ROYAL TOUR IS PROBABLE IN 1952

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26026, 1 February 1950, Page 4

ROYAL TOUR IS PROBABLE IN 1952

LONDON DURY

London. January 10,--p. matter is never completely dormant, but I can assure you that at the moment there is nothing doing at all. said the press spokesman at Buckingham Palace to-day when I asked lor comment on frequent Australian reports that the King and Queen will be visiting the Commonwealth next y< He also said that rumours that Princess Margaret had cancelled a planned trip to Canada and the United States because oi the General Election were also quite unfounded. From this spokesman and from other sources J gather that a Royal tour to New Zealand and Australia this year is out of the question. A tour in 1951 is most unlikely, owing to the Festival of Britain, but in 1952 a visit is fairly probable. 1950 Edinburgh Festival

Hundreds of copies of a brochure listing attractions of the 1950 Edinburgh Festival (August 20-September 9) are now on their way to New Zealand- The Festival was a “must for many Dominion tourists last year and this year it is sure to be just as popular. There will be nightly performances by six. famous orchestras (three of them foreign). In addition, there will be two choirs, three chamber music groups, two operas, two drama companies, international ballet, and a number of top-ranking soloists and recitalists. The national flavour in the drama will be carried on by Tyrone Cuthrie and John Casson, who will direct new plays by famous Scottish playwrights. Other big attractions will be an exhibition of Rembrandts pictures and Professor Skupa’s famous puppet theatre from Czechoslovakia. New Zealand Musicians at Albert Hall Two New Zealanders who have made their mark in music here were soloists at successive Winter Promenade Concerts in the Albert Hall recently. Last Saturday evening Colin Horsley gave another of his accomplished performances, when he played the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with the London Philharmonic Orchestra: and on Monday Alan Loveday, the ?l-year-old violinist from Palmerston North, gave his fourth performancejit Promenade Concerts m the last three years of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. He gained one of the most tumultuous ovations of the series to date. The critic of the Daily Telegraph” wrote: “Mr Loveday has gifts of which great things may be expected. His playing has technical finish, charming tone and refinement.

The Uncanny Piddingtons The amazing thought-reading vid" dingtons have done it again. Last year this young Australian couple mystified millions of British Broadcasting Corporation listeners with their d e “°“" strations of telepathy and thereby started a national controversy on whether it was a trick or was genuine. This week Mrs Piddington (insured for £5OOO by the J3.8C.1. 12 feet under water in a glass diving bell and 12 miles awav from her husband m tne studio, just failed correctly to repeat a line from a sealed book chosen by the 8.8. C., the 1668-page “Life of Disraeli.” Members of the audience, each supplying cne figure, picked the nage and line for the extract and there appeared to be no possible chance of collusion. Slowly Mrs Piddington replied: "Waiting all day for Stanleys ultimatum and then said . . . The correct line was: “Waited a day a Iter Stanley’s ultimatum and then said. ” That was close enough to convince most people that they really do have telepathic powers.

[By NEVILE WEBBER. London Correspondent of "The Press”]

Ealing Studios Again! In “The Blue Lamp,” Jack Warner, Dirk Bogarde and Jimmy Hanley join to give us for once a film which both the critics and the public are hailing as a winner. This film follows the success of "Whisky Galore,” “Passport to Pimlico,” and “Kind Hearts and Coronets”—all Ealing productioni. “The Blue Lamp,” produced for the first time with the full co-operation of New Scotland Yard, is a thriller with a good, human story, which reaches an exciting climax after a hair-raising car chase through the streets of London. From Swords to Shears Although the Kings sword cutlers at Acton are at present making 100 swords for the Canadian Navy and have just finished the annual 50 for the Danish Navy, they do not make many new swords these days. Their last big order from the British services was in 1947. when 700 were made for the Royal Navy. Their only regular order is for three, which are presented to the outstanding R.A.F. cadets at Cranwell each year. Unless the Army decides to go back to full dress again, the demand is likely to remain low. These highly-skilled craftsmen are not idle, however, for they do a good business in repairing swords passed down to young officers from relatives and friends and in making garden shears. Anti-Climax of the Girl Jean The amazing lengths to which the • national newspapers will go for a sensational story was well demonstrated this last week-end with the case of the stolen fishing boat, Girl Jean. Dozens of planes were hired to search and photograph, including some bombers which devour petrol at the rate of 1000 gallons an hour. Top reporters were flown to Scotland; and when the boat was brought back to the wharf, more than 100 photographers and reporters were waiting for it. There was only one telephone on the wharf, and newsmen had frantic dashes to Poirtflaw to get their stories away for the Sunday papers. The publicity and tremendous effort, which must have cost the newspapers many thousands of pounds, came to a damp anti-climax when it transpired in Court that the boy was not a romantic young Drake, but a delinquent with a bad record of theft and housebreaking. For Telephone Users I saw details to-day of a cunning device that will appeal to those who want to use both hands and the telephone at the same time. It consists

device that will appeal to those who want to use both hands and the telephone at the same time. It consists of a heavy base plate, to which is attached an adjustable arm, with a hook to take the receiver. The whole apparatus is designed to stand on a desk or table. The arm can then be manipulated to suit the height and position of the user’s head. A plastic bar ig also supplied to place on the telephone, so that the receiver need not be moved once placed on its hook. This is Not Shaggy Another spate of shaggy dog stories is current after the news of Blackie Boy, a Scottish Pekinese which can talk. Even cynics are now definite that he says “Helto,” and some are inclined to’ agree with his owners, who translate other sounds as “No, no, not now,” “Fifi” (another pekinese in the house), and “Yum yum.” A veterinary surgeon commented: “The dog’s speech was pure mimicry of his mistress’s voice ... it was extraordinarily unusual.”