Sir Austen Gashed

A stiff, white strip of sticking plaster was stuck last week over a long gash extending from the forehead to the right eye of Sir Austen Chamberlain, British Foreign Secretary.

He acquired the gash when, at the wheel of his own limousine, he swerved to avoid a woman waddling placidly across Whitehall Square.

Sir Austen's limousine was stopped by a cement safety zone, while its glass windows became splinters. A passing motorist rushed him to Westminster Hospital, and next day he was sufficiently recovered to set out for a holiday at Aix-les-Bains, France.

Despite the sticking plaster, his right eye still clamped with a firm grip his internationally famed monocle. As he entrained at London the Foreign Secretary's left arm clamped with equal firmness a copy of British Foreign Secretaries, a study of eleven statesmen from 1807 to 1916.*

From Aix, Sir Austen planned to go on to the forthcoming League of Nations Council session at Geneva.

*By Algernon Cecil--G. Bell & Sons, London (15-c- net).