AN EXTRAORDINARY HOAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14327, 24 March 1910, Page 3

AN EXTRAORDINARY HOAX.

NAVAL OFFICERS DUPED. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN* CORRESPONDENT.] London*, March 11. Acc!obding to the Standard, a huge practical joke was recently plajed upon the officers of H.M.S. Dreadnought, the flagship of Admiral Sir Wm- H. May, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet. It was a burlesque on a large scalc. The dramatis person® were five young men and a young woman, all of whom are extremely well connected and very well-to-do., The "entertainment" was got ug regardless of expense. Three of the young men and the ladji were dressed to impersonate Abyssinian princes, while the other two fulfilled the roles of German interpreter and attache. The costumes and disguises cost well over £500. •A telegram, purporting to have been sent by a high official, reached the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, requesting him to receive " Frince Makalin and suite." So it was that the visitors were received on board the Dreadnought with all possiblo ceremony. The pscudo princes were shown everj thing, and expressed their delight to their hosts, the officers, by exclaiming "Bunga Bunga," which was interpreted to mean, "Isn't it lovely!" From the start to tho finish thoy were 40 minutes on board and they left without having aroused tho slightest suspicion in anyone's mind. It is stated that some of the masqueraders took, part in the famous Sultan of Zanzibar hoax on the Mayor of Cambridge.