HOAXED BY A BOGUS PRINCE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 84, 15 May 1914, Page 5

HOAXED BY A BOGUS PRINCE.

Two eafefullv-groomed young men have succeeded in perpetrating an amusing hoax \)fi a number of society people in. London recently. Posing as "the Crown Prince of .Wurttembui'g and his private secretary, Lord Stanton Hope,'' they seem to have begun then' joke at the Hendon Aerodrome, whefe Mr Grahame-White, the well-known aviator, gave the "prince" a long free-trip by aeroplane that would have cost .the ordinary private individual at least ten guineas. Tlie pair made their first appearance as the Prince and Lord Hope at Hendon when the private secretary asked Mr Graiiafn6-White' to give his Royal master a flight. Both were charming Taiftl j>dlif3hed, and the '' Prince of Wurttembui'g'' had decidedly German features.

"The imposition,-" said t\lr GrahameWhite, " was' not difficult £o 'practise, because Royalty frequently visit the aerodrome, and I am always willing to give them a llight, especially* if they represent a,'-foreign Powei - , fife im act of hospitality." Before .the affable young gentlemen quitted the • Serodi-bnie tlidy "had insinuated themselves into an exclusive titled circle, and received invitations to lunch and dinner, which " Lord. Hope,'' at any rate, was careful to keep, ,Em quiry at the German Embassy disclosed the hoax, for there is 110 Crown .Prince of Wurttemburg, and no Hope wa# known there. ByLthat timc the pair :fiad; disappeared, ? 5 . The joT?e seems to have b6en quite a harmless one, but the hoax succeeded admirably.