H.R.H. the Prince of Wales Present.

H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, K.G., President of the Institution, was present at the Plaza Theatre, on 29th November, at a gala performance, in aid of the life- boat service, at which the film " An Eastern Odyssey " was shown for the first time in Great Britain. This film, which was shown through the gener- osity of M. Andre Citroen, is the record of the Citroen Expedition which, after three years of preparation, set out in April, 1931, to cross Asia in tracked motor cars, a journey of over 7,000 miles. The expedition had the cordial help of the British and Indian Govern- ments in making its arrangements to cross British territory, and a great deal of the equipment, including all the maps, was British. One part of the expedition started from Beirut, in Syria, on the Mediterranean, and travelled eastwards. The other set out from Tientsin, in China, on the Pacific, travelling westwards. The two parties met in the centre of Asia, in Chinese Turkestan, and together jour- neyed to Peking, which they reached in February, 1932. The journey of 7,219 miles had taken 315 days.

Shortly afterwards the leader of the expedition, M. Georges-Marie Haardt, was taken ill and died in forty-eight hours.

This remarkable journey with track motor cars was the third which he had led. The first was in 1922, across the Sahara, and the second was in 1924 and 1925, from Algiers to the Cape.

The film of each expedition was shown in Great Britain for the first time in aid of the life-boat service. The Queen was present at the showing of the first film in 1923, at the Victoria Palace, and the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York and Prince and Princess Arthur of Connaught at the second film, at the Plaza, in 1928.

The arrangements for the gala were made by a committee of which the Duchess of Sutherland, president of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, was chair- man, and the Plaza again generously lent its theatre and staff to the Insti- tution.

The Prince of Wales was received by the Mayor of Westminster, M. Audouin- Dubreuil, one of the leaders of the expedition, and Sir Godfrey Baring, Bt., chairman of the Institution; and the following ladies and gentlemen were presented to him: The Duchess of Sutherland, president of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, the Lady Cynthia Colville, the Viscountess Bearsted, chair- man of the Central London Women's Committee of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild, the Lady Dorothy D'Oyly Carte, deputy chairman, the Hon. George Colville, deputy chairman of the Insti- tution, Major-General Sir Ernest Swin- ton, representatives of Citroen Cars, Ltd., representatives of the Plaza Theatre, and Lieut.-Col. C. R. Satter- thwaite, secretary of the Institution.

Among those present were the French Ambassador, the Portuguese Ambas- sador, the Counsellor of the Belgian Embassy, the Duke of Sutherland, the Viscount Hailsham, Secretary of State for War, the Viscount Halifax, Presi- dent of ,the Board of Education, Field-Marshal the Viscount Allenby and the Viscountess Allenby, Major-General Lord Mottistone, coxswain of the Brooke life-boat, and Lady Mottistone, Lord Southborough, president of the Civil Service Life-boat Fund, and Lady Southborough, General Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Major-General Sir Percy Cox, president of the Royal Geographical Society, and Sir E. Deni- son Ross, director of the School of Oriental Studies, London Institution.

The amount raised by the gala was £680 Is. 8d..