The appalling aeroplane disaster at! Qstend In which the Prince and Princess of Hesse their two sons and his mother were killed has shocked us to the depths. In the tate W.J. Locke's charming book "The Morals of Marcus Ordeyue," Marcus's grandfather, two uncles and two nephews were drowned together in the Mediterranean and so he came Into the baronetcy, But such things, one feels, do not happen in rea} life. And the party were on their way to the wedding of Prince Ludwig and Miss Margaret Geddes. An aded horror was that In the moment of the catastrophe Princess Cecile gave birth to a child.
There seems to be a good deal to clear up about the accident. When the fog rolled up so suddenly at Ostend it is said that a last moment radio was sent to the pilot not land for the two expectant passengers, but to go on to England. But were the rules so strict that he might not have used his own judgment? It is also asserted by a leading Belgian aviator, that the rockets sent up to guide the pilot were too few and too late, and that he was already landing when they were fred. Such reflections may be useful for the future but cannot undo the disaster.
The Grand Dukes of Hesse stretch back into the Dark Ages. For many Senerations they have been known 'a5 wise and liberally minded rulers, Seat pultons of art and literature. They ceased to be rulers after the Great "War. But when the Grand Duke, father of the present and recently killed Prince, died a few months ago, his former troops turned out spontaneously in civilian clothes to march him to the grave. The late Princess Cecile was ai Marily beautiful woman; ike her husband very toll, she being just an Inch under six feet, he three inches over: even among the many beauties gathered at King George's Coronation, she was conspicuous for love-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.