Foreign News: Princess Madge

A very young lady lay on her back in Buckingham Palace last week and made faces at the Most Reverend Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury. Disregarding the grimaces, His Grace the Archbishop dipped his fingers in a lily-shaped solid gold font filled with water from the River Jordan and piped in an ecclesiastical treble:

“Margaret Rose, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

The boys’ choir of the Chapel Royal sang hymns. The royal family, present with the notable exception of Edward of Wales, bowed their heads in prayer, while the baby princess, oblivious of the fact that she was wearing her great-great-grandmother’s clothes—the ivory satin and lace christening dress of Queen-Empress Victoria—continued to gurgle. When the christening of Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret Rose of York was completed, the entire party adjourned to drink tea, nibble slices of a 90-lb. christening cake.

Londoners stood in the streets cheering the christening, but Scotsmen were roiled. Ten-week-old Margaret Rose, second daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York, was the first child in line for the throne to be born in Scotland for more than 300 years (TIME, Sept. 1). Her mother is the daughter of a Scotch peer, her first name is a royal Scots name, Caledonians claim her as their Princess. They were incensed that the christening had not taken place on Scotch soil.

Reporters learned last week that the ceremony had been in Buckingham Palace at the express desire of Grandpapa George V. His Majesty busied himself considerably with the royal babe last week. Because British laws of succession do not definitely state that succession to the throne goes to the elder of two sisters as it does in the case of sons, editors have written many a paragraph on the possibility that little Princess Margaret Rose might have equal rights with her elder sister, the much publicized Princess Elizabeth, the King’s favorite grandchild. King George ended this discussion last week by announcing a definitive list of succession, which reads:

1) The Prince of Wales

2) The Duke of York

3) Princess Elizabeth

4) Princess Margaret Rose

5) The Duke of Gloucester, third son of King George

6) Prince George, youngest son.

The chances of the two princesses would go glimmering, of course, if Edward of Wales should marry, have offspring, or if the Duke of York should have a son.

Notable among princesses is Margaret Rose for the brevity of her name. Royalty, seldom satisfied with less than six names to roll sonorously over the tongues of ushers and court chamberlains, was startled at the staccato abruptness of Margaret Rose. Even so, Londoners wagered that it would soon become even shorter, that as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary has become “P’incess Lilybet” to the press, Margaret Rose would be Princess Madge.