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National Geographic : 1966 Jun
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EKTACHROME(BELOW) AND KODACHROMEBYJAMES P. BLAIR an amusing display of partisan political hauteur that occurred during a predinner gathering off the banquet hall. My wife happened to be chatting with a Welsh lady of emphatic Tory sympathies when Prime Minister Wilson entered the room. With formal politeness, everyone turned toward him-every one, that is, but the Welsh lady, who kept her back to the Prime Minister, her shoulders eloquent with disdain. "My dear, don't cut him so notice ably," whispered her husband, with ill-concealed delight. The lady smiled angelically and continued her explanation of Welsh place names. If Mr. Wilson noticed, he gave no sign. Witty Give-and-take Spices Dinner Such manifestations of extreme political feeling are not uncommon in Great Britain. The British, more than most Americans, take their politics with deadly seriousness, particularly in recent years. But no partisanship intruded during the remainder of an evening featuring after-dinner speeches, all off the record, of an urbanity, subtle wit, and felicity of expression that I have seldom heard equaled during similar gatherings in the United States. Of course, one official of the British Govern ment remains above politics and is rarely sub .. jected to any serious criticism: the Queen. "If we didn't have a monarch, we would have to hire one for you Yanks," a British friend once said to me. He was right. I can't imagine London without its omnipresent reminders of royalty: cavalrymen in scarlet clattering through the streets for the changing of the guard... the iron immobility of sentries in the guard boxes at Buckingham Palace ... a stirring "God Save the Queen" at football match, concert, formal banquet...even the "This happy breed," Shakespeare called his fellow Englishmen. And indeed the faces of Londoners reflect stability, confidence, and independence. In Hyde Park a member of the St. John Ambulance Brigade enjoys afternoon tea. Cheerful dustman wears an ever-bright rose on his jacket. The plastic bloom will not wilt, even when a "heat wave" sends the temperature soaring to the 70's. Oak leaves sprout from the bemedaled tunic of a World War I veteran at the Chel sea Royal Hospital. He wears them in honor of Charles II, founder of the hospital, who escaped capture at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 by hiding in an oak tree. Blush of youth paints the cheeks of a girl watching a tennis match at Wimbledon. 788
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