Birthday

While he was at Johannesburg last week, a 31st birthday caught up with the Prince of Wales, bowed and passed on its way.

To celebrate the fleeting visit of the emissary of age, the Prince visited the gold mines of the East Rand where he was given a stupendous, raucous welcome. He paid particular attention to the social side of the mines, visiting homes, talking to families, inspecting children. In the course of the morning, he collected numerous presents.

In the afternoon, capped and gowned, he opened the University of Witwatersrand, the cornerstone of which was laid in 1922 by his cousin, Prince Arthur of Connaught, the then Governor General. Students yelled their lungs raw and the Vice Chancellor, Sir Robert Kotze, invested him with the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

From the University, the Prince drove through miles of excited, noisy, hot people, all roaring "many happy returns," to a meeting of Moslems and a congregation of Negroes, who were also loudly vociferous.

In the evening, the Prince attendee a dance in the Town Hall, which he did not leave until the "wee" hours of the morning. At one period, when he was in "a merry mood," he was asked to cut an enormous birthday cake "Certainly," replied the Prince, "I'll do anything you like." The top two layers of the cake were removed and Prince, seizing a knife, plunged it up to the hilt into the cake. To his horror and to the amusement of the guests he found that he could neither cut the cake nor move the knife. The cake was fake.