HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16537, 22 September 1921, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

GRAND DUKE’6 BRIDE. Miss He lie n Flowertdew Veitcji, daughter of the Rev W. Veitc-h, of Edinburgh, a retired clergyman of th© Scottish Presbyterian Church, was married in Paris last July to Prince Dmitri Galitzine, son of Prince Alexander Galitzine, a member of one of the grand duca! families of Russia, who were formerly wealthy landowners. Miss Vcitch, who is 28, is a tall, dark girl with remarkably fine eyes. She has had an adventurous career. She entered the nursing service of the Belgian Army the clay the Germans invaded Belgium and nursed wounded: Belgian soldiers for three and a half years. Sh© then transferred to th© French Army and was at hospitals in desert posts of Morocco until after the end of the war. Miss Veitch is decorated with the Legion of Honour, th© Belgian Orders ot Leopold and. Elisabeth, and has Eeveral military medals. Her husband is 24 and lives .in Paris with his father. He lias recently been engaged in kinenia work. The parents of both bride and bridegroom attended the wedding and tho Prince and Princess left for a brier visit to Scotland. Another ceremony will be performed at th© Russian Church in Paris oa their return. “ COMMISSARY BILL.” One of the Soviet Commissaries (high officials) in Southern Russia is an Englishman. An Englishwoman who recently arrived from Kieff tells of him and his exploits. He is known a-s “Commissary Bill.” Ho had red hair and shifty eyes. Two brothers in England supply him with English papers. He deserted from the British Idxpeditionary . f'orc© to North Russia. Ho seems to bo doing well for himself, for he pulled a. handful of rings and precious stones out of his pocket to show an Englishwoman, whom he helped to obtain permission to cross th© frontier into Poland. MR STEED S STATEMENT. Mr Wickham Steed, the editor of The Times,” questioned regarding his alleged interview with a representative of th© “New York Times,” said:— “Direct statements arc attributed to me. I did not make and l could not hare made them, because neither Mr Lloyd George nor th© King told me what they said to one another. Regarding tho actual facts of th© Irish situation, it is a fact that none can contest that th© possible settlement growing out of the true© can directly be attributed to the King’s speech at Belfast—a. great-hearted and considerate speech. It is also incontestable that the King feels for all his subjects an equal solicitude and nothing would rejoice him more than to see a prospect of peace in Ireland. “ The Times” has worked very hard for two years to promote th© Irish settlement! that tho Government seems to be approaching. We have given the Lloyd George Government our fullest support when it seemed to be treading th© path of peace, and we shall cont'nue to giv© our fullest support to efforts towards a successful conclusion. No one knows that better than Mr Lloyd George, who for two years has had pertinent reason to know how true it is. That, and that alone, was the sens© of the quit© informal talk I Imd with a representative of t-h© ‘ New York Times.’ ’’ 1000 DINERS* WALK OUT. Visitors at Swinemunde, th© Baltic seashore resort, mad© a concerted protest against profiteering. During tho season hotel end restaurant prices have been advancing by’ leaps and bounds, and visitors have submitted until, like the proverbial worm, at last they haro turned. At supper on© night a thousand people were sitting in one of tho chief restaurants. When a party were asked to pay 140 marks (normally £7) for ten glasses ot beer, a prearranged sign was given and all tho thousand guests rose and left without paying their bills. The uproar wa? tremendous a 3 the waiters tried to stop them, but the objectors won by sheer fore© of numbers. HEAT-MAD *DETECTIVE. Five persons died from heat in New York City one day in July. Seventeen, others fell in th© streets and were taken to hospital. For three dny.j th© temperature on th© street level reached 102 degrees in the shade. A detective in charge of a raid on a saloon in search of intoxicating liquors, apparently maddened by th© heat, ran wild with his truncheon and attacked 30 persons, knocking them insensible and dragging them one by on© into a room at the back .©f th© saloon before going out to search for fresh victims. Among those h© attacked were ?everal women and children. PHONETIC STRUGGLES OF 120 FOREIGNERS. One hundred and twenty foreigner® j struggled with the phonetic intricacies [' of the English language at University College under the direction of Mr I Daniel Jones, professor of phonetics at * the college. They came from every country in Europe, from Iceland to Serbia, from Spain to Czecho-Slovakia and Lithuania, the French, an Italian contingents being tho most numerous. Asia, curiously enough, was represented only by Japan and China, who had fifteen students between them. Of ail the nationalities present, the Japanese found the greatest difficulty in pronouncing English. the Dutch and Swedes the least. It is an interesting fact that the Japanese have much .lore difficulty in mastering our language than the Chinese. The lectures last exactly a fortnight and occupy th© whole morning on six days a week. I'll© students were split up into classes of five, so that each nationality could have special attention to its own peculiar difficulties. Each man was armed with a small mirror and a tongue-guide, th© former to enable him to see what his mouth was doing; the latter, which is like a small bone paperknife, to force his tongue to assure© the correct position. The teacher began by making a sound. Each student watched the movements cf his lips and tongue, looked into the mirror, and tried diligently, if somewhat ineffectively, to do likewise, occasionally prodding his tongue into place with his tongue-guide. VALUE OF MUSIC. Th© intrinsic value of music became a subject of controversy in the Court of Chancery when Justice Eve heard a summons relating to the estate of the late Sir Joseph Beccham and the allowance by the trustees of £20.000 to Sir Thomas Beecham when the trustees asked for guidance as to whether they 0 should continue the n-iyineiits. “ Sir Thomas Beecham has spent a fortune in advancing music in this country,” said th© solicitor. “ Well, what good is that?” asked Justice Eve. ‘ ‘ That is a question on which opinions differ,” retorted the counsel. “ Your Lordship may not approve, but. many people tak© an entirely different view. You must remember that there are a great many people who object to lawyers, so there is no allowing for tastes.” The Justice joined in the general laughter and later ordered the payments to be continued.