Princess of Pless, is a close friend of Queen Marie, reached Bucharest yesterday by special courier. The allegations have not been published in the Bucharest advice.
The premier hopes the allegations will be cleared up and the Queen and Ileana's visit will "proceed according to plan."

According to a source, Queen Marie was unaware of these allegations when the relationship between Ileana and von Hochberg began. Their romance is "purely a love affair between two young people. The outcome is not yet known, as neither Marie nor the Government "is entitled to interfere" as Ileana has reached her majority. It is understood that the queen "will inform the unsuspecting princess of the rumors." They are currently onboard the Dacia, a steam yacht, which will take them to Cairo.

The rumors were first published in the Berlin communist newspaper, the Rote Fahne, and then were published in "their most sensational form" in Budapest this morning, and later today in Vienna.

The Rote Fahne published records of a trial in Germany "years ago in which Count von Hochberg was sentenced for improprieties."

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