17 AUGUST 1944, Page 9

MARGINAL COMMENT

By HAROLD NICOLSON OTHING has so far transpired regarding the fate of the Bayeux tapestry: From 1913 onwards it had been displayed, enclosed a double glass case, upon the first floor of the Ancien Eveche

d under the misleading title of " La Tapisserie de la Reine fathilde." It may well be that in 1940 the French authorities moved it to some place of safety which will ultimately be disclosed. may also be that the Germans, recalling how in 1803 Napoleon sed it as propaganda for the invasion of England, took it to their

n country with some similar intention. For all we know those venty-seven yards of embroidery may at this moment be decorating e walls of Goering's private palace of Karinhall, in the company the Victory of Samothrace and of many other articles of interest d virtue purloined from the museums of Europe. The affection th which, in spite of his flagrant mishandling of the Luftwaffe, e German people persist in regarding the Reichsmarshall is one the most curiods symptoms of the German temperament. , In no ther country could an Air Minister who had been guilty of such iscalculation have survived a day ; but to the Germans Goering presents the type of genial freebooter, a type to which many illions of Germans, in their day-dreams, would wish to aspire. et whether at Karinhall or in some other place the Bayeux pestry, rolled upon its drum, must be waiting in seclusion. I gret this concealment ; it would be fitting indeed if this worsted ord of a great event in our history were again to be unfolded ; d if those who with such effort and success have taken part in e invasion of Normandy could in. their spare moments examine air this amazing picture of the Norman invasion. For the oment, however, we must be content with such reproductions. as e possess ; and I wish to draw attention to an admirable little scription of the tapestry published last year by Penguin Books, imited, with a calm and scholarly introduction by Sir Eric aclagan.

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