"SMOKED AND DRANK."

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 188, 11 August 1925, Page 5

"SMOKED AND DRANK."

SO LADIES WERE ARRESTED.

PURITANS IN ITALY.

LONDON", August 1

The Fascist organ, "Epoca," says the Rome correspondent of the "Times," expostulated on what it describes as the eccentric behaviour in a Florentine cafe of two well-known English ladies, who "wore the most elegant gowns, smoked cigarettes in long ivory holders, and drank glassfuls of whisky and brandy," thus attracting the attention of the cafe crowds. "Epoca" says that when the ladies left, a crowd of youths followed them, wheVeupon a policeman demanded to see their passports. The ladies appealed to the British Consul, who did not" consider that the incident justified a demand for an apology. It is understood that the subject will be raised in the House of Commons. "Epoco" adds: "This is another attempt to calumniate Fascist Italy."

A cable published previously stated that, in a letter to the "Daily Mail," Mrs. Handel Booth (wife of F. H. Booth, ironmaster and former Liberal M.P.). had complained that while she and Miss Margery Lawrence were crossing a crowded street in Florence, plain clothes police arrested and took them to a police station. She demanded to be taken to the British Consul. They were shadowed by a motor car full of police to their hotel, where the police told the manager they were spies. With the assistance of an Italian lawyer tltev escaped spending a night in the cells. The Consul eventually obtained an apology, but no explanation. ' Mrs. Booth added there had been four similar cases in the previous fortnight, those arrested including an Englishman and his wife and a young American and his sister. The latter pair were imprisoned for four days, " v •