The " Proclamation " in which British European Airways' sales
promotion section are calling the attention of the travelling public to the merits of their " greate newe shippe of the air," the Elizabethan, is a document which must have, for connoisseurs of the bogus, a certain morbid attraction. " WHEREAS it hath long been the principal' honour of craftsmen of this realme to fashion these shippes of the air more fleeter than any other Christian Nation AND WHEREAS sithence the comynge and reign of our Most Soveraigne and dear ladye quene Elizabeth II. . . " And soe onne and soe forthe. Enclosed with this piece of anti- quarian cheese-cake is a business reply card which has evidently done duty in some earlier campaign, for the user is desired to quote the reference number and date of a BEA letter which he has not received; and although he is conjured to " let the name Elizabethan be thy constant companion in all thy thoughts of travel, of journeys to far partes, of holidays and excursions and sorties of every kind," the envelope bears the legend " Fly B.E.A. ' Silver Wing' to Paris." * ' 414
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