ART: Bad Spot

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Nothing less than a British cruiser would do to carry from China to England last winter 21,000 items of Imperial Manchu art lent by the Chinese Government to the British Government for a great exhibition in London's Burlington House (TIME, Dec. 9). To return this priceless treasure, after it had been viewed by 422,048 persons, His Majesty's Government thriftily decided to use an ordinary steamship, the Peninsular & Oriental liner Ranpura, with a relay of naval escorts.

H. M. S. Scout, convoy on the first lap, had left the Ranpura's side and H. M. S. Veteran was waiting in harbor to begin the second lap, when the treasure ship steamed into the Bay of Gibraltar last week in the midst of a stiff southeaster. The gale picked up the helpless Ranpura, swept it aground on Punta Mala ("Bad Spot") in the northwest corner of the bay. Three Admiralty tugs rushed" to the rescue, but their steel hawsers snapped repeatedly in the foaming seas.

Despite the reassurances of the treasure's expert Chinese guardians, who said that no amount of shaking could harm it in its 90 silk-lined steel cases, His Majesty's Government spent a jittery three days before tugs succeeded in hauling the Ranpura off its bad spot.