A HUCE HOAX.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12754, 29 March 1910, Page 4

A HUCE HOAX.

/PRINCE MAKALIN AND SUITE. If an astonishing story, told by the London "Standard" is true, a huge practical joke was recently played up~on the officers of H.M.S. Dreadnought, the flagship of Admiral Sir Win. H. May, Commander-in-Chief of the Home . Fleet, that is entitled to rank as the hoax of the century. The delusion, it appears, succeeded through the extraordinarj' bold-, ness with which it was carried out. It' was a burlesque on a large scale. The dramatis personae were- five young men and a young woman, all of whom . are extremely well connected and very well-tordo. The "entertainment" was got up regardless of expense. Three of the young men and the lady were dressed tb impersonate' Abyssinian princes, while the other two fulfilled the roles of Gerr.-an interpreter and attache. The costumes and disguises cost well over £500. A telegram, purporting to have been sent by a high official, readied the Commander-in-Chief of tho Home Fleet at Portland, requesting him to receive "Prince Makalin and suite." So it was that the visitors were received on board -the Dreadnought with all possible ceremony, the band playing the Zanzibar National Anthem, and the Zanzibar flag waving from the masthead*, as no one knew the Abyssinian equivalents. The pseudo-princes were shown cv- - erything, 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 the finish they were forty minutes on board, and they left without having aroused the slightest suspicion in anyone's mind. It is stated that some of the masquerades took part in the famous Sultan of Zanzibar hoax on the Mayor, of Cambridge a few years ago, when a number of undergraduates from the University masqueraded as tho Sultan of Zanzibar and suite, and were received and entertained by tho Mayor of Cambridge with much pomp and ceremony. In that case, as in .the Dreadnought case, the comin,'. of the. distinguished visitors was 'announced by telegram. ' w