PERIPATETICS: Hangman’s Holiday

Swinging through Europe, on a hangman’s holiday, which will take him to Vienna, Graz, northern Italy and (reportedly) to Nürnberg in time to officiate should Nazi leaders be hanged: Albert (“Yungg Alber”*) Pierrepoint, Britain’s Senior Hangman. In Vienna, Pierrepoint will hang eight murderers and rapists, a refresher course for Austrian hangmen (conservative Austrian methods cause hanged men to struggle 20 minutes before dying; the progressive Pierrepoint system kills them almost at once). After his European tour, Hangman Pierrepoint plans to retire and to devote himself to his recently acquired Lancashire pub (name: “Help the Poor Struggler”) and to chicken farming.’

Inspecting all Soviet Army forces in the Balkans (according to “official Balkan circles”): Marshal Georgi Konstantino-vich Zhukov, former Russian commander in Germany, hitherto rumored in disgrace as governor of Russia’s Southern Ukrainian military region. The Ukrainian military district, the report claims, embraces all the Balkans (including the Dardanelles).

Resting in Persia, after a brief unpublicized bout of baby-bussing in Russia (see cut): Princess Ashraf, sister of Persia’s Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlevi. Under the auspices of the Soviet Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, Princess Ashraf called on Stalin (who muttered good wishes for Persia), laid a wreath on Lenin’s mausoleum, attended a physical culture parade, attended a tea given by Soviet President Nikolai Shvernik’s wife, viewed Leningrad’s Museum of Defense, The Hermitage, the Pediatrics Institute. For her pains, she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the insigne of a Distinguished Worker of Sanitary Defense of the U.S.S.R.

Job Hunting. Karl Hans Heinz, close associate of Austria’s Communist Boss Ernst Fischer and, until he was suspended last week, deputy editor of Vienna’s Communist-dominated newspaper New Austria. Reason: in the midst of a vigorous Communist campaign against “former Nazis” allegedly working for Austria’s Socialists and Christian Democrats, untractable Socialist newspaperman Oskar Pollack discovered that Communist Heinz was himself a former Nazi.

Poised for a visit to Great Britain, after brushing up his backhand in Sweden:

Prince Sahle Selassie (see cut), third son of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, Conquering Lion of Judah, the Elect of God, the Light of the World.

Resurrected (after twice being reported dead) but still underground: Subhas Chandra Bose, leader of the Japanese-supported Indian National Army and onetime president of India’s Congress Party.

*To distinguish him from his uncle, Old Thomas Pierrepoint, executioner emeritus.