ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17110, 15 March 1919, Page 4 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

No monarch was ever more indifferent to convention than Nicholas of Montenegro, whose Parliament recently decided to retire him from the king business. During a Court procession he had been known to stop his carriage, hail the local postman, and get from him the mails that were to bo delivered at the palace.

Viscount Gort, who has joined the ranks of V.C. heroes, is only the second man to win the bronze cross while holding a peerage. The other was Lord Gilford, the present peer's brother, who had just succeeded his father when he gained the distinction in Ashanti. Earl Koberts was an unknown subaltern when his heroism in the Mutiny earned him his first piece of ribbon, while Lord Wantage did not receive his title until after he had worn the medal. The Earl of Dunmore, too, had not succoeded when the.honour was giveu to him.

It is widely known that during the war Buckingham Palace was strictly rationed. Princess Mary, while touring trance—her first independent trip—with Lady Ampthill as her companion in the motor car, came one night to a rest-hostel. The girls, warned in advance of her visit, were at pains to prepare an appetising repast after the long motor journey, and they managed a turkey stuffed with chestnuts, and a sweet. When the Princess beheld the table spread she shook her head. "Ah," she exclaimed, "we have nothing like this at Buckingham Palace!" A practical exhibition of boot-repairing was given to the members of the Rayne Women's Institute, Baintree, by Lady Petre, who put patches on old uppers and soled and heeled several pairs of boots and shoes, doing the work well- She said that since the war she had repaired. all her own footwear and that of her family. She recommended cobbling as a very suitable industry for women. Lady Petre is. the daughter of the late Major Boscawen and of Lady Margaret Boscawen. Her husband, the late Lord Petre, died of wounds received in action in 1915. j Miss " Vera " Dugdale, just engaged to Irf>rd Glanusk's son and heir, Major Wv fred Bailey, a Grenadier Guardsman, lately -rounded 'a second time, was a debutant* at the first Court of 1914, and ordj laughter of Colonel Frank and Lady Ev» Dugdale, both favoured members- of the household. Miss Dugdale is a god-daugh-ter of Queen Victoria. Only sister of Lord Warwick, Lady Eva Dugdale has long been an intimate of the Queen's, their friendship dating from the time when the late Duchess of Teck and her daughter Princess "May" used to stay at Warwick Castle, I Lady Theodora Davidson has taken up her residence in London with her (laughter at a house in Belgravia. At the beginning of the war she went through all sorts of exciting experiences while nursing in a hosp tal in the North if France, but after the sudden death of her feusband at Rouen she removed the scene of her activities to Ireland. Lady Theodora, who is a sister of Lord Albemarle and of Sir Derek Kepp 1, has just had the pleasure of welcoming back her only surviving son, who has been serving fur three years in Mesopotamia and the Far East.

A victim of influenza* has been Miss Lavender Sloane-Stanley, who was laid up with a serious attack while warworking at Winchester. ■ Mfe SloaneStanley, although hardly yet "out," has for some time been doing excellent work as a V.A.D., and her mother, Olive Lady Cairns, has lately come up to her beautiful house in Chelsea, intending to do some entertaining for her daughter. Paultons, Mr. Shane-Stanley's place near Romsey, was for a long time most successfully "run" by Lady Cairns as a hospital for the wounded, but it has now resumed its former role of a comfortable country house.

Manv people remember the exciting career of May Yohe, a star in light opera some vears ago. She was a friend of King Edward's, and for a while she could claim the title of Lady Hope. Some time ago she married Captain J. A. Smuts, who tried vainly to enlist for war service. Misfortune fell heavily upon May Yohe and her third husband, and finally he contracted influenza > Seattle. Being without funds, his wife became doorkeeper at the shipyard where her husband had been employed, and eupoorted' them both until he recovered. The latest news of the quondam countess is that she and her hueband are going in for poultry-raising near Seattle-

Queen Alexandra was present to witness the procession in honour of the great Marshal of France. She has always been a hero-worshipper. Field-Marshall Earl Roberts was one whom she admired, and for the late Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener she had a genuine admiration and a warm friendship. Few. of his friends grieved for him more sincerely than her Majesty. For Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig Queen Alexandra has the kindliest feelings of friendship and the greatest admiration of hia soldierly talents. Often, no doubt, she looks back on the day in the Chapel in Buckingham Palace when she gave him bis wife, one of her twin maids of honour. The other retains that position still. Sir Douglas had even then shown that he was beginning a distinguished military career, but no one could then guess now his chance would come,' or how gloriously he would take and develop it.

Mr. Andrew Mansel Talbot Fletcher, of Saltoun, who succeed to the many millions of his aunt, the late Miss Taibot, married sixteen years ago the elder daughter of Sir Francis Sawley Winnington, fifth baronet, cousin of the Bishop of London, who is a grandson of the second baronet. Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher of Saltoun have two sons and two daughters. It is curious how money goes to money in certain families, for Mr. Fletcher's eldest sister married Mr. Bertram Metking, 10th Royal Hussars, whose great wealth was inherited at his death by 'his two daughters. Mrs. Meeking married again Mr. Herbert Johnson, of March Court, Hants. The late Miss Talbot saw a great deal of her nephew, who is familiar with her wise and charitable use of her great fortune. Her brother died years ago after a long illness, the result of an accident in the hunting field, injuring his spine. Mr. Fletcher, A.M.T., was in the Life Guards, and was a great deal in society some ten or twelve years .ago, but has of late years Uved mostly in Scotland or with his aunt. Of the many stories that are told of Admiral Beatty's meeting with the German emissaries, this is about the best. Some time ago the Huns had laid a minefield, and Beatty arranged that the historic meeting should take place within a mile of it, directing a course for the Koenigsberg that would take her right through it. The Koenigsberg was, as everyone knows, delavcd, for the Huns knew the danger, and sent messages that they would have to take a course to the south instead of the west. They would not say the minefield was there, expecting that Beatty would bring his ships through it and so suffer disaster. What they did not know was that the mines had been swept up two or three weeks before. ' One of Admiral Beatty's most treasured possessions is a picture of Nelson, which has the place of honour in his cabin. There is something very remarkable about this print of Nelson. Beatty takes it with him wherever he goes, from ship to ship. The stor? goes that in the first month of the war! just before "we bit them in the Bight of Heligoland," some of the officers ; n council bad misgivings as to the prospects of the expedition. 'We'll go ahead," said Beatty. "I've talked with my admiral." ' He meant that he had communed with the spirit of Nelson, and so, no doubt, he talked with his admiral be-. fore he received the representatives of the German navy. i'-