London Notes

P: Shrewd Englishmen of "The City"--London's "Wall Street"--weighed carefully what was said by Britain's chemical tycoon, Lord Melchett, upon his return last week from hobnobbing in U. S. tycoon-dom (TIME, Oct. 29). "American prosperity is based upon two factors. One is the large amount of money earned during the War at the expense of Europe, the effect of which was to enable America to remodel her old plants and build new factories. The other is the great productivity of the American workman, based partly on the greater use of mechanical power and partly on the fact that the American employers are not afraid to pay high wages."

Speaking internationally, Lord Melchett predicted that the Globe would eventually be organized into three vast economic units, "probably the United States, the United Economic States of Europe and the British Empire." Observers wondered whether Prophet Melchett had overlooked Latin America and Asia, or whether he dares to imagine that they will merge into one of his "three units."

P: The appendix of banished Queen Elisabeth of Greece was, last week, removed, in London, successfully.

P: The British Broadcasting Company put on the air its first public broadcast of still pictures. At London's famed Savoy Hotel a smart array of notables gathered to watch the official reception of a sepia photograph of George V.

The new picture receiving sets, now on sale in London, have a small radio panel and a large synchronized clockwork cylinder on which the portrait or cartoon appears in an elapsed receiving time of about four minutes.

P: A four-door sedan of latest Ford model was delivered and placed in the garage of Buckingham Palace.

Court gossips easily explained. They recalled that a conversation substantially as follows took place when Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford sat down to tea with Their Majesties in the country home of Lady Astor (TIME, April 23).

King-Emperor: Some very comical jokes used to be made about your excellent product, Mr. Ford. I confess to have chuckled at some of them but I cannot recall having ridden in one of your cars.

Motor-Man: Would your Majesty care to do so?

K.-E.: With pleasure.

M.M.: Would you permit me to make you a present of one of our new models?

K.-E.: I should be delighted.

P: The Astronomer Royal, Sir Frank Watson Dyson, intimated that the most numerous classes of visitors to historic Greenwich Observatory and its famed Time Meridian are now the Germans and the Japanese, both provided with copious, well thumbed guide books. Recently a Spaniard hastened in, ignored the Meridian, asked to be allowed to view nearby London through one of the small observation telescopes provided for that purpose. After peering earnestly at this dome and that spire for more than an hour, the Spaniard said: "I am on my way from Spain to Iceland, and my ship stops in London harbor for only a short time. I have now seen more of London than any of my friends. I can go on to Iceland, with a satisfied heart."

P: Chaucerians and Tennysonians felt sorely bereaved when there burned to the ground the 648-year-old Grantchester Mill, mentioned by Poet Chaucer and hymned by Poet Tennyson in his "The Miller's Daughter."