Notes

The H. M. S. Repulse, the Prince of Wales aboard, left Cape Town for the island of St. Helena where a brief stop was to be made. On Aug. 14 the Prince will transfer to the light cruiser Curlew which, drawing less water, will be able to land the British Heir Apparent at Montevideo, his first stop on the South American continent.

When a man is lavish in India, Anglo-Indians say he is as "generous as Patiala." This axiom has been coined about the Maharaja of Patiala, a ruling

Indian Prince with a personal income of some $4,500,000 a year, noted for his lavish entertainments. Last week he arrived in London with a suite of 50 and a retinue of servants numbering at least 20. He and his suite occupied the whole fifth floor (100 rooms) of the Savoy Hotel on the Strand, for which he is said to pay $1,000 a day. Two special Indian cooks prepare his food and a fleet of 20 limousines waits in constant attendance. A new elevator in scarlet and Chinese lacquer was installed for his especial benefit and, by throwing several rooms together, a throne room was made on the fifth floor. Evidently the Maharaja is staying for some time.

W. J. S. Dawson, recently retired telephone contract agent for the Post Office Department, wrote to a London evening newspaper recalling that once he installed two "beautiful telephones in ivory and gold" for the exclusive use of the late King Edward. The monarch requested that they be installed in such a way that the operators could not overhear his conversation. The Post Office authorities demurred. According to their regulations they had a positive right and duty to censor any messages coming over their wires. But King Edward insisted and the Post Office desisted, installed the telephones as requested.

Alleging that white men had made new regulations for Indians in British Columbia, most westerly Canadian province, a powwow of 31 Chiefs at Shuswap sent Chief William Pierrish, Basil David and Johnnie Chillichitsa to lodge a protest with "the grand Chief whose wigwam is Buckingham Palace." Last week they arrived in London and set about securing an audience with "the biggest Chief of all." The Duke of York signified his "sincere pleasure and grateful thanks" by accepting invitations to become the Honorary President of the Yorktown World Forum,* Yorktown Country Club and the Yorktown Historical Society. The acceptance of these invitations was somehow or other construed to mean that the Duke would visit Yorktown, Va., next year, but this was officially denied in London, although both the Duke and Duchess hoped they would at some future date be able to do so.

Field Marshal Lord Haig, accompanied by Lady Haig, left Canada for England after a prolonged visit to the Dominion in the interests of the British Empire Service League (veterans' organization).

At London opened the first British Commonwealth Labor Conference. Ex-Premier Ramsay MacDonald, speaking on behalf of the British Labor Party, welcomed Labor delegates from Australia, Canada, India, Ireland (Free State and Ulster), Newfoundland, South Africa and the mandate of Palestine. To them he urged acceptance of a Commonwealth preference based not upon tariff reform but upon "large wholesale purchases by committees under Government control" which, presumably, would buy solely from the overseas British.

In Hyde Park occurred a clash between British Fascisti and Communists, involving some 2,000 persons, resulting in scores of more or less seriously damaged people and the wreckage of several private automobiles. The trouble started when the Fascisti, seeing a red flag, lost control of themselves and seized the insulting emblem, tearing it to pieces. They said they were pledged to tear down every red flag hoisted in London. The Evening News, antiCommunist, nevertheless scored the Fascisti, who are far from popular in London. Seeing a grave menace to the freedom of speech, the newspapers said:

"All kinds of cranks as well as good people go there [to Hyde Park] to say what they have to say. Cranks form, indeed, one of London's most popular free entertainment. If you do not wish to hear the bray of Communists you may walk away and listen to the more musical and equally profound bleating of the sheep in the park. If a Communist chooses to put in at the Marble Arch talking balderdash he is probably healthier than he would have been. It is intolerable that armed political bands should break the peace."

Baron Hayashi, Japanese Ambassador to Britain, called upon Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain at the Foreign Office. Both men dipped pen into ink, signed an Anglo-Japanese trade treaty.

*The Yorktown World Forum was formed to perpetuate the Yorktown battlefield where Lord Cornwallis surrendered. British Ambassador Sir Esme Howard, speaking recently, referred to a visit to the battlefield: "I felt that all bitterness, thank God, was past between us. I felt that just as our heritage of poets and sailors, of philosophers, lawgivers and statesmen belongs to you, so the greatness of your people is a greatness of which I, as an Englishman, have a right to be proud."