THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 29, 1940
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE
EMASCULATED NEWS
To ask Mr. Duff Cooper to battle with the Service) Departments and evolve a completely satisfactory system by which war de- velopments, raids, air bat- tles, and such, can be adequately reported the Press and the Empire news agencies is undoubt- edly to invite the Minister of Propaganda to prove himself a super-genius.
by
Nevertheless, there is enormous room for im- provement of present ar- rangements, a good deal of strange differentiation of treatment which serves only to cause resentment, and the creation of many absurd situations such as inability of Hong Kong newspapers last July to mention that the "Em- press of Japan" was carrying evacuees to Manila while Daventry broadcast the name of the ship for the whole world to hear.
Time and again official bulletins so closely iden- tify points of enemy -at- tack that it seems little short of stupid to refer to a S.E. Coast town when Dover is clearly meant.
A greater point of griev- ance, however, is the fav- oured treatment granted to the B.B.C. and this issue has again been rais-
FELL DOWN CHIMNEY OF
BOMB A THE
/A HOUSE AT THE
CORNER
HO
OF
PARVENUE
WHERE DID
HE GET IT FROM?
WELL -ER-
WHAT MAKES YOU
BELIEVE IT
STRUNZ
δ
WHO TOLD YOU THAT
DEFLATING A RUMOUR
•ER A
MY
FRIEND
OF
BROTHER-
WHO TOLD
HIM?
WELL, HAPPEN TO LIVE IN THAT HOUSE MYSELF
So SHUT, Up!
"Number
10%
Home Of The Famous
No. 10 Downing Street, which Mr. Winston Churchill "has just made his official home, is familiar enough to him, for he has been going in and out afsit at intervals |for the past 30 years or more. The drab exterior of this famous house, by the way, gives no indication of the comfort and beauty to be found within.'
The property was originally part of the forfeited estate of the Earl of Litchfield. George I, gave it to Baron Rothman, the Hanoverian Minister,
his for life, and, on death, in 1731; George II. offered it to Sir Robert Walpole as a personal gift. Walpole, however, declined to accept it, but .after that the premises "went" with the offices of Chancellor of the Ex- chequer and First Lord of the Treasury.
No. 10 is in a narrow cul-de-sac, [leading out of Whitehall. Actually there is a fight of steps at the
By R.N. Carrington
other end leading to St. James Park, but this "exit" is not often used. Opposite is the grey build- ing of the Foreign Office, under whose arches a short cut may be taken to the Houses of Parliament on the Thames Embankment.
In times of crisis or national ex- citement and anxiety, it is cus- tomary for Londoners to gather in front of the Foreign Office and watch visitors go to and from No. 10. Even the Suffragettes did not forget No. 10. To advertise "the cause" they sometimes chain- ed themselves to the rallings!
a
The front door opens into wide lounge hall, at the far end of which is a small passage where Cabinet Ministers hang their coats and hats. The name of each Minister is placed under a. peg.
When Gladstone lived at No. 10 his Thursday morning breakfasts became famous. Lions of the day met at these gatherings, and ex- changed views. "Lord Salisbury and Sir Robert Peel (the Prime Minister who established the "modern" police force) used No. 10 only for official purposes. Lord Rosebery lived there, but did not like it. The languld Arthur Bal- four, burly Campbell-Bannerman, scholarly-Asquith, eloquent Lloyd George, Ramsay MacDonald, drea- mer and idealist, and Neville Idows. could most profitably be Chamberlain, all made it their
The English Village
Another
The
war-wedding. crowd moves down from the grey,
ed sharply by London ivied church where folk were be- ling born and married and buried papers as the result of a in the Wars of the Roses. Nice,
recent broadcast in which
remote, uninclusive wars those, rather like a wandering football
move up to the inn.
has
"One for the
At
War
To Stay
-By- IVOR BROWN
turned to arable,
has
It was local democracy in action, home at intervals. and it worked.
Downing Street, however, A little strife here and there may have broken seen other famous men, such as out, perhaps, but there were Boswell, who lived there in 1783, grand results on the whole. We Gibbon, the historian, and Lord
ac Sheffield.a
The great Earl of Chatham was carried there from the House of Lords after he collapsed during an
in
Mutton From The oration.
Golf-Course
+
*
*
Mr. A. G. Gardiner gave match. You could keep out of it "mild" went up to Avepence and have ploughed and planted,
if you chose and had the sense to they said, as they drank, "a penny cording to plan. And so, an eye-witness description stay quiet. Marlborough, Clive, for the war."
