The Heir Presumptive

Queen Juliana of The Netherlands and her husband Prince Bernhard last week broke their long silence on the palace influence of Faith Healer Greet Hofmans (TIME, June 25). "The way in which it was judged admissible abroad to expose our family life and the relations in our close surroundings to the public has disappointed and grieved us both," said the royal couple in a joint statement. "We deem an investigation desirable." To conduct this investigation the Queen appointed three of her nation's most respected elder statesmen.

The royal family's brief statement did not deny the fact of a palace rift. This being so, Dutch editors were discreetly doubtful of the wisdom of putting out any statement at all, but government authority answered that the need for it involved not the public but the principals themselves. It was, in a sense, a tacit admission that difficulties still exist in the House of Orange-Nassau.

Last week Bernhard and his Queen made a public appearance in Amsterdam. They were there to introduce their eldest daughter and heir presumptive, pretty Princess Beatrix, to the city fathers of Amsterdam as their nation's future Queen. She came of age to rule (18) six months ago. "I shall prepare myself for the task which I hope and trust lies before me in a yet far-distant future," Beatrix had promised when she became an official member of the State Council. In most kingdoms monarchs reign until their deaths, but in The Netherlands retirement in favor of the royal heir has become expected. Ex-Queen Wilhelmina, still alive and 68, gave way to her daughter Juliana in 1948. If some such shift of the crown from Juliana to Beatrix is now under consideration, no Dutch newspaper was so tactless as to hint at it.

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