4 FEBRUARY 1938, Page 6

It is difficult for the ordinary prosaic British citizen to

understand the fuss in the British Press about Princess Juliana. Holland's interest in the expected event was in- telligible enough. But Holland, though a country towards which our feelings are always cordial, is not a country with which we stand in any special relationship, the relationship which exists, for example, between us and France, or us and Belgium. What was there in the event to send Special Corre- spondents of London dailies to Soestdijk to peer day after day, and night after night, through palace railings ? Memory may be treacherous, but I remember no such preliminary excitement about the last birth of an heir to the Belgian throne, or for that matter about the last birth of an heir to the British throne. Have the papers been satisfying a public demand for news about Princess Juliana, or creating one ?

It's an odd business, either way. * * * *