FUN IN A BLUE BOOK.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 156, 17 March 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

FUN IN A BLUE BOOK.

According to the London correspond"iit of tiie "Glasgow Herald," an amusing incident jn the later years of uicdiplomatic career ol the lat ( > Sir Clau<;e Macdonald has passed unrecorded by his biographers. It happened at the time that he was at tiie head of the Legation at l'ekin. lie had sent to the home Government a despatch dealing with events wh'ch were at that nioiuent engaging widespread attention, and a rough proof of ol the document was submitted in due course to Mr. (J. X. Curzon, the late Lord Salisbury's assi-tant at the For»ign Ollice. One aliernoon the Under-Secretary perused the despatch and pencilled in the margin a number of comments upon the grammar of the distinguished dp'omat. Indeed, -o forcible were ili,> interlineations that no doubt whatever ex;»ted that between the two men tliere \\.i- the utmost divergence of view ji) regard to the i|iie-.tion of grammatieal propriety. I<> the amazement, however, of the foreign Office, the comments in all 'heir bald Irankneis appeared in the Line Hook as subsequently published, and upon attention being directed to tiie matter the is>ue was promptly withdrawn and a fre-h edition substituted. How ibe.v marginal notes over came to he puiil'shed ill the iinished document will probably remain a secret for all time, un'c-is the theory b,. accepted that the printer adhered too strictly to the wholoome rule as to following "copy." wlivli is. or should he. of til,, cardinal principles of the typographical art.