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Status Quo Ante?
THE PROBLEM OF CONTEMPORY HISTORY
THE CHINA MAIL, FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1946.
THE
ROAD BACK
Arthur The greatest human problemi in Britain's contemporary his
I picked
up Leslie Brown, a unremarkable a citizen ne you could pick in a day's pick- Ing. on a cold, dump day at No. 4 Military Dispersal. Unit, Albany-atroot, N.W.1.
A
He is a short, wiry young man, with a sharp wiry face, the skin drawn tight as an apple around his cheekbones, lo is brown- syed, practical young MAN. thoughtful, stendy and articulate. and keen to fall in with the Evon- ine Standard achome of publicis ing a problem in its most persona!
aspects.
nows.
To
tory is the mass absorption of her fighting Forces, of both sexes, of all ages and of an infinite variety of so- clal callings into civilian life.
the Government, this is a mass problem: to the People, highly individual. Each man and woman who fought for Britain and has now chosen civilian life as a career is faced with our individual problems: (1) Making enough money to live on; (2), getting somewhere to live 'in; (3) re-tuning family relations; and (4) going through that process generally called readjustment. The problem has limitless permutations. No story is the same. For one man it is all uphill; for another, roller- coasting. In large, the human problem is not whether civilian clothes suddenly handed over the the counter at Olympia or Wembly are tight around a soldier's body but whether the civilian life which is handed over simultaneously is tight around his soul.
By PETER DUFFIELD
He came promptly to our first rondezvous carrying, a little self- consciously I thought, copies of
writton the more closely It looks very much as though papers and a copy of the Specta- for under his arm. 1 am still not the Colonial Office is cooking up certain of that self-consciousness, for Hong Kong a civil service but at any rate it was lost fre recipe that will cause acute heart-quontly during subsequent meet- burn. Private information from Ings under the gentle ministration of brown ale to which Lestle London indicates that instead of Brown is partial above all other a new team with new ideas and liquors, and which ho
always a new policy, the Colony is to get drinks if he can get it.
Francu. On May 10 next year back the Old Gang steeped in Dehydrated, the life of Leslie when everything broko tuosa, ho the old tradition. And that is Brown began on April 3, 1916 dropped his diahpans for a while when he was burn, son of a Liver and stepped into the punpit. But the last thing we want.
cobbler.
"Life. 31
continued
ahip round the Cape in 41. He comparatively placid routine of joined the Army Catering Corps becoming an organ-tuner's assist in Faupt. unt and a cook, and took a sharp Leslie Brown believes that his
ר
No-one
BY THE TO-DAY IN EUROPE
WAY
By Beachcomber
By
RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
One of UNO's most serious defects is that the small powers
in Europe are much under- represented. Sweden. Southern
Scandinavia, the home of hora)
I've always taken. a d'oeuvre, great Interest in the decorative alde of cooking-partles, banquets and so on."
In an hour, in Oxford-street: A very angry man was hold-Ireland, Switzerland, Portugal, Leslie Brown's post-war future ing forth about steck production, Spain, Turkey and Italy at pre- was planned and plotted. His He said the figures were a die- sent are all excluded from mem- was first application has been made,
Leslie grace, and that people weren't bership- the first six because care-history of
they were neutral, Italy because Brown, civilian would be incom working hard enough.
The
ploto without some mention of His neighbour turred on him she was one of the Axis powers. It may not yet be practical one strong emotional compulsion. He is still suficiently newly re- and shouted, "And how much politics to urge their admission. leased to have an instinctive desire steel do you produce?" The an Since one blackbal by an of to sling to Army environment, to gry man answered equally loud- the Big Five automatically ex- the friends and atmosphere that ly, "I'm an accountant." There cludes a country it may indeed have surrounded almost all his you are!" cried the other man be a very long time before all
with a triumphant sweep of his these
at
am?" shouted the mugry moT).
ns
powers
are admitted.
adult life.
His last unit was stationed West Wickham, close enough to arm. What do you mean, there Yet surely it is obvious that, if his procent London life to make visits there cheap and practicable. "That's nothing to do with it," UNO ia to function effectively a world organisalon; the He has visited his old outfit But his neighbour had the as- several times. He has, as a semblage with him. They all more countries that participate,
the better. matter of fact, already spent two thought be had won r crushing
Of these seven excluded na- nights in his old room at camp. victory, and they all glowered tions, the one which perhaps has drawn there by an inner force at the man who produced no the strongest case for admission majeure widely shared, perhaps steel. by fellow-demobees.
ho
Public Opinion Hardens
wara deft an Nuscaber 20, 1938, education in the narrow realm Oxford--treet Lesile Brown was "after the efficiency what right have you to talk? Portugal can certairly challenge
on which day Lealle Brown pre-of Army cations will pay slight
senbed himself to, his Majesty aį dividendu in civvy street, but he he cquietown for the first time
was a bit patriotic," be suy brily. "And I could see w
coming."
Leslie Brown saw war, not
hero's war, but war. largely from the confines of tents. Nissen huts, and the back of thresston lorries converted to afferrs' cookhouses where, as one soldier to another, he cooked for saldiers.
to cook again.
remember.
