THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 26, 1940.
CHINA MAIL Notes For A
-WINDSOR HOUSE
BROADCASTING THE COMMONS
Surely that would be given.
MAUROIS
On
Cellar-Book France's
was Saintsbury's; the great pro-a sanguine view of human nature little while we
The title, or something near it, commonly nasty characters, took a few cellor sessions, to learn a enjoy greatly, fessor, so genial except where a on the whole. And this view we "Hard Times" is certainly a book
Fall
Radicul was concerned, wrote of need for our support to-day, ad- for air-raid company, cellars more convivial than those 'mitting, of course, the presence, Coketown, the urban 'abomina- A woman at the talking end of
water laid on. There
have been several
more noisome
born a stalactite.
case
a
#
By Ivor Brown
fecblest.
his inverted
snobbery and
worst,
his
a telephone can be troublesome to
ns.
Mr. Attlee was not at all warm in his reception of the suggestion that the broadcasting of the Prime Minister's speeches to the to which we retire nowadays. the all too proximate presence, of tion allowed to grow and spread Commons should be con- and resort of hedonistic Innu,
Cellars, so long the depository" some 'very nasty characters. in the Age of Anyhow, is still 4 war-time Premier, as Andre sidered. It may be agreed have become severely useful picked out "Hard Times", for any at its worst was scarcely as bad York: Harpers. $2) records. The Looking at my Dickeng shelf, I England's shame. But Coketown Maurois' Tragedy in France (New places The urban "dive" used day's at once that the question to mean a bar where one partook seemed topical, and I have a taste Industrial Revolution was seen at determined to see Paul Reynaud companion. The name as the similar Scottish places. The woman, says M. Maurois, had been of broadcasting the Com- of stout and oysters and similar for the villains of this piece, its vilest and cruellest in Lanark become Premier, and the mons' proceedings in gen of the French hotel were no less Chonkumchild. They compose a chronicles! We have abundance ed a rift between Reynaud and encouraging things. "Les caves Bounderby. Gradgrind, and Mrs. Shire. But how scanty are its gineering of that ambition widon- eral, or even of special de- the larder of luxury. Now we go monstrous cartoon of the Man- of Scottish romanticism from Sir his predecessor, Edouard Daladier, bates, is not one that com to carth for security. The wheel chester School" at its best, but the Walter to Stevenson, Crockett and that contributed to the misfor- mends itself; to harness home of the Stone Age man is no probably not unfair to mid-Vic-from
has turned full circle and the picture of Coketown scenery is Munro; we have the realists' reply, tunes of France. What many peo- George Douglas Brown, ple have suspected, M. Maurois the full tide of Parliament less serviceable to the Steel Age.
Cronin, George Blake, and Lev puts down as fact: is a task that is better left Poole's Cavern at Buxton, reflect- Not long ago I was perambulating.
Grassic Gibbon, whose realism
It would be wrong, very wrong, was mingled with a curious lyrical to say that the French way of life to Hansard. But the re- ing that one such limestone grot
beauty. But these wrote of their in 1939 was corrupt; millions of 18 very like another. cording of a particular this one has an equable tempera- and Dickens, as Radical reporter, the Scottish equivalent of "Hard lives. But this was not true of the
However, torian Lancashire at its
immediate Scotland. Where
is families led simple and united statement by the Prime ture, summer and winter, with had a tremendous
Times," the chronicle of a Mother- 3,000 persons in Paris who, Minister for transmission gas and
flair for this well's birth and growth? Scottish Byron said, "because they go to kind of descriptive writing, fam-literature has a serious blank just bed late believe they are the lead- later by the B.B.C. is a then when I wished I were back, cious in the invective of its im- Dickens foremost, were illuminat-ttached no great importance to months since boyant in its imagery, and fero- where a number of novelists, ers of the world." Most of these different and much more in its fantastic galleries. The
The Horrid Rich are a plication. manifestations of acceptable proposition. modern warfare can forcibly pro- ous Pact, represented by Stephen miseries of England's new pros trigues; but events were destined mettlesome crowd, but the Virtu- for all time the ironies and their sentimental or sensual in- Indeed, Mr. Attlee said mote the regret that one was not Blackpool, show Dickens at perity.
to prove that these intrigues could that it had been consider- We are in for a deal of this rating to make one feel more had left off Scottish romanticism pardy.
Stephen is sufficiently After Sir Walter and John Galt nevertheless place nations in jo ed but “would require the cavelife, it seems, and must ad- kindly towards Bounderby, with kept on burying its head in Appin
just ourselves to general assent
of the dance.
subterranean
It would have frightened the his and the far-100-oft-told tale of French people to realise the soft In case the sessions! House."
