The Governor of Rome, Prince Ludovico Spada Varalli Potenziani, tall and of cadaverous countenance, reached Manhattan last week on the liner Conte Biancamano to return the visit made to Rome last year by jaunty New York Mayor James ("Jimmy") Walker. Prince Potenziani's governship of Rome is a mayoralty with added dictatorial powers. He is of ancient aristocratic family but likes to drive a motor car with as much reckless speed as does Dictator Benito Mussolini himself, and is skilled in the gentlemanly art of swordplay. He was accompanied by his athletic, vivacious daughter, Princess Miriam. Orating at Manhattan, he said: ". . . The Man of Destiny, Benito Mussolini . . . guided by his inexhaustible love of his fatherland . . . leads Italy with unshaken faith and a firm hand toward its new future, founded on principles of ... peace, order, discipline and work." Pestered for his opinion of Manhattan, Prince Potenziani said: "Astounding!"

The Governor of Naples, Commander Nicola Sansanelli, stepped down upon Manhattan from the same ship as did the Governor of Rome (see above), but promptly withdrew from public notice to further quietly the work of F. I. D. A. C. (The Interallied Society of War Veterans) of which he is President.

Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford steamed home from their vacation in England (TIME, April 16, et seq.) aboard the Majestic, upon which they were again listed under the alias of "Mr. & Mrs. John Robinson." Meanwhile at Para, Brazil, the newspaper Folha de Norte published alleged revelations of the text of a rubber plantation agreement signed by the Ford interests and the State of Para. The agreement, denounced as a "scandalous document," was declared to grant Mr. Ford "unlimited permission to engage in commerce, industry, banking, navigation, and the hiring of contract labor . . . unrestricted by government control" throughout a vast tract of land.

Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, famed Norwegian polar explorer, winner of the Nobel Peace Award in 1922, and repeatedly Norwegian Delegate to the League of Nations, landed from the Aquitania last week, to lecture before the National Geographical Society and then return within a fortnight to Norway. Growled he: "The most valuable vehicle for scientific polar exploration is still the dog sled. Airplanes and dirigibles fly too swiftly. . . !"

John Pierpont Morgan sat tight in his suite aboard the Aquitania when she docked at Manhattan last week. After all other passengers had clumped down the gangplank, Mr. Morgan, who had successfully maintained an incognito all the way over, slipped ashore, was met by Partner Thomas W. Lamont, and descended in a freight elevator. For the past month he has been cruising in the Mediterranean aboard his yacht Corsair. Three days after he landed Mr. Morgan momentously fulfilled a duty which he has often promised to perform but which had heretofore escaped him. He began to serve on the Nassau County Grand Jury at Mineola, N. Y.