In what many Britons hoped was a slap at Adolf Hitler their rulers performed two exceptional acts last week in quick succession: 1) Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare waived formalities, turned into a British subject the jobless longtime (1920-38) Minister of Austria to the Court of St. James's, Baron Georg Franckenstein (who in spite of his beaked nose is an Aryan); 2) King George VI called his new subject to Buckingham Palace, dubbed him Sir George Franckenstein, Knight.
Sir George, who is writing his memoirs and is the object of much sympathy in fashionable Mayfair, then blurred the sharp outlines of the "slap at Hitler" by going off to week-end with the Fuhrer's greatest friend in England, the Most Hon. The Marquess of Londonderry.