Sweeping across the U. S. last week was the latest fad, successor to Knock-knock, Where's Elmer?. Handies, etc.: Anything too silly or salacious to say right out was being dressed up in pidgin English and put in the innocent mouth of old Kung Fu-tze (Confucius). Most of the people who parroted "Confucius say" did not know that one of China's most distinguished statesmen. Finance Minister Dr. H. H. Kung, brother-in-law of Madame Chiang Kaishek, is a 75th-generation direct descendant of the great philosopher. Nor did they know the whereabouts of Dr. Kung's handsome, shy, studious, English-speaking, 23-year-old son David ("Prince David"). The latter was something almost no one knew. He had disappeared.
Recently British authorities in Hong Kong smelled out and raided an illicit wireless station which had been sending messages in code over a magnificently complete, exceedingly expensive transmitter. Six young men were arrested, arraigned, fined $16,000. Court records did not list the name of Prince David; but last week British authorities admitted unofficially that David Kung had been politely but firmly asked to leave Hong Kong just after the raid. He went briefly to Manila, then disappeared. Confucius really did say: "While one's parents are alive, one should not travel to a distance; if one must travel, it should be in a fixed direction." Dopesters guessed Prince David had fixed his direction for his father's mountain hideout at South Hot Spring, near Chungking.