THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 1, 1941.
12
CHINA MAIL Alexandria, Sea Gate
WINDSOR HOUSE
;
THE THREE DEMOCRACIES
To
A
Egypt, Is Again Prize Of War
The ship came stealthily out of the opal haze of dawn, her white bows cutting the flat silk of the Mediterranean. The seas parted with the hiss of a sharp knife.
On the starboard bow, under a sky flushed with tiny clouds, the land of Egynt took shape-palms, lonely and spider-topped; tawny
desert, dat alnost with the sea.
of over 2.100 acres in extent, a vast series of quays and docks, an annual visiting tonnage of about 5,000,000 tons, and a big, export trade in cotton, grain, cottonseed, beans, rice, tomatoes, sugar and poignant onions the latter a note at the moment,
direct land attack behind. In front the island of Pharos promised the beginnings, of that great harbour in which to-day the whole of the British Mediterranean Fleet can ride at anchor.
round the shore like a scimitar. It is in the noble tradition,
The news of the death of General Metaxas, Gre- cian Prime Minister and great military leader, is, though to a less personal degree, as deeply lamented in Great Britain as in
Cleopatra & Caesar Greece itself, for it was largely due to his un-
Other Alexandrias were built daunted courage, his faith
So Alexander built magnificent-in the conqueror's honour-Alex- andria now called Kandahar, ly and well. From his new white Alexandria near Kabul in Afghan- in democracy and his de-
palace of Lochias, marble-shin- termination to maintain
First Glorious City ing, on a rocky promontory in the istan, and Alexandria in Ariana, near Herat. Alexandria on the sea, he laid a great street, straight Greece's independence Then, ahead, where the bow wave
Alexandria in line, can "answer
as a sword, to his new harbour all, it became the bright centre of Mediterranean outstripped them that made him decide to creamed, the vision of palaces and
tall light-all the questions." She can pro- on the lake side. Crossing this,
culture, usurpirg mosques, of a white,
from east to west, he planned the Athens. Writing and paper-mak- fight rather than to sub-house, a line of buildings shining, vision a fleet, bunker half a navy.
even nobler street of Canopus. It mit tamely to the dictates rising fron the sea. Tower beyond He who holds Alexandria has a
a hundred ing, the calendar and astronomy, was two miles long. tower, gleaming roofs and clou 1-throttle-hold on Egypt. He hom-
the study of anatomy, geometry, feet wide. where ten chariots
conic of the Axis. This decision seeking minarets, white walls and iners at the door of Suez.
sections, geography On either History-like truth and family might drive abreast. was all the more remark-windows which winked back the
troits has an odd habit of re-
side were marble buildings. Their hydrostatics--all these had their being in the city, whose library stately colonnades and brilliant flower beds gave shade and colour alone held half a millien volumes. Greece Whilst the might of to the morning gossip-walks of Greek and Macedonian, Syrian dwindled, while Carthage rose and
Rome bloomed and Jew, Egyptian and Phoeni-fell, while
then withered, Alexandria still prospered. She saw the swinging legions of Cambyses's army march to their doom in Egypt's Western Desert. Julius Caesar and Mark her beaches
Sun.
able in view of the fate of An arm of stone thrust far
European arching into the sea, within whose perimeter rode the grey shapes of
the smaller
countries around him. British battleships, the white grace
By
The fight Greece is put of a royal yacht. There loomed. J. Wentworth Day
bundled
sails of
Arab dhows.
いや
the Levant with their 1840 bows,
yachts of the millionaires sat the
ting up has undoubtedly, sharp-cut the massed masts and altered the whole history Greek brigantines, schooners of the war. To-day Italy'so-masted barques, salty and Empire is tottering to a grey from Italy. Bermuda-rigged fall and Italy-is slipping we; lik, swans. into the same subservient. position towards Germany which Mussolini had anti- cipated Greece would play
Lowards himself.
horn
There <toot Alexandria, cHY of the golden youth of Greece, gateway to the Egypt of the Polemies and Cleopatra, of
and Lord Lloyd, Napoleon and Nelson, of Cromer
It
it
the
Rich Trading Port Greece is in somewhat
Such was my first impression the same position vis-a-
Alexandru Is a city unique. vis Britain as the latter is
has age and modernity, history in regard to the United and disreputability, beauty that States. As Greece depends che, and squalor incredible.
is compounded of all colours and on the British Empire for races, the riches and vic's,
and financial sells and poses, the pride and supplies
the degradation of the Levant - support, so Britain is look-city born of the changing tides ut nations who border the tideles ing to America-the great
Alexandria 15 To-day for assist- democracy
agun a supene prize of war ance to wage this
the war Alexandria is the key to against Nazism. It is only, nothern door, guardian of the sta a question of degree, but
wwwww...
