NO THANKS, GEORGE

From the Dark Continent comes a gleam of light, along the Capetown cable. The Union of South Africa has requested the King of England to refrain in the future from conferring orders and distinctions upon its citizens.

Is this another instance of the extreme democracy of the frontier spirit? Or is it a revulsion of feeling among European settlers against the observed Ethiopian craze for personal adornment? The urge for decoration moves both the European courtier and the dusky noble. The Capetown celebrity, who has seen the necks of native chiefs hung with alarm-clocks and frying-pans, may yearn with less avidity for the Order of the Garter or of the Bath. The gap between medals and tatooing is no greater than that between Picadilly and the jungle.

The Capetown cable must certainly have carried to London the significance of this revolt. Perhaps the knights and baronets and others of the beribboned bosom will feel a slight, well-hidden blush at their kinship with less civilized but just as happy cousins of the Bush.