Extraterritoriality of Princess Margriet's birth

In 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands and the Dutch royal family went into exile, with Crown Princess Juliana taking refuge in Ottawa, the capital of Canada.

[2]: 124 [b] In November, Juliana's secretary,[4] William van Tets,[5] contacted Canada's Department of External Affairs regarding the problem of having a Dutch royal heir born a British subject.

[c] The department's legal advisor John Erskine Read devised a manner of avoiding this circumstance by enacting a temporary extraterritorial space for the birth of the heir.

"[15] Margriet's birth, according to James Powell, "helped cement a lasting bond between the peoples of Canada and the Netherlands",[1] displayed prominently in the Canadian Tulip Festival.

[16][15] A widely reported myth emerged that a room (or as much as the entire maternity ward[17]) of Ottawa Civic Hospital was temporarily declared Dutch territory for the birth.

[4] The international border shifting inspired the screenwriter of Passport to Pimlico, a 1949 British comedy in which a section of London is discovered to be outside the United Kingdom's jurisdiction.