Can anyone be long, it is wel! to carry a small yaunting of a gutter boyhood so the Bonnie Prince,
of animosity, that had grown 4p assent commanded gas mask, refreshment in the lineaments and lingo of Scotland of 1830-80, the Scotland been working in the closest mutual
including, along with the far transcended by mature suc-assist my cellar reading by sug-
cess. The best Dickens flashes out gestion of a good story about the between the two men-Reynald and Daladier-who should hiffe for body and mind. For the for- Mrs. Sparsit with her pride of whose glens were being vulgarly Parliament, as we for the latter suggest that
mer I would hesitate to prescribe: pedigree and her. Coriolanian" peppered with mock baronial confidence: to hear the accusations know, is jealous of its pro- book be chosen which is at once! nose.
castles while the towns were be- and recriminations; to learn that vilely covered with tenements as plans involving the lives of thou- one was allowed to formulate cedure and privileges, but ample I mean that there is plenty in the full flush of ruthless indus-
ample, easy, and encouraging. By As a picture of the textile towny black as prisons, the Scotland
whose
sands of soldiers and the future respect for tradition of it and that the style be copious; trial development "Hard Times"
citizens poured fortunes should not be allowed to so if you miss a sentence or even has the full urgency of Dickensian into the laps of roalowners and of a nation while the other could
millowners and makers of ships
be accused of withholding - a paragraph you are not lost. indignation. Dickens's writing straddle like a road block This new-tangled cave-life of our usually fell from its super best, while the squalor of the new cities portant information which might
grew wantonly and shamefully, have forestalled disaster. across the requirements is a disturbed, unrestful business. In proportion to the distance from the Scotland which belled its fuss Reynaud
be external naives: London and the Home Counties of about good education by permit forceful, and sincere role, but with played a shrewd, and resources of to-day. there is usually internal chatter. the scene depicted. Abroad he
ting to exist such homes as in At this moment our Prime
no a lack of political intuition that Ample, easy and encouraging.scems a superficial observer:
education on earth could civilise?;'amazed M. Maurois, who was Minister is the
Dickens is the obvious reply, and the North of England he is not great for the new type of cellar-book4ully at ease; and his vice of enri-
I should like while. below, often in a position, to watch events spokesman for the British he is my first choice. His descrip- caturing is the more obvious. His ground, to learn why and how the from the very elbows of the Pre- people, and when he ad-
tions are as copious as cogent, and Coketown is not quite as persua- Scots came so to defile, for a few mier and the Generals, One of the of the re- rome slight temporary distur- sive as his Camberwell or his men's gain, so much of the love-piquant Illustrations
French political dresses Parliament on bance, such as the collapse of a Kent. The author's habit of play-liest ground in our kingdom. Why finements of
thinking, which M. Maurois offers neighbouring block of flats, will ing on the black notes only is were a supposedly stubborn.peo- matters of wide principle net seriously interfere with your are unther obvious. At the same ple so easily and so vastly co-in this boolt concerns a unanimous there seems no reason reading. You may omit a sentence tire the grime of this city, when pressed? Scotland was ever gallant vote of confidence given by the Why Chamber of Deputies to Premier why his actual words or two, but you can easily pick mixed with a grain of salt, is against the alien foe.
up again. As for encouragement, stuff of history, if not quite the meek before domestic greed and Reynaud. This vote, confesses M. should not be made avail- Dickens, while he drew some un- shape of it. If we want, during usurpation? able for broadcasting. There has been at least one occasion when he has ̈ made one speech to Par-, liament in the afternoon, The young hotspurs of General the Popular Front came into being? The relics of 'Spain's original Reynaud who worked hard to and repeated the subst- Franco's regime are eager, it ap- they trotted out the usual stuff colonial patrimony, in Northern make the vote unanimous because pears, to exploit the present mis- about "Jewish Marxism," stimu- Africa are the four presidios of unanimity is impersonal, national, a strong ma- ance and
many of the fortunes of France and they are lating the strong traditional anti- Ceuta, Penon de Velez, Alhuce- patriotic, whereas words. in
aking loudly about Spain's Scmite feeling among the Moors, mas, and Melilla, along the north jority would have meant personal an evening "manifest destiny" of expansion in on the one hand, and, on the other, crn, Mediterranean, coast. Two of success,'
It was the next day that Rey- broadcast. That is an ad-Morocco. Not that they are exact instilling into the Spanish officer these are island rocks, and Melilla,
the ditional burden which y wishing for war. What they class the idea that it was now the is cut off from the interior by the naud told M. Maurois how
are hoping for, waiting for, is that mission of Spain's Army to save mountains of the Riff. But these tanks that were supposed to he ore, at any rate, real possessions. checking the German advance in need not be asked of him, their powerful friends of the Axis its country from Communism. In the so-called Spanish zone of Norway "existed only on paper" and a recording of the will first carry out the job of There were not many Germans Morocco she is only, as it were, in Unpreparedness was the enemy of
rendering France's colonial forces-or Italians-in the Spanish Pro- the position of a sub-tenant, hold France. first address would have powerless and defenceless, in actectorate zone before the outbreak ing her title by the grace.
