She is a good woman of plain tastes; she has an Eastern empire and a fat Prince Consort; she is the Queen Victoria of today; she was last week in Paris for the first time in 19 years—Her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Duchess of Mecklenburg, Hon. LL.D.
The good & great Queen, although she went to Paris last week, did not sleep in the wicked, noisy ville lumineuse. She stopped at no hotel as other visiting royalties do. (Edward of Wales or Gustav of Sweden would have gone to the Hotel Meuricc. Indian potentates incline to the Ritz.) Accompanied by Crown Princess Juliana, but not by plump Prince Henry, Her Majesty took up brief residence in a chateau outside Paris in the Valley of Chevreuse. She and her daughter had come to Paris as a royal duty: they must inspect the Dutch East Indies exhibit at the French Colonial Exposition (TIME, May 11). Thoroughly last week they did inspect it. Next year or the year after Crown Princess Juliana will tour the Dutch East Indies, just as Edward of Wales tours for his father.
Naturally, the new President of France, 74-year-old Paul Doumer. entertained the comparatively young Dutch Queen (she is only 51) at his Elysee Palace. Next came a return banquet at the Dutch Legation— and that was all.