"SMOKED AND DRANK"

Evening Star, Issue 19019, 14 August 1925, Page 2

"SMOKED AND DRANK"

80 LADIES WERE ARRESTED PURITANS IN ITALY. LONDON, August 1. The Fascist organ ‘ Epoca ’ says the Rome correspondent of ‘Tne Times,’ expostulated on what it describes aa the eccentric behaviour in a Florentine cafe of two well-known English ladies, who “ wore tho most elegant gowns, smoked cigarettes in long ivory holders, and drank glassfuls of whisky and brandy,” thus attracting the attention of the cafe crowds.

1 Epoca ’ says that when the ladies left a crowd of youths followed them, whereupon 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 bo raised in the House of Commons. ‘Epoca’ adds: “This is another attempt to calumniate Fascist Italy.”

[A cablegram published previously staled that in a letter to the ‘ Daily Mail’ Mrs Handel Booth (wdfe of Mr 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, wdiere the police told the manager they were spies. With tho assistance of an Italian lawyer they 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.]