And Britain was in no of position to supply the needed mill- spared him the second cordance with the armistice terms, of the Spanish war. But German France; and it is a tenure which tary aid in time.
so that then Spanish troops can be influence was all-pervasive. The is, naturally, galling to Spanish. effort. We have a great drafted in to "establish ord" in Nazis were, after all, only follow-
This book combines the read- pride..
ability of fiction with the nuthenti- exponent of England's the neighbouring French Proing well-worn tracks. During the
It happened like this. By the city of an acute and Arst hand cause in Mr. Churchill,
Anglo-French Declaration of 1901 appraisal of one of history's most but that is no reason why and beyond. The majority of the
The preparations go back to 1936 By Horsfall Carter France, was given the chance of tragic and most curious disasters. expansion in Morocco, subject to M. Maurois concludes the we should use him twice surgent generals had had long where once would serve,
spells of service in Africa. Some, war of 1914-18 Spanish Morocco certain limiting conditions dictat- volume with a broadcast he de- like the Generalissimo himself, was used continually as a base for cd by the needs of British sea- livered from London in June, a and action power. A stretch of Moroccan plea for a continuance of the acquired merit by establishing a active propaganda paternalist military and civil ad against the French Protectorate, coast from just outside Melilla on world's faith in French character. ministration which was a model and subsequently German agents the Mediterranean to a point on His book will help France's friends of its kind. But all of them be- contrived to supply the Riffs in the right bank of the River Sabu to understand and, where forgive- come progressively out of touch their
remain ness is warranted; to forgive. It campaign lavishly with on the Atlantic was to with European affairs- und were money, arms, and ammunition. unfortified. France was required will revive the hopes of those who casy victims of German pro-During the Spanish war the Ger- to come to an undeïstanding with believe that the France they have built emplacements at Spain in regard to the latter's loved and respected is still wait-
THE WARNING COCKEREL
There may
Spain's Hopes of Empire
lectorate.
Maurois, seemed to him reassu ing. “But a senator whom I saj that evening told me with diabolic. glee that it meant nothing. "You" don't understand parliamentary by-play, he explained in a pitying tone. There were adversaries of
The suggestion made maganda. The Germans, os usual, mans
ian two alternative "lines." Elther Ceuta for big Krupp .guns Moroccan interests; and by one of ing to reassert itself. by the Bishop of Cheims-they inveighed against French Im-which have sufficient range the secret articles of the Anglo-am
life uncomfortable French agreement the Spanish changed to this day.
ford that the wailing sirenialism, appealing thus to the to make
ever-present sentiment of Moslem: in Gibraltar harbour, and zone of influence was equated with What will happen in Morocco
2
be replaced by a gay and nationalism, with the accompany established an air base at Melilla; the hinterland of the part of the depends, of course, entirely on the littoral which was to remain un- course of the war in the next few Italian agents challenging "cock-a-doo- that they had been cheated out of have now had over four years in fortified.
ing suggestion, for the Spaniards, und German and
weeks. One can understand that the Vichy Government should be dle-doo" was anticipated their heritage; or especially after which to dig themselves in,
Spain was bidden to agree that sending General Weygand (or over a century ago by the
It may be asked, "Does it never she would not alienate any of the another general) to safeguard occur to the Spaniards whose territory thus placed under her Franco's interests. But General Russian poet A. S. Push- and predictor, crowing on newborn zeal for empire is being authority: The Spanish Govern France is watching carefully. kin. In his fairy tale "The the approach of any so carefully nursed that they are mentuly acceded to this diplo. A victory for Britain, will still Golden Cockerel" (per enemy and turning in the simply being used as tools, only mac bargain. When in 1912 a leave him a chance of some con-
In be thrown aside when the time Franco-Moroccan treaty secured solation prize in Morocco haps better known as the direction from which that comes so that Germany and Italy France's position as louse-holder. Or, if that is not possible, ba- opera "Le Coq d'Or" enemy may be expected. Western Powera? The answer is over the Sultan, Spain, too, re- German intrigues, he may fairly may step into the shoes of the with effective powers of control'cause of the continued danger of founded on it by Rimsky- Alas! King Dadon was that Spaniards, by and large, have gularised her position (by the hope to get back Gibraltar for
Convention of Korsakov) King Dadon is not wise in his genera-sea-power. They do not really en-
still immense confidence in British Franco-Spanish
Spain, by a negotiated agreement, November 27, 1912). .
at the end of the war. If he is wise. presented by a magician tion. He refused to fulfil visage a complete Axis victory. It was, however, an inferior he will reduce: Spain's Moroccan with a truly wonderful the condition which the so much as a suficient challenge one, In that the Spanish zone was ties to a minimum until Spain has to the traditional "Anglo-French to be administered by a Khalifah 'n healthful polity at home, and gift a golden cockerel magician had imposed, domination of the peninsula and or representative of the Sultan, approach us rather in the spirit of which performs the dual and the marvellous cock-Morocco to let them take a more who had passed on his respon the late General Primo de River
mportant role than has been their sibilities altogether to the French. "Ceuta for Gibraltar-and to hell functions of alarm signall eri tu
lot in the past.
That juridical position is un-with the rest of the Protectoratel".
..