Kate.
It has a population
091244
of abota
it is undeniable that the 600,000, two magnificent harbour's fate of the democratic
world is dependent upon hopes to receive in the the extent to which these same generous spirit from three nations, with China, the United States. are prepared to go in the
Without British aid
I
|
After 2.000 years
peating itself. Alexandria is again the prize of
a world war.
ciari.
was
to
Greek
even
and
and
Anthony landed on She knew
The rest of the city was planned in squares and rectangles, as New York is planned to-day. There
and a temple a forum Poseidon, a university and a thea- tre, a public library and courts of and trod her palaces, justice, a gymnasium and swim-
the Pharaohs and saw the coming Na- ming pools.
of Mahomed Ali the First. Demokrates, the great Mace-poleon's army of the Nile march- architect, who designed | ed behind drums through her She saw his the temple of Diana at Ephesus, wondering streets, was the designer of the city. His salty topsails pass to their doom grandeur of mind and Alexander's at Nelson's hands. Her walls shud-
vision made
thunder of British Fworth of
the new dered to the | Alexandria the first city in the guns in Aboukir Bay.
world. Its palaces and inomunenly,
Alexandria is in Egypt yet not marble steps to the sea and glory of Egypt. of flower gardens, its pageantry of Even the flowers in Alexandria troops and ships, its graceful sky-are different from those of Middle line of towers and minarets and Upper Egypt. In Cairo and caused Achilles Totius to cry, "We Luxor the gardens are artificial, are vanquished, mine eyes.'
Alexander the Grent, the Mace donian boy, came to Egypt in about 335 B.C., half the world at hy feet, the other half trembingdonian In its sandals.
This golden-haired young man, cleon-shavn and idealistic in an age of beurds and brutality, pick- ed upon this sandy strip of land where stands Alexandria as the tical situation for the city he wished to build.
Before it lay the sea. Behind it were the wide waters and reedy wamps of Lake Mariut. Beyond that the Nile and the desert. The tip of land between lake and en was barely a mile wide, It was gyank cosmopolitan ideal for port which should have one foot in the sea and one in the river at Heypt then the cranary of the work. It was protected from
witness to man's deftance of sun Alexandria still preserves some and sand. But in "Alex" there are of the squares and wide streets, English foxgloves and hollyhocks. gardens which glow and palaces The flowers of the field are those which gaze
The which bloom upon the sea.
upon the hills of great Corniche road, constructed Greece, Asphodel and iris are light by my friend His Excellency of heart in the wind. Daisies and Achmed
Bey, sweeps poppies dapple the way.
Seddik
Criminals Neglect Their Work
struggle to-day. The ex- Greece could not hope to Crime in Britain, for the first, 1914 and 8,486 in 1918-a fall of tent of their cooperation withstand the forces ar- time since the outbreak of war, is 55 per cent--and the non-indict- This on the increase. This is due en-able offences fell from 113,088 to is the determining factor|rayed against her.
tirely to widespread cases of loot-13,996. Crime was on the de- this war, and the in the amount of freedom aid includes substantial ing: orthodox crime is very much crease before
general call upon our man power for on the decrease. to be enjoyed by the world credits from Britain
The vigilance of 21,000 police-probably drew many potential to-morrow.
the purchase of war mat-men and an anti-looting squad of criminals into the Services.
In 1915 eleven hundred habi. In taking over his heavy erials, but as it is recog-300 detectives has failed to check responsibilities the new nised in London that any By Percy Hoskins
war
can be imposed.
could not
get
Centre Of Culture Walk in these fields of asphodel of by the wind-rippled waters Lake Mariut, and you feel that Cleopatra was no maid of Egypt but a girl of Scuthern Europe, who barely touched the fringe of the Orient.
She died here, in her marble palace overlooking the sea-that ittle, dark-haired,' tender woman, dominant and loyal. It was in Alexandria that whe gained audience of Julius Caesur, by hoy- denish strategy. I like to think of that star-brilliant night when her Apollodorus faithful companion,
the Sicilian, landed her by boat at the palace steps in the harbour, carried her on his shoulder, wrap- ped in his roll of bedding, straight into the apartment of Caesar, at the Ro~ dropped the bundle man's feet and out struggled the dishevelled, laughing, 21-yeur- old Queen of Egypt.
tho
tual criminals were fighting.
