Interesting, If Not True

Rumors that London had been heavily bombed and was going up in flames were current all over rural Great Britain in the first weeks of World War II. Today, with less news than usual in Britain's habitually restrained newspapers, the King's subjects continue to trade heavily in rumors, and last week the following--entirely untrue--were widely believed:

> That the reason German air raids have not been more successful is that Britain is using a secret magnetic device so strong that it jerks all steel parts out of approaching enemy planes, causing them to crumple and crash. The strongest magnet ever made will not pull tenpenny nails out of a board at a distance of one yard.

> That gold reserves of the Bank of England are being hidden in vaults distributed in the tunnels of the London subways.

> That the Government is adulterating margarine with cat fat and permitting restaurants to use cat meat in steak-&-kidney pies.

> That Adolf Hitler last spring imported 30,000 gorillas from Brazil and these have now been trained in readiness to attack the Maginot Line.

> That peace is being secretly arranged on the basis that Great Britain, France and Germany will unite in attacking the Soviet Union--this being so frequently talked of in British ruling-class circles that by last week it was almost out of the rumor category.

> That the first great Nazi air raid is timed for a certain day next week--it is always "next week," and frequently Tuesday.

> That the British Expeditionary Force is already leaving France "as the war is really over."

> That the Russians have a device on their parachutes that can shoot them up again if they do not like the place where they are about to land. This one appeared in the Manchester Guardian.

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