"A LITTLE BIT WILD”

Evening Star, Issue 23501, 15 February 1940, Page 15

"A LITTLE BIT WILD”

“ WHERE IS UNITY 7” itCAPABF.S BF LfRB REBESDALE'S DAUGHTER M SIGN IF BULLET MARKS In blood-red letters a foot high the street placards of _ London newsmen shrieked: “Where is Unity? Thus would have made a good headline for the bombshell resignation of War Secretory Leslie Hore-Behsha; instead referred to the Hon. Unity Valkyne Freeman-Mitford (says New York ‘ Time ’)• Last week her return to Britain on a stretcher roused such public excitement that the War Office sent soldiers with rifles to keep unauthorised persons off the landing quay at Folkestone. Up in rock-ribbed Scotland the Lord Provost of Glasgow, Patnc Joseph Km snorted: “ it. is simply disgusting tiat this attention should be paid to * little flapper who really ought to have her pants spanked instead of getting publicity.’’ When Unity was delayed two days in reaching Folkestone, popular excitement touched fever pitch, and her father, Insurance Tycoon Lord Redesdale, was offered )00 for a statement by one. of the S London dailies. “ I wouldn’t accept 000,” cried Lord Redesdale. “Many untrue stories have been circulated. I have even been called a * asoi§i I **; •.. Possibly Lord Redesdale is no Fascist, but- minutes of the House of Lords record that he addressed his peers as follows; directly after, the Nazis seized Austria: “ The gratitude of the whole world is due at this time to Hitler for averting a catastrophe of staggering magnitude without spilling one drop of . blood I ” Daughter Unity during those Lectio hours was one of ■ the Fuhrer s ' women friends privileged to accompany him on his triumphal entry into Austria. She even dashed ahead, to bo in Vienna when her idol , entered, screamed herself hoarse cheering Conqueror Hitler as he bowled along in tn “ yon are making an international ass of yourself. Unity ! ” she was told at the Bayreuth Musical Festival last summer by candid young Cambridge Poet Stanley Richardson, protege or the Archbishop of York, Asinine, indeed had been her conduct ever since she let the Fuhrer pick hereof) originally in a Munich cafe in 1934. i want everybody to know I am a JewLater I ” she soon wrote to the btnrmer,’ the notorious- Nazi anti-Semetio organ, “ England for the English—-out with the Jews! ,Heil Hitler! ’ By last summer the Fuhrer was visibly tired of “ the English miss ” and she was mooning at him from a distance at public functions —obviously ripe for a feminine emotional crack-up. . As the German army went cracking into Poland, no Party car earned Unity, and next thing Lord RedesdaJe heard was that his daughter was in a hospital at Munich. In Pans • ‘ L’Oeuvre ’ splashed a typical Genevieve Tabouis story that on September 3, when Unity was taking her usual Munich morning walk, two "bullets were •put into her by 19-year-old Nazi zealot August Scharenhach on orders . from Nazi Secret Police Chief Heinrich Himmler. Actually, whem Unity arrived at Calais, French Police Cominiswonaire. Micouleau was ablo to un- - - ■‘noahee thaitherowas not theslightest sign of bullet marks on or in Unity s ... head. “ The only , thing wrong with her head is that it is turned!” shrugged M. Micouleau after kindly British tars had carried Unity safely aboard » Channel packet while, her mother held her hand. She looked pale, dull-eyed, and tottery, but presently sat up, laughed, and chattered ! with her mother. , , Ten motor car loads of reporters and camera men hovering in Folkestone followed the ambulance as it whisked the invalid and her mother away. Ten miles out of town the ambulance broke a spring, a tyre of Lord Redesdale s own car blew out, and the Redesdales slowly returned in the lop-sided ambulance to Folkestone’s Royal Pavilion Hotel. At last the people’s Press got the close-up millions were hungry for: Unity swayed on the arm of her lean, silverJiaired father, . . • She . stared blankly . . . white-faced in a .shabby coat . her face plump with long lying in hospital, and red carpet suppers on her feet. •. • • She uttered an Ophelia-like giggle. ‘ Funny, funnyl’ she muttered. Next day Miss Freeman-Mitford was safely conveyed to the family estate in High Wycombe, 26} miles west of LondonT One reporter was admitted, and with » faint smile Unity said: “ I do not remember anything of what has happened. . . . You see, I have been in the hospital for nearly four months. Funny thing, Ido not know what has been wrong with me. Isn’t that funny?” ■ Said Lord Redesdale: “My daughter, poor child, doeen’t even -know that England is at war. . . . The host specialists in the land shall examine her. . . .1 am not ashamed of anything my daughter has done in Germany. I know that aJI she has done has been done because she thought it would encourage friendship between the two countries.” Meanwhile in Miami last week Jessica, fifth of the six daughters of Lord Redesdale (Unity is No. 4), announced that she and her husband, Esmond Xtomilly, a nephew of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, have obtained employment as barmaid and barman in the Roma Restaurant. “ Unity is a little bit wild,” said Jessica lightly. She then emphasised that her own husband fought for Leftist Spain and that she herself has no Nazi leanings. “ But don’t call us Radicals. We’re extreme Liberals,” her husband said. “Of course, we really are Radicals, but that word gets kicked around too much.” With gusto barman Romilly described how he was recently fired by a Manhattan advertising agency for submitting the slogan: “It’s great to sin on 91b o’ gin!” After that the pair tried peddling hosiery in Washington, “It was all right,” he said. “ Yon had to measure ankles and calves and things,” “ Yes,” added Jessica, “you likea the measuring part too well.” Then they bought a jalopy and drove on to Florida. The No. 3 Redesdale daughter, Diana, is the wife of Sir Oswald Mosley.