Specs for the Osu

The calling card gave the visitor's home address as Rolyat Castle, Accra, on West Africa's Gold Coast; his phone numbers, 337 and 406. He was Nii Kwabena Bonne III, Osu (chief) of Alata Manche, Oyoko-hene (headman) of Techeman, and general president of the Ga Football Association (Alata Manche, Techeman and Ga are states on West Africa's Gold Coast). Last week the Osu flew some 3,000 miles to Britain, leaving twelve wives behind in his Accra palace. He landed at London Airport wearing red and green robes, a red hat spangled with jewels, and sandals whose soles were lined with silver. The Osu explained what had brought him to Britain: "I understand I can obtain free health treatment here. I think I will get a pair of spectacles."

Chief Bonne was right about the free treatment.* The illustrious patient promptly had his eyes examined, but he would have to wait about five months for his specs. One million three hundred thousand plain Britons were in the queue ahead of him.

* An odd feature of the National Health Service Act is that all foreigners, whether they pay British taxes or not, are entitled to free treatment under the National Health Service Act. Last spring a doctor in Calais complained that his French patients were crossing the Channel to get free British treatment; some were reported to have resold their free dentures and spectacles on the Continent.

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