Royalty Afloat

Two sailing vessels last week nosed into U.S. harbors, each bearing a cargo of throneless royalty from the same country. In Manhattan the 72-ft. gaff-rigged ketch Saltillo arrived from Nassau, skippered by strapping Don Juan de Bourbon y Battenberg, Count of Barcelona and 44-year-old Pretender to the Spanish crown. In Norfolk, Va. the four-masted training ship Juan Sebastian Elcano put into port with a crew of 72 midshipmen from the Spanish Naval College at Pontevedra, among them the Pretender's handsome son, Prince Juan Carlos, 20. It was the son who attracted most attention. Tall (6 ft. 2 in.), tanned, with close-cropped hair, Juan Carlos is Dictator Franco's candidate for the throne.

A U.S. Navy plane whisked the young prince from Norfolk to Washington, where he was met at the airport by a full turnout from the Spanish embassy, headed by Royalist Ambassador Josee Maria de Areilza. Also on hand was Newshen Win-zola McLendon of the Washington Post and Times Herald, who was all in a dither as she asked Juan Carlos what he thought of American girls. "Oh, very pretty," replied the prince gallantly. Winzola gushed later that his blue-green eyes had not only a twinkle, but "the LONGEST, CURLIEST lashes."

Spain's last reigning King was Alfonso XIII, who voluntarily left Spain in 1931 in the face of nationwide republican election victories, and died in exile. His son, the present Pretender, angered Franco by demanding that the dictator step down after winning Spain's bloody Civil War. Franco later declared Spain a monarchy, but the throne was left empty as young Prince Juan Carlos grew up in exile in Italy and Switzerland. The young prince returned to Spain to be educated at Madrid's St. Isidro high school, and word went out that Franco intended that after his death the boy should rule Spain. Since then, presumably under Franco's soldierly guidance, Juan Carlos has become a one-man unified armed force. He graduated as a second lieutenant from Spain's West Point at Saragossa, and after his present navy stint he will enter the Spanish Air Academy.

Whatever Franco's intentions, the prince made it clear that his first loyalty was to his father. In Washington, visiting the usual tourist attractions, Prince Juan Carlos became one himself as women employees of the Library of Congress pressed noses against windows to watch him pass. He attended an embassy reception and parties given by Mrs. Merriweather Post and Perle Mesta. A dinner guest wondered if his extensive military training would help fit him to be King. "Madame," smiled the prince, "it is charming of you to ask such a question, but it is my father who is going to be King."

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