Famous Cases
She conquered Caesar as she Greek Prime Minister, M. financial aid is little more
There were greater opportuni- the only, loves
conquered Anthony. Those two, Koryzis,
of her life were can have the than technical, there is no this form of crime, and the Scot- same confidence in the' hindrance to Greece re-land Yard chiefs are now asking ties for employment for those who lived in Alexandria. She and All-
themselves whether the only real in ordinary times
thony roarned its streets at night outcome of the
as ceiving maximum support way to stop it is the enforcement work. No doubt, too, a spirit of like boy and girl, knocking at peo- patriotism kept many out of mis-ple's doors and then running away General Metaxas had. No to the fullest extent of of the death penalty.
A magistrate is empowered to chief.
laughing as the Alexandrians shadow of distrust exists the resources of Britain sentence a person found guilty of A few spectacular crime stories laugh still from the sheer fun of
hard hit the front page in the last war: life. between Britain and and the Empire, without looting to twelve months'
labour, or alternatively, to send The detection of "Brides-in-the- Here Anthony is buried. Here, Greece and every step stint or question of pay-the
shades of case to a higher court, in Bath" Smith, the arrest of Voisin in the ghostly
under the Defence for the
Bloomsbury murder of palace. by the sea, Cleopatra, faced taken is made to dovetail; ment. The question of which case, in the general scheme payment has truly become regulations, the death penalty Madame Gerrard, and the shoot- by the malevolent Octavian wila ing of the self-styled Count de the prospect of being dragged in of But the police say there is too Borch, white slave trafficker, bychains through the streets jointly laid down. This a secondary considera- much leniency. In only one of Lieutenant Douglas Malcolm (the Rome, died magnificently-"upon unity of purpose, this re- tion. Money is losing its two cases has the full summary "I did it for my honour" case), her bed of gold, arrayed in her solve to fight to the end, position as the dominat- sentence been passed and in one But they were well below the Grecian robes of state, decked
case the offender got off with a average number, which is bringing about ing factor in the world to £5 fine. the downfall of Mussolini day. As the "Economist" and the breaking up of recently pointed out: "In Hitler's dream of an early the fullest sense, the role Other types of crime showing charged with drunkenness in 1913, When the Roman officer who penetration into Syria and of finance in war is to en: an increase are ration thefts and but in 1918 there were only 1,670, found her dead turned to Char- petty shop-breaking-mostly to a fall of 97 per cent. Assaults, mion, her lady in waiting, and de- the oilfields of Iran and sure that nothing is ever bacconists. Otherwise crime is at largely due to drunkenness, also mandled angrily, "Charmion, was Iraq, cannot but succeed. decided
Women decoys employed by fell from 8,668 to 1,269, or 85 per this well done of your lady?" she,. on financial zero,
Scotland Yard have stopped hand-cent, and offences against police Charmlon, deathly white, gasped, The aid which Mr. Chur- grounds." This truth is bag snatching. For the burglar regulations from 8,661 to 889, or "Very well done, and as befitted
the descendant of so many kings." chill promised to Greece being grasped not only in the bottom has fallen out of the 90 per cent.
jewel market. The "confidence" The daily average male prison Then she, too, fell dead beside her and which is so generous-Britain but also in the man and the sharepusher have no population in 1918 was 60 per mistress. ly being given is a recog- United States. There is tourist trade to operate on, while cent. less than the 1914 figure. Alexandria to-day is. the Cico-
the holes in the roads are more This made it possible to close a patra of sea cities, "descendant of.. nition of Greek valour, therefore, no limit to sup: effective obstacles to the smash quarter of the total prison-accom- many kings."
In this momentous day of her at the same low level as in the looters in these days might again ly towards her, over sea and de last war, when the only offence to help to keep our prisons empty sert, she will see the outcome of show an increase was biganiy, and protect the property of those that battle, and it will be "very
Serious offences were 7,738 in' unlucky enough to be bombed..
Women Decoys
with all her regal jewels, the "ro- A great fall was recorded inyal diadem of the Ptolemies en- burglary and housebreaking; lar- circling her brow." cenies fell from 22,459 to 8,015, or 60 per cent.; 51,851 persons were
"Very Well Done"
and the importance of plies to Greece save the and grab men than police barriers, modation,
But for looting crime would be A death sentence or two for history, which now strides urgent-
Greece to the common limit of transport-a pro cause. It is also an ex-blem which is being met pression of what Britain by the British Navy.
well done.