CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 165, 13 June 1936, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS

(By “Wayfarer.”)

Okl negro woman (by her husband’s grave) : ‘‘Poor Rastus. I hope lie s gone whar I spec’ he am't.” # . It is “on tlie cards” that the Republicans in the United States are not at all pleased with tile New Deal —they want a complete reshuffle. m » • * Despite the widespread strikes in France, the lamous Blue Train has adhered to its schedule. It seems the persistency of the “blues is beyond denial. # , The first 12 couples to get married each week in New York will be given free theatre tickets by the management of a certain theatre. Tile best man and the bridesmaids will also be eligible for free seats. “One Good Year is the name of the play. It s a fares, truthfully, but unkindly, reports a film editor. „ . • • * “

“Not all the lunatics in the world live in padded cells,” says Ex-Detective Brust, of Scotland Yard, in his book, “I Guarded Kings.” “Many of them are not even certified. Believe me, there are plenty of lunatics at laige and it is a common occurrence for ecfcentric individuals and those slightly deranged mentally to fasten their attentions upon Royal personages. Sometimes their ‘kink’ takes the form of a strong love infatuation for some member of a Royal Family! I remember very well one occasion when, patrolling along the front of Buckingham Palace, I found an excited old man hopping from one foot to the other, battering at the main gates and demanding admittance. A uniform policeman was endeavouring to calm him down. ‘Now, what’s all" the trouble?’ I asked and, to the amazement of the constable and myself, the old fellow declared vehemently that he had received a proposal of marriage from a member of th# Royal Familv. We tried peaceful persuasion, but at last he became so worked up that his violence had to be restrained, and an ambulance car was summoned to convey him to an insane asylum. It transpired afterwards that the poor chap had for many years been a soldier with the British Army in India where he had contracted sunstroke from which he never recovered. A sad case, but it just proves to what lengths a warped imagination can go.” The same writer (Ex-Detective Inspector Brust) lias some interesting remarks in his book about our present King when lie filled the high rank of Prince of Wales. “The Prince of Wales,” he says, “is a prince by nature as well as name, a veritable ‘prince of good fellows.” I discovered that for myself when I accompanied him to Oxford on one occasion with my colleague, tlie late Inspector Sandercock. Unless one is attached to his staff and thus is privileged to met him ‘off duty,’ it is impossible to realise what a charming host the Prince can be. He likes to laugh, and is never happier than when lie can escape formality, sit back, and relax. Occasionally, on his formal excursions amongst the people, as when he goes quietly to Kenningtou, Loudon, for a visit to the tenants of his Duchy of Cornwall estate, others have seen this side of his character, and relished him at his true worth. As 1 once heard one of his tenants, a white-haired old lady, say, ‘That’s wot I likes abaht ’im—’e’s that yuman I* Human —and humorous, too. He lias a most amazing fund of funny stories—not just glib wit, but real humour. His powers of minicry would have made him world-famous oil the theatre stage had not Fate decreed that he should have been born to the purple. Despite the tremendous volume of publicity and the fierce, unceasing glare of the limelight that lias been focussed upon him since childhood, lie has remained unspoiled—and thank Heaven for it !” The ex-detective inspector throw's a sidelight oil the duties of those men in the position he held who are called upon to guard public men. He points out that “the persons who try to approach statesmen and Cabinet Ministers are of a much more dangerous type—in England, at any rate —than those who pester Royalty. Members of the Government are often blamed for the personal misfortunes of half-crazy people. The late Mr Bonar Law, one of the most lovable and inoffensive of men, when Prime Minister of England, was subjected to many attempts at molestation by pests. During an official visit to Scotland 1 was guarding him on the platform at Edinburgh Station, when a woman carrying a bouquet of flowers approached. 1 could see she was overwrought, quivering with nervous tension, and i did not like that glitter in her eyes. 1 signalled to a constable, and we closed in on each side of her, preventing her from reaching Mr Bonar Law. A lucky thing that we did! Hidden in the bouquet was a bottle of corrosive acid, with which she stated she had intended to ‘christen’ the Prime Minister. She had lost several sons in the war, and said she thought tins move was necessary in order that the Premier should be punished for Tiis part in causing the conflict.’ War itself, its shock and .struggle and massmurder of battle, is a tragic thing—but here was an instance of the tragedy behind tlie tragedy, a glimpse of the fearful things which war can wreak indirectly upon sensitive people. Poor woman 1 Who can gauge her grief at such a wholesale bereavement? There must have been hundreds of thousands of heart-broken mothers, bitter against the system and the shibboleths which had precipitated the World War, by the time the bugles sang truce at Armistice. Sometimes, now and then, as in this Edinburgh instance, wo found soul-anguish turning to crazy hatred and focusing upon a Governmental head. The poor woman was removed to an asylum, and later died there, completely and homicidally insane.”