I cannot help having a certain admiration for a lady by name Mrs. Ireland, who hes just gone to prison for three years for pretending to be the wife of the late Lord Haldon, and to have had a son by him, whom she put up as heir to the tute, the fact being that she had got the baby. "for a" consideration" as they soy, from a Mrs, Bashford of Middlewich. Mrs. Ireland's accomplice in this deception also goes to prison for one year.
Mrs, Ireland is really a iaost romantic person, She was- born in 1878, her father being a groom, and being a pretty and vivacious girl she decided early that she wanted something better than a stable mate. She became housekeeper to a man named Jacks and at the age of 20 announced that she had married him. But this seems to have been a figment of her imagination, At 23 she did marry a Dr, Arthur Ireland, a captain in. the R.A.MC. She went to France and wrote to her friends of "her marvellous villa on the Riviera, But in fact it was only a bathing hut.
She was divorced from Ireland, married a man named Richards, parted from him, and is next seen living in an excellent flat in London and calling herself Lady Clive, her husband, she declared, being' des-conded from the great Clive of Indian fame.
In due course she heard of Lord Haldon, who was almost destitute and living in a ded-sleting-room, earning what he could by directing envelopes. She set him up In a re spectable fat, gave him smart clothes and allowed him £10 a week. After his death she declared that they had been married in Scotland and hence the baby. But there was no marriage and all' the evidence goes to prove that they never lived together, What the police would like to find out is where "Lady Haldon" got her money. This is still a—complete: mystery. She never seems to hai Been the professional—gold-digger. On the contrary she was a generous woman, who certainly never did anybody any harm. I suppose it very wrong to try and fake a claimant to a peerage, though there was obviously no money to be made out The internationally known dancer, Miss Edna Squire-Brown, leaving her bombed home in London on her way to her wedding with Flying Oficer J. C. Martin of the Royal Air Force. Ajter the ceremony the wedding party returned to the bombed house for the reception. either side and sang the National Anthem: Then they came out and walked a long'way through.. the streets among the early shoppers and everywhere were greeted with smiles and cheers. The war has drawn the King and Queen and their subjects very close and all Hitler's bombs have not caused so much indignation as those which fell on Buckingham Palact "When the War's Over—"
Lord Reith spoke in the House of "Lords this week on his duties as Minister of Buildings, (By the way, he has made a record in Parllamentary life; his maiden speeches, in the Commons snd in the Lords, were both delivered by him as a Minister.) He begged that no one would ex: aggerate his functions in the planning of the post-war London. He hed not been charged, he said, to plan any reconstruction, still less to rebuild London, For the moment his business was to consult with others and report to the Cabinet on the machtery for dealing with all the destruction "caused, But he also welt on the need of "an eager even an: anxious looking for the better Britain of our dreams" with. the motto "No longer to tolerate the intolerable." And 50 say all of ust The question is whether that old bogey "vested Interests" will be still permitted to block the way. In this month's "Fortnightly" there Is a fine the war) and the airman was amazed at their conversation. Ho said. they were familiar with details of aeroplanes of different types and their performance which were sometimes: unknown even to himself.
On one point all were at one, namely that the present generation, whose supposed decadence. was favourite theme of Jeremiahs and Cassandras a few years ago, have made the pessimists look very silly since the war began. And one does not doubt that their juniors of 14 and 15 will be perfectly capable of doing the same.
Incidentally, among the many jobs to which girls are turning their hands. nowadays It 1s certainly rather wonderful to find them employed as boat builders. The "Daily Telegraph" gives an account of a yard in the South of England. where the foreman, since last December, has been training girls to make paris of small naval boats. He took on the Job, he fold. because he felt sure the girls could do it, and he was right. They work In a disused stable, and so far have not tried their hands at anything more ambitious than a dinghy. But the foreman's 20 pupils can by now turn out between them five perfectly good dinghies @ week. It costs £70 fo train a girl and the equipping of the disused stable cast £15,000, but it Is already paying the firm' that made the experiment well. We still these girls turning out destroyfers and aircraft carriers next. of the Haldon peerage. She was! evidently an incurable romantic, and with such the cold-blooded English Jaw has no sympathy. In France she would probably have been acquitted.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.