Now it is sixpence. August, do we hope to reap. Wellington-the great names were Twopence for the war. And cigar- of an air battle-in thea rumour in the village air. It is ettes up fourpence on twenty. A different to-day. War is every-drink and a smoke-that makes
The Cabinet room, with its long, style of one of those run-where and close.
narrow table, is, of couse, famous sixpence for the war! Many must
Contrary throughout the world. It's an all-in war now. ning commentaries on a village bridegroom is a sailor and an
The go short, On the weekly wage of
The cottage gardens were al to general custom, the Prime football match which used the best man is in the Air Force sixpences are heavy toll.
agricultural labourer, those ways carefully dug for a domestic Minister does not sit at the head and there are few young men in
crop of roots and greens. Now of the table, but in the centre of to feature Daventry pro- the party.
the side facing
windows. more so. than ever and you will the For most are away, The Land-Girls Come see that extra patches have been These look out on a little garden grammes followed by called up. · British conscription Mr. J. B. Priestley, giving its younger men. Volunteering or rightly spares the farm, but not
taken in for private cultivation, surrounded with a high wall, al- pieces by the roadside, for exam-ways, guarded by a policeman Cabinet is sitting. a talk in his most vivid called, they have gone.
ple, long neglected. A man who when
long sittings it is has more land than he can use During The peal of bells is over, An-
for Ministers to Down the darkening village lends others a section. We shall not unusual style, about his visit to a other war-time honeymoon
this street two land-girls stroll, The not lack vegetables in the autumn. talk over State affairs in now depopulated seaside begun, so bitter-sweet in its bre- farmers were scornful of them at
thegarden oasis. area of unconcealed iden-nnished, the farmers are away to
The: golf-course away on vity of passion. The party it
hillside is a forlorn place during tity. This lifting of the their steadings. But' first they
the week and few enough can get there at week-ends. But it is do- veil from much that had road." There will be better trade
ing its bit. The many acres of were able to "make a packet", as been severely withheld to-night. And the inn-keeper
rich and delicate turf are being the saying went. It will not hap- needs it. Things have been hard]
cropped by hundreds of sheep. pen again. The Government fixes from the public ken may for him.
These do the work of the mow the prices: eggs, train, milk, meat; ing machines, now. idle since the all have their stated value. These or may not have been First the locals drank mild ale at fourpence £1 pint. They
clubs ground-staff has naturally prices, will never satisfy all par- harmless and may have couldn't afford the dearer "bitter" first and said they would be
a dwindled. It is the sheep who ties: but most people regard them been even expedient; but Then, with the first War Budget, luxury not worth the money, Dur-now keep the fairways in some as fair to producer and consumer. ing the winter they were not in sort of trim and prevent the They give the farmer a chance to the departure raises two
great demand. But summer means rough" from becoming a jungle exist decently, to exist but not to very pertinent questions. closures of precise localit work, and the men have gone. The course also works for farmer exploit.
The war has brought many. And the farmers, having tried the and butcher by turning into mut In the first place, how ies of raided towns and girls for skill and diligence, find ton the grass that used to be changes to the English village.
The young men of the village have. are the restrictions still descriptions of the dam-them hard-trained and determin-thrown aside.
led to stick it through the long, Market-days in the near-by gone, and their elders are busy, imposed on Press and age done, it cannot mat-laborious hours.
town are quieter than they used very busy: extra food production, public to be justified if ter whether the dis-1. If the girls ever had any illu-to be. There is no free market Air Raid Protection drills and they can at will be safely closures are made in the ions about the romance of a jolly in fat-stock now. The beasts are practices, use up the countryman's
farmer's life, they lost them soon sold at control prices. These leisure, disregarded; and why are newspapers or on the enough. They know all about Government controls are spread nine o'clock nows on the radio? mud and cold and heat and mono-ing everywhere and they efficient If so, what he hears only streng- they disregarded for some wireless; and it is not un-tony. They know and they goly prevent profiteering.
thens his resolve: He is not a favoured observers and reasonable to ask what an
No New Rich This
mouth-fighter, and our village Inn. The land has changed its face.
· not all?:
has not resounded with a lot of official justification can be Two million acres of grass had to
vocal patriotism and cursing ot Time If the national interest offered for such a capri-be ploughed by the end of spring
the foo. Tho village is getting on Each county had Its Committee of During the last war many farm-with its job. The more to do, the is jeopardised by dis-cious discrimination.
Kormers who settled which mea-'era, like many manufacturers, less to say.
Does he finish in time for the