LONDON TOPICS

Evening Star, Issue 18034, 31 July 1922, Page 8

LONDON TOPICS

NO ENGAGEMENTS FOR PRINCE. [From Oua London Correspondent.J June 15. Despile the fact that during the past few weeks many invitations have been received at York House, St. James’s, for the Prince of Wales to undertake public engagements after his arrival in this country, none of these will be accepted, since his medical advisers are strongly of the ■ opinion that he needs a thorough rest mid freedom from all responsibility for some time, in order that he may completely recover from the fatigue attendant upon his recent tour through India and the Par East. Therefore it is anticipated that he will leave town almost immediately after his return, but will come back in time to ' join the King and Queen upon their forthcoming visit to Cowes for the regatta week there, and he will then travel with them to Balmoral, where he will remain for about a couple of months. As at present arranged, the first public engagement to bo undertaken by His Royal Highness will bo a visit to a great Scout “rally” at the Crystal Palace on the aternoon of Saturday, October 7. Hie greater part of the winter the Prince hopes to devote to hunting, and it will not bo until the early part of next year that Hist Royal Highness will really get into harness again. ROMAN BATHING PARTIES IN LONDON. A friend of mine, a young man with a flat in the centre of the East End, and a mantelpiece smothered in invitations, has just been tibe guest at an unusual entertainment. A few days ago he mot at dinner a well-known hostess, who invited him, a little mysteriously, to a “ Roman bathing party.” He arrived at 4, and \vn» ushered by a maid down a long ball and through a charming doorway into an amazing chamber containing the reproduction of an old Roman bath surrounded with dressing boxes. His hostess was already in the water with two or three friends. In the box he found a bathing drcss_wa.iting for him, and he soon found himself swimming in the most delightfully coo. water, upon which the snn shone through a glass roof. After the bathe ho returned to hia box, and there found laid out in readiness a set of classical robes, in which, a trifle self-consciously, he arrayed. 1 himself. Then, very conscious of his sandals, he bashfully emerged l to find tea arranged on the wide marble at the end of the bath. When he left the house an hour later, Clad once more in the garments of the twentieth century, be could l hardly believe that he bad been no more than a mile from Piccadilly Circus. NEW LAMPS FOE- OLD.

One notices with a certain amount of pathos the news of a post-war Atlantic record by the Cunarder Mauretania. All the newspapers chronicle it; but how differently ten years ago! The Mauretania’s post-war record, done on her recent homeward voyage across the Atlantic is 5d 8h 14m. The real Atlantic record, set up by the same splendid ocean greyhound in fateful 1914, was nearly eighteen hoursless. One recalls the excitement of that great feat. The Mauretania was a Tynebuilt sister ship to the ill-fated Clyde-built Lusitania, and naturally the Atlantic rivalry between these exponents of English and Scottish engineering yards was a matter of vital thrill. The Mauretania proved the better boat, though somehow less fine looking in the water, mainly because she stood high-pressure driving with less vibration. But what does the postwar public care for Atlantic records counted in twenty-four-hour days? Since the struggle was fought over the blue ribbon of tie Atlantic events have happened that have relegated ocean greyhounds to the samo romantic limbo as full-rigged ships of sail. How lonj* did Hawker take on his first triumphant tailure? How long did those two gallant air knights who followed him take? How long did the good airship R 34 take? For practical commercial purposes, not for many a year perhaps, imt from the popular standpoint even now, a museum glass case is aura to the Mauro tania. MAKING AN ASS OF LAW. Of course, the True case makes the law more than ever “an ass.” A murderer is tried by a judge and twelve jurors solely on the issue of his sanity, and found sane. Three appeal judges, including an unusually able Lord Chief, emphatically come to the tame conclusion on the same narrow issue. But the Homo Secretary, just because certain doctors suggest it, is bound to appoint a Medical Commission, and when these three specialist disagree with the four judges and twelve jurors who tried the case twice, the tradition of 500 years compels the Home,.Secretary to save the murderer’s neck. That the absurdity in our legal system should suddenly be revealed in a case where the murderer has rich and powerful relatives is merely a coincidence. One doubts, however, whether the supercillious attitude of the House of Commons towards the public’s ignorant indignation is justified. The question at issue is a majestic one—the reputation of British justice for evenhanded dealing. And the public is certainly quite sane in objecting to three professional experts being put above the criminal system. Experts of the greatest eminence are daily in conflict in the committee rooms where private bills aro heard. Their opinions seem largely a matter of retainers. But these politicians are so amazingly aloof. The Home Secretary does not even know, with all the, police information at his disposal, and has not the curiosity to ask, the name of True’s relatives, though it has been repeated all over the West End and in Fleet street since the murder startled London.