Page 2 EDITORIALS, FEATURES
South China Morning Post
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1971
More merits than
demerits
At least no one can claim today that local government reforms have not been given sufficient consideration, whatever their reactions may be to the proposals outlined in the White Paper tabled in Legislative Council yesterday.
There are bound to be widely differing opinions about the package but as a first stage plan it has more merits than demerits. The Urban Council can be thankful that it has been preserved intact instead of being split up into several mini councils, as was at one time suggested.
The withdrawal of the Officials may be criticised as too sudden but then in the next two years it is to be hoped links can be established with the various Departments to ensure a smooth transition.
Perhaps the chief virtue of the officials was that they could be used as convenient whipping boys and it will be a change for the unofficials not only to have to formulate their own policies and find the funds to finance them but stand up and defend them.
Some have had to do this in a small way already as chairmen of the various Council committees but for many who have clamoured for wider responsibilities and more power, the White Paper offers them the chance to show their mettle.
Wisely Government did not immediately widen their powers by handing over major responsibilities such as education, social welfare and housing though it is to be hoped that if the new Council proves a success this will be included in a second instalment of reforms.
Government has assured the Council of sufficient funds to keep the Urban Services Department going on a recurrent basis but it remains to be seen whether it will be possible to raise sufficient money through loans to finance capital projects.
It is to be hoped Government will not try to saddle the Council with the full responsibility of finding outside funds to build a Kowloon City Hall or a Museum. While this would prove a strong and stimulating challenge and give Councillors a real sense of fulfilment if they succeeded in doing it on their own, failure could boomerang on the central Government.
For these are two overdue amenities which should have been included in the Public Works programme long ago and at the very least Government should assure the Council that it will be prepared to carry part of the financial responsibility for building them.
It remains to be seen whether the new setup stimulates public interest in the Council's proceedings and encourages a bigger turnout on voting day. Certainly the Councillors will now be able to put polling booths almost wherever they want. And they may well find that by raising the rates on property they will kindle more voter interest although the narrow scope of the Council has been and will continue to be one of the chief reasons for the small vote.
Overall, however, the package should be welcomed as a challenge and it is now up to the Council to demonstrate its ability to make a go of it.
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By Stanley Johnson in New York
P.G. Wodehouse, who practically invented the butler when he created Jeeves. turns 90 tomorrow in a Long Island home where there's not even a live- in maid.
"We cope," he said in a rare interview recently as he relaxed in his study after completing "Jeeves and the Tie that Binds,” the latest in his series about the inimitable gentleman's gentleman.
Since 1902, Wodehouse has averaged a book a year, all inspired by a clear-cut philosophy.
"I like to make people feel good," he said, "and they seem to like that.
"I don't have any deep theories about humour: 1 think the purpose of humour is to make people laugh."
on the
Almost 70 years best seller lists has proved his theory and has also left him calm, serene and in great good humour with life.
The lack of a butler doesn't get him down any more than it does his wife.
"We had 11 in-help when we lived in London," laughed his slim, elegant and very blonde wife, Ethel.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
"Yesterday, I wasn't off my feet for 11 hours while I scrubbed bathrooms, polished floors, cooked meals and did all the other things you have to do around a house,"
But she, after all, is a bright young thing of only 86 and not about to settle in front of a fireplace with her tatting.
Even at his advanced age, Wodehouse holds his 6-feet- plus erect, and does his daily dozen on the front porch at 6 a.m. winter and summer.
He favours a slightly deaf left ear and regrets being totally bald.
"But," he said, "the odd thing is I don't feel any older." With critical acclaim still piling up, he has every reason for joy except one: The New York Mets have had а disappointing season.
"Oh, I love baseball" he said, fingering his blue, gold and white Warwickshire Cricket Club tie.
"Baseball's a much better game than cricket.”
Although a star cricketeer at Dulwich College, London, where he was educated more than 70 years ago, the tie is recognition that he took the name "Jeeves" from a fast bowler on the Warwickshire club.
"I came to America, my dream country, in 1904 and
LIFE W
JEEVES
Wodehouse
on 70 years
the best-se
saw Christie Mathewson almost at once," he said.
"I've never turned back.” Mathewson pitched for the New York Giants and was one of the sports idols of his
era.
Now Wodehouse is a Mets fan and never misses one of their televised games.
As for the new outburst of critical praise crowning a lifetime of work his latest
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The insane batt
for Bligh Lane
THE MOST far flung and most dangerous outpost of the British forces in Northern Ireland is
at
a place called Bligh Lane in the ancient city of Londonderry.
It is a militarily insane position on the corner of an industrial estate surrounded by a mainly hostile population and overlooked on three sides.
To date snipers, or perhaps one sniper, have killed two soldiers with shots through the head and seriously wounded a third, who was hit in the neck.
For
the Army. Ulster remains very much small league stuff.
"In Germany we lost more men on Exercise Triangle," said one commanding officer.
But its very smallness has a parochial quality that increases pain.
The dead don't lie down in faceless uniform or body counts.
makes electrical parts for cars on the third.
The shirt factory was burnt out long ago and the underwear firm never opened
up.
But the American-owned electrical factory is operating. and the soldiers say that they recognise many of the workers they are obliged to admit through their perimeter in the morning as the rioters of the night before.
It is a modern building with plenty of glass, which makes most of the wiring for the Ford Motor Company.
When some of the girls started waving to the soldiers from their canteen during the lunch break the workmen promptly whitewashed the windows.
When the girls amorously persisted in scratching holes
in
the whitewash they responded by nailing plywood purdah boards to the window frames. (The IRA sometimes shave off the hair of girls who go to soldiers' dances.)
Then relations with the military took another plunge when somebody lobbed а gelignite bomb out of one of the factory's ventilators so it landed behind an Army observation post. $420
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The morning newspaper obituaries bring last night's targets to life with accounts of lives and families both sides can comprehend.
When it comes to funerals, the Irish Republican Army's grandiose productions, slow marching six abreast down Belfast's Falls Road, are no more or less moving than the Union Jack over a mate's
Nobody was hurt, but it came as a nasty shock.
The soldiers themselves live in some half-finished buildings that were going to be an extension of the electrical factory.
By Colin Smith in
internment. and were told: "You're right. We don't like being interned either."
(Their more localised complaints about catapults and the use of CS gas were noted, and at the time of writing neither weapon has been used from the post since.)
When I visited Bligh Lane it was manned by Niagara Battery of 45 Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, under the command of Major Noel McDonnell, an Irishman and a Catholic.
Since World War II the British Army has often used gunners in a minor infantry role during counter- insurgency operations.
The battery is usually based with the British NATÓ Forces in Germany, where they have left their six American M109 self- propelled guns, which is probably just as well, and their families.
Major McDonnell's family comes from Cork, and the last member of it to have any military experience was an uncle who was an area commander in the IRA back in the 1920s.
"During one raid by the British he stuffed two .45s down his sister's nightdress. put her to bed, and asked her to cough like hell. The troops didn't go near her."
He is a short man, 38 years old. a bit worried about the beginnings of a paunch.
He likes satire and music and telling funny stories.
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