ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 November 1918, Page 7

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

It is stated that Princess Mary is now very busily engaged in perfecting her knowledge of Italian, and that Queen Mary is also refurbishing the Italian she learnt in her girlhood days in Florence. This has revived the rumour that the Prince of Wales is to become engaged to the Princess Yolanda of Italy, As a matter of fact, all the Italian Royal Family Speak EnglisTi perfectly. The engagement of Captain Louis Botha, General Botha’s eldest son. to a Hampshire lady will provide the second tie between the great Boer family and what has become its mother country, for the soldier-statesman’s sister some years ago married the wellknown barrister and publicist, Mr. R. C. Hawkin. Captain Botha has been in Europe for some months, for after serving in the two campaigns in the sub-continent, he went over to fight on the Western front, where he is aide de camp on the Personal Staff. Few recent appointments have given more universal satisfaction than that of Major-General F. H. Sykes, the new Chief of the British Air Staff. He was one of the handful of men who, when aviation was in its babyhood, looked ahead into its tremendous possibilities. Experts scoffed when, before the war, he predicted scouting machines travelling 120 miles per hour and battle ’planes carrying pilot, assistant, gunner, and observer. Unlike the majority of prophets, Sykes has seen his predictions fulfilled, and gained merited recognition.