War: Wedding Rings

A Royal Jack Sprat and his Queen would not present an appearance more distinctive than do Their Majesties King Vittorio Emanuele and Queen Elena. From the wild mountains of Montenegro, where women are not only women but Amazons, came Elena. Last week Her Majesty wrote to peasant-born Benito Mussolini with Amazonian directness:

"I wish you to know that among many wedding rings the women of Italy will offer for the glory of our beloved great country there will be the King's wedding ring, together with my own ring, which I give with joy to my country. It is my most precious possession because it recalls the day on which I had the good fortune to become an Italian."

Since the knuckles of His Majesty have enlarged with age, courtiers feared that Vittorio Emanuele's wedding ring will have to be cut off.

Wedding rings last week were also a trial to Pope Pius XI. Catholics abroad had upped eyebrows at the activity of priests in Italy who have been assisting in the collection of wedding rings and other gold jewelry ever since Dictator Mussolini announced that he wanted them to swell the gold reserves of Italy's war chest. In the Vatican newsorgan I'Osservatore Romano an editorial last week urged Italian and foreign newsorgans in reporting the collection of wedding rings and other gold by Italian priests "to consider them as gifts for the poor."

In devout Ireland, where an impression has grown that the Holy Father this winter is on increasingly thin geographical ice, the Fianna Fail (Government Party) Convention was besought last week in Dublin to offer "sanctuary in Ireland" to Pius XI. Cried the sponsor of this proposal, Cork City Delegate Eoin O'Mahoney, "I believe that as a result of sanctions Italy will be smashed, and if Mussolini goes the Holy Father will have to go too.