December 



LII 



AMONG the memories of a somewhat distant past 

 Army uni- one was revived in the autumn of 1914 by 

 Pa8t and khe sudden suppression of scarlet and blue 

 Present m the uniforms of the British Army, and the 

 more gradual transformation of hundreds of thousands 

 of young and middle-aged civilians into khaki-clad 

 warriors. The sweeping change from parti-coloured 

 raiment recalled an amusing musical extravaganza 

 called The Happy Land which was staged in London 

 in the early 'seventies. The scene was laid in Para- 

 dise ; among the principal characters were poignant and 

 clever caricatures of the Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, 

 of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lowe, and of 

 the First Commissioner of Works, Mr. Ayrton. The 

 piece had but a short, though brilliant, run in the 

 metropolis, for the Lord Chamberlain prohibited the 

 performance, not on the ground of what is usually 

 implied by immorality, but because it brought Her 

 Majesty's Ministers into contempt by merciless bur- 

 lesque of their persons and performance. It is not 

 known, to me at least, which of the three victims set 

 the censorship in motion. It could not have been 

 ' Bob ' Lowe, who was gifted with a fine sense of 



