"Uncouth Australians"

"Hazing" or "initiation" has ceased to exist at U. S. universities worthy of the name; but last week at the University of Melbourne, Australia, occurred just such an outburst of gaucherie as U. S. undergraduates used to indulge in, and still do, at jerkwater colleges.

The person hazed was His Royal Highness, Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George, Duke of York, now in Australia to open next week the new Federal Capital, Canberra (TIME, April 18). The Duke, second son of the King-Emperor, had just received an honorary degree from the University of Melbourne, when dental students of that institution swarmed up and offered to "welcome" him into their Students' Club. His Royal Highness, necessarily complacent, submitted to "ragging" as follows:

1) The dental students marched up, shook his hand, and emitted such greetings as: "Meet me, Duke, I'm a fellow of good extraction"; or "Give my best to your old man and the missus, Bertie."

2) The Duke's private motor car, bearing his emblem and crest, was seized and driven through the streets, while the unsuspecting populace cheered two students dressed as the Duke and Duchess of York, then froze with horror as the "Royal Pair" thumbed their noses.

3) Prince Albert was meanwhile escorted and jostled about the campus by embryo dentists, and finally by almost the entire student body, which at first chanted, "Here Comes Dear Bertie!" but finally burst into, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow."

Though the Duke and Duchess of York have thus far taken all Australian manifestations with unfaltering good humor, a very different attitude was observed in Dame Margaret Helen Greville, intimate friend of Queen-Empress Mary, upon her return to London last week from Australia, where she had gone to prepare the social side of the welcome for the Duke and Duchess.

Said Dame Margaret: "I would not live among Australians for thousands of pounds. They are uncouth. They have no art and they take no interest at all in anything save their own municipal and state affairs. The Australians themselves are leaving the country areas for the towns and they want emigrants from England to go out into the back blocks and do all the hard work. "Immigrants are not treated well out there. They are spoken of as 'pommies,' the reference being to their bright cheeks, which look like pomegranates, and 'low-downers.' I would most decidedly advise a man with a family and not much money against going to Australia." Reputedly such frankness has irritated Queen-Empress Mary, and, perhaps as a result, Dame Margaret was reported in despatches to have withdrawn to her estate, Polesden Lacey, Dorking.

*In baseball, a "pinch hitter" is one who bats in place of another--usually in a "pinch" (i. e.--a crucial moment in the game).