AMERICAN WAYS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1939, Page 6

AMERICAN WAYS

TEXAS CONGRESSMAN CALLS KING “COUSIN” EMBASSY RECEPTION. NEW ZEALAND WOMAN PRESENT. (Received This Day, 1.45 p.m ) WASHINGTON, June 9. Standing on a strip of blue carpet in front of the statue of Thomas Jefferson, holding a copy of the American Constitution, their Majesties shook hands with the four hundred men and women who control the destinies of the United States. Their dress was as varied as their political creeds. Representative Nat Patton, of Texas, “hit” the front pages of the American Press by addressing their Majesties as cousins.

‘■Cousin George,” ho said, telling about it later, “I bring you greetings

from the far-flung regions of the Empire State of Texas.’ It struck him like a thunderbolt. Then I said to the Queen, ‘Cousin Elizabeth, you are a thousand times prettier than your pictures and I mean that you are nearly as pretty as the blue bonnet girls of Texas.’ Yes, I said that. They liked it. The Queen said, ‘Thank you,’ and smiled.”

In the shaded garden at the British Embassy this morning, their Majesties mingled for half an hour with a thousand of their subjects who are resident in the United States. It was a restrained and affectionate reception, deeply touched with emotion. A band from H.M.S. Exeter, at present lying in Baltimore, played heart-stirring music. Those present included 230 bemedalled ex-Service men and the unexpected intimacy with the King and Queen filled many eyes with tears. Their Majesties chatted with Miss Anne Leahy, a New Zealand Red Cros worked during the war, and also with John Carintha, the turbaned son of a chief of the Sherbo Tribe, of Sierra Leonne; who is a medical student at the Universtity of Ohio.