Foreign News: Pimply Wales

When Edward of Wales shoots at an elephant (whether or not he kills it) he makes prime copy. Last week, H. R. H., hunting and visiting in Africa, shot an elephant dead.

Conservative U. S. journals printed the story as a matter of minor, passing interest. New York’s Daily News (tabloid) saw. however, a chance to coin a scurrility, headlined: “DeadEye Davy Bags Elephant in Afric Wilds.”

Simultaneously Manhattan’s Communist monthly, New Masses, printed a car toon flaying both H. R. H. and his Afric good-will tour (TIME, Sept. 17 et seq.)

Cartoonist Comrade Bill (“William”) Cropper sketched Edward of Wales as a chinless pimply youth, resplendent in gold braid, sword, and high boots, parading across Africa upon the bowed backs of blackamoors. Behind H. R. H. tramped a paunchy male, clad in striped trousers and cutaway coat, waving a Union Jack, and representing (according to the communistic caption) the “British Labor Party” (Socialistic).

The 57-year-old Groom-in-Waiting and Extra Equerry of Edward of Wales is Colonel and Honorary Brigadier General Gerald Frederic Trotter, perhaps H. R. H.’s closest elder friend. A heart attack smote General Trotter last week, rendering him unconscious for several hours. Instantly Hunter Wales despatched a native runner to the two Royal field telegraphers, encamped some miles away near a tapped wire. So fervent were their calls for help that a motor cavalcade of doctors and nurses set out from Kampala, 200 miles distant, under the impression that the Heir Apparent was dying. They made the distance in six hours flat, over ghastly roads. They found H. R. H. sitting at the bedside of General Trotter, where he remained all night.