Dame

To enlisted men of His Majesty's fighting forces the name "Fanny" conjures up a mental snapshot of rich, curvesome Dame Fanny Lucy Houston whose social equals call her "Lucy."

A friend to all the King's horses, all the King's men and even to all the King's airplanes is Lady Houston. Without her sudden, impulsive gift of $485,000 (par) last year the British Air Ministry could not have entered and won the final Schneider Trophy Races (TIME, Sept. 14, 1931, et seq.). Last week Dame ("Fanny") Lucy was at it again. She astounded Chancellor of the Exchequer Arthur Neville Chamberlain by offering a gift of $756,000 "to keep the flag flying and help the Army, Navy and Air Force in their dire need and necessity."

Warm, generous, jellylike people are repugnant to cold, precise Chancellor Chamberlain. He "indicated" to correspondents what he called a "tentative refusal" of Lady Houston's proffered gift. It appeared that what the impulsive Dame had actually done was to withold her due income tax payment of $151,200, offering instead her gift of $756,000. Most irregular. Not cricket.

Not one bit abashed Dame' ("Fanny") Lucy caroled, when told of the Chancellor's coldness:

"No question of the Government's deciding comes into this matter--England is in deadly peril, I repeat! The British Lion right now is like a toothless old lap dog."

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