Personages

Onetime Premier James Ramsay MacDonald, leader of the British Labor party, had recovered sufficiently, last week, from his recent illness in Philadelphia to step aboard the Cunarder Berengaria at Manhattan, for the voyage home which would close his U. S. visit (TIME, May 2 et seq.).

To newsgatherers Mr. MacDonald said: "If I am able, I shall go straight from the dock at Southampton to the House of Commons. I shall not even go first to my home. The Trade Unions Bill [see above] must be fought to a finish."

Miss Ishbel MacDonald, 24, buxom, serious, speaking with an even more pronounced Scotch burr than her father, accompanied him. Anxious, she conferred with Cunard officials who were unable to supply an outside cabin on the short notice given them. At that moment appeared Sir Joseph and Lady Duveen who offered their spacious outside cabin. Sir Joseph Duveen (Art Objects) was insistent. Yet soon a Cunard office boy rushed aboard with information that another suitable cabin had been canceled. . . .

As the excitement lapsed a personage strode aboard. He received a round of cheers from 3,000 louts, touts and riffraff, who had gathered to see middleweight boxer Mickey Walker aboard the Berengaria, and supposed that the personage,Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York State, had come on the same errand. He had not. Kindly, he had come to say goodbye to James Ramsay MacDonald. They had never met, but Mr. MacDonald had expressed keen regret that illness made it impossible for him to shake the Governor's hand at Albany. Instead they met and immediately parted aboard the Berengaria.