13 MAY 1955, Page 7

LAST WEEK the Evening Standard reported under big headlines: "Look

what you've done to my best rug," said Coward, stabbing the air with an angry finger.

Retorted Fairbanks, brOnzed after three weeks in Rome: "Oh I didn't think you Were looking, Noel." ' I do not suppose that many people believed this story and even those who did no doubt did not think that stubbing out cigarettes on rugs was a very serious offence. Mr. George Gale in his recent book No Flies in China recalls having stubbed out a cigarette on Lady Hayter's Aubusson at a party in the British Embassy in Moscow. Nevertheless, I think it is tiresome for Mr. Fairbanks to have such a story spread about him, and it may therefore be worth pointing out that there was no rug there.