AFTER 31 YEARS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 119, 5 June 1937, Page 6

AFTER 31 YEARS

(Own Correspondent—

Mr. Selfridge Becomes English "LOVES LONDON"

-By Air Mail.)

LONDON, May 3. After living among us for 31 years and "enjoying every moment of it" — to quote his own words — Mr Gordon Selfridge, the American-born fpunder and head of the great house of Selfridges, has applied for naturalisation paper s. Mr Selfridge was 73 in January. He was mildly «*irprised when I asked him about it to-day. "I did not know that the matter had progressed so quickly," he said, "but, then, in this country official ' business can be very speedy. "A good many people thought I had been naturalised already." "Apart from your business interests why do you waiit to become a Briton," I asked. "We already regard you as a very good Londoner." "Well," he replied, "my family are here around me and I am very happy. I love London, its absolute independance and its total indifference to'criticism or to fault-finding. "It is as independent as the Himalayas. "In it, within a radius of 35 miles, you have thirteen or fifteen millions who do their business and carry on their lives in- a very common-sense way. "They are reaping the results of a civilisation many centuries old. "I am a eosmopolitan, but I like London best of all." Mr Selfridge said he went to America about once a year, or two, to Paris every two months, and to Germany every six months.