AMERICAN "ENTERPRISE."

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2142, 27 December 1920, Page 4

AMERICAN "ENTERPRISE."

\ An enterprising American playwright has. writfen a play which is intended to exploit the popularity of the .Prince of Wales, who, during a brief visit to America on the conclusion of his tour of Canada last year, was enthusiastically welcomed by American citizens. This play, which is entitled "Just Suppose,'' reveals the Prlncei staying incognito at the old-fashioned home of a 1 Virginian planter, having escaped from ! the arduous and distasteful formalities and conventions attaching to his Royal visit to Washington as a State function of the highest diplomatic importance. Of course, he falls in love with the pretty daughter of the house, and she coyly, reciprocates his tender sentiments. Bumours of the matter reach Washington, and the British. Ambassador appears at the planter'B home to prevent a mesalliance. He appeals to the Prince not to imperil the future of the Empire by allowing his love for the planter's daughter to overcome his sense of duty to the British nation. It is well known that Canada would immediately secede from the Empire and declare war on America if the Prince of Wales married an American girl, and it is believed that Australia would send a couple of army corps of Amazons to assist in revenging such a slight upon the daughters or the overseas Dominions. The Prince spurns the sordid appeal of the agitated ambassador, but a peremptory telegram from the King brings him back to a realisation of the duties and responsibilities of his high station.

On the stage is depicted a poignant farewell between the Prince and his beautiful Virginian sweetheart, amid the glories of a Virginian orchard, and the curtain falls as the Prince mournfully boards the battleship which is to bear him away to Englaud, home and duty. English opinion regards this play as a deplorable exhibition of bad taste on the part of the American author and producer. It has been given a trial run at Washington, before being produced in New York, but it is possible that diplomatic pressure will be applied by the British Ambassador at Washington to interfere with the plans for its production in New York. Such a play could not be produced in a London theatre, as the Lord Chamberlain, an official of the> Court, by whom every play has to be licensed before being produced in a West End theatre, would veto it. /