Afghanistan's King Mohamed Zahir Shah, 34, troubled for some time with an ailing eye, announced plans for his first trip to the U.S. to have it looked after by a specialist.

Iraq's King Feisal II, 14, entered the third form at Harrow, where he will be addressed as Feisal Hussein in class, will use his title only on vacations.

Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako, earnestly cooperating in debunking the Shinto myth, presented convincing proof of their democratic leanings. At a palace celebration of the second anniversary of Japan's democratic constitution, they led the assembled 30,000 in three rousing banzais.

Princess Elizabeth, 23, appointed a new lady-in-waiting to fill a vacancy caused by illness. Among the neophyte's traditional duties: handling the royal purse (British Princesses never carry cash).

Princess Margaret, 18, who has not been able to move on her Italian vacation without sending the local press into spasms of purple prose, drew support from home in her pleas for privacy. Said the London Times: "It would be a fair concession ... if a closed season were now agreed upon; and the Princess will return better for her holiday if she can be treated as a young woman quietly enjoying her first sight of an ancient land, and not as a peep show." Cracked the London News Chronicle: "Perhaps she is enjoying it all."

Brown Study

German-born Novelist Thomas Mann, who once found grievous fault with German intellectuals for not fighting Naziism ("This monstrous German attempt at world domination ... is nothing but a distorted and unfortunate expression of that universalism innate in the German character"), had decided that the Russians were pretty nice people, really. "When I remember how I myself was influenced by Russian writers and Russian culture, I can't hate them," he said. "I believe [they] are fundamentally disinclined toward war . . ."

Pulitzer Prizewinning Playwright Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman) spoke up for the simple life, in Cue magazine: "I can only work as an anonymous person among anonymous people . . . The kind of life one leads when one has the means for total leisure is a very destructive life. Leisure is a thing that normally takes place once a week in most people's lives, on Sunday . . . For the writer to forget the problems of work and leisure is to forget the basic patterns of people's lives."

Wispy British Historian Arnold Toynbee, now lecturing in the Midwest, admitted his complete satisfaction with two American products: peanut butter and Bing Crosby.

Hearstling Columnist Westbrook Pegler carefully put tongue in cheek for a Cosmopolitan magazine article on his fan mail, entitled Dear Sir--You Cur!: "I was surprised to learn that my correspondents were friendly in overwhelming majority . . ." he wrote. "The dissenters, being obviously in error, are more to be pitied than scorned. They dodge the issues; they are ignorant victims of propaganda, and their personal comments are intemperate and vulgar by contrast with the fine taste and faultless morality of my devotees . . ."

Golden Moments

Conchita Qintron, 26, girl bullfighter, drew ooohs and aaahs from 20,000 Frenchmen for her form-fitting black getup, but only perfunctory applause for her Paris debut in the ring. Since French law forbids the killing of bulls, cool-eyed Conchita went through her routines with wooden swords, made one "kill" by laying a handful of orchids daintily between her victim's horns.

World Citizen Garry Davis, 26, was getting the kind of personal attention from Moscow that is usually reserved especially for bigwigs. "American debaucher and maniac," squawked Pravda, "a prophet of the World Government idea, exported from the U.S. to Europe, along with powdered eggs and gangster novels."

Brooklyn-born Comic Danny Kaye, currently wowing the British at the London Palladium, took time off for tea in Ayot St. Lawrence with Bernard Shaw. "It was a very happy and spontaneously merry occasion," reported Shaw's author-neighbor Stephen Winston (Days with Bernard Shaw). "They put on a joint act . . . there was no conversation . . . quite spontaneous and carried out in mime. Danny sat on the lawn looking whimsical and picking daisies. And G.B.S. strode up to him and slapped him merrily on the back . . ." Said Showman Kaye to Showman Shaw: "I can quite see, G.B.S., why you have a certain disrespect for actors--there are none as good as you. You should have been an actor yourself."

General of the Army Henry H. ("Hap") Arnold, 62, who retired in 1946, got a change in his five-star title to fit the air arm's independent status: General of the Air Force.

Blonde Cinemactress Virginia Mayo, 26, appeared to two men to be the answer to a problem. "The Sultan of Morocco told [her] that she was for him the most striking proof of God's existence," said the Rev. A. J. Long, 29-year-old bachelor pastor of Britain's Southwark Unitarian Church. "Why not?" mused Pastor Long. "The beauty of woman is a revelation of God to man."

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