GREAT BRITAIN: Lovely Apparition

In the May issue of Lilliput, the English magazine for moppets, appeared last week an introduction penned by War Secretary Leslie Hore-Belisha for a story written by his late mother. In this she described how Leslie, when a lad, fell into the ocean and sank a considerable distance, whereupon “a most lovely apparition with streaming hair glided toward him. She had eyes of the deepest blue. Her skin reminded him of a luscious peach. Most wondrous of all was her body. It tapered off into a slender curve, which sparkled and reflected every color.”

The mermaid offered to take Leslie into her palace, warning him that he could not enter unless he had never told a lie. According to his mother, the future War Secretary replied, “I have never willingly told an untruth,” was permitted to enter on the strength of this.

Unequivocably last week the Rt. Hon. Leslie Hore-Belisha stated in his introduction to his mother’s story: “Some people will find it pretty, others may think it silly, but I know that it describes something that really happened, and that the characters in it did have the adventures described.”

This week Britons hoped that their dynamic, somewhat dictatorial War Secretary will get on well with Dictator Mussolini, to whom he is carrying a warm message of personal regard from Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Premier Mussolini has not been visited by any member of a British Cabinet since June 2 5, 1935—the fateful summer day on which Mr. Anthony Eden had a personal quarrel in Rome with the Dictator which affected the whole history of contemporary Europe. Just before the War Secretary left England by plane for Malta, where he will inspect naval defenses before going to Rome this week, Leslie Hore-Belisha predicted:

“Everything is going to be very happy!”