1 SEPTEMBER 1939, Page 6

A straw—but one of many. An Englishman, whose fortune it

is to be large and blonde, and whose misfortune it is to look in consequence Teutonic, has just returned from a motoring trip in Italy. Wherever he was known to be British he was received with open arms ; wherever he was mistaken for a German he was cold-shouldered. The climax came when he called one day at a garage for some repair. He failed to make himself understood in Italian, so tried French. That was no good either, so he turned to German. The proprietor broke into execrations and drove him off the premises.