ות
I
strange
He
of All Ounce
and
is Portugal. Two cbjections are Many times in our meetinga
generally urged against the en- try of neutrals into the world Fic was Lealie Brown mentioned, with a- officers and N.C.O... "Topper" to his intimates. There kind of earnest nostalgia, the
I imagine that every time organisation. Faher it is said seas another "Topper Brown in pleasures of old timer in the
that they helped the Axis more One day when he went that man returns to the inn he than they helped the Allies, or his unit and a third man whose Army. takes pleasure in disparagement. through elementary school and the he was back cooking on a troop- actual name was Topper. "Whan to get his food and clothing will be held up to execration it is said that they are govern-
anybody yelled Tomer in the coupons from the local Food as the beastly fellow who pre- It would in any case be as unjust
Army, recalls Lostis Brown, "all Ofles he came a little late for ducas no steer. Every time he dy Fascist or semi-Fascist and as invidious 1 lump to-
three of us would jump
our appoinment, "The
opens his mouth they will any.egimes. On both these scores, In his hour-long interview in of civilian life,"
with comparison
Argentina, gether all the Colony's former
the
Go and produce some steel, in- senior officials in a common cate
called Mr.
Another time, over his brown stead of lounging about here," which has bara admitted. gory as it would be tas single our
It is true to say that no other ale, he
"Looking back, even id: He was groove-imbedded a prospective soldier. individuals
of waited about half-an-hour." over the two years prisoner of He will be pointed out to small neutral rendered such ser- vices to the Aliled cause as did Anking incompetents.
In his last few months Army he says, "and then my name war, I had a good time. I'm really strangera. "See that chap? those neceptet on November 24 of that)
quite heartbroken
doesn't produce to leave."
Portugal. Portugal's attitude Munich year.
life, he has considered this care Mister Brown was called and whose naines have been mentioned
With the impact of Army life steel." Sarcastic women will say was not, of course, dictated by atil indelibly upon him a man of him, "You'd think he'd be
ideological considerationa as expecting to return to Hong
fully and intelligently. With the had an interview with a middle-
Racy of wanderlust. he aged. sort of motherly woman.)
with an ineradicable pust, Leslie ashamed to show his face, after her help to the Allies was not Kong in the mar future are some who will be warmly welcomed.
Agured there were three main telephone calls for on the Brown. has not yet got a job. He what he admits. The Govern- But that is beside the point. It i
courses open: that he could cook possibilities of becoming a ship's has made the first steps, as ment ought to jolly well force influenced by love of the Allies. (1) aboard & abip of the Mer- cook, and saved me it rast n millions are making them, like a him to produce atcel. Where Though her traditional alliance with Grent Kiviain certainly the overall quality of the admistis-
chant Navy, (2) for the Allied
brave toddling baby in week's tramping round town.
would we be if everybody went had a powerful sentimental in- tration which found its functions
Control Commission in Germany. "I made inquiries next about new world.
not my job to prophesy about boasting and shouting.luence on public opinion, like Detem
In summarily suspended in
Dr (3)
town at home,
the Allied Control Commission
Yet if the story of Lesile Brown Steel? Not me. I don't produce every other country's her con- Germany.
I was told there were country. her 1941 that matters, and to say
intend and I can't the vas: the stuff catalogued in He anw war
var in this way on
A fourth project. ho влуя. jobs boing, and was given a list were that the Hong Kong public was
representative and favourite Bri-tands always in his mind,
clusively by self-intercat. The of prospects and salaries and library of "roads back," it would te. Why, where would we have duct was governed almost ex- unable to work up any enthusiasm tish fight fronts-France, Delgium hope that he might emigrate to their address in Norfolk House. go under, I suppose, the heading been in the war if everyone had fact that this small country ren-
He hos the triple is putting it mildis. 11, therefore, until Dunkirk, Egypt until Beng New Zealand Australia or South I went down there, had an inter- "lucky of time money and exKone on like that, not produc-dered the Allies great services
view with most helpful people. fra the effect of Colonial Office ap-hazi, and, after the retrospectively Africa, his personal gold star
Derience. The appalling weight award going to New Zealand.
and signed an application for
of immediate financial and family pointments to the new civil gov miniature disaster in the Dodecan
officers' ese, frein behing
behind the wire boun-
With a trade domestic liberty, job as
mess caterer. ernment is virtually, to restore daries of German prison camps, and those two Government start Leslie Brown captured on Cos, worry is on other shoulders—not the status quo aute, and that is ife was relieved of this plight two ing-holen.
bank brought by
and ehin time
cattle on tria. He has domestic elbow- the threat heli out, criticism is years later by the Russian army.
How many are there like that? Yet within three! Rumania, Hungary and Austria: not immediate. likely to be keen. Ohjection arises was flown to freedom by the balance, Leslie's job-hunting is truck through Greece Bulgaria room. 10 several grounds. In the first Americans, and took 12 weeks days of his "demob," as much remembers Germany. He renons- England before bored by his
bern February 1944 when he convalescence in
own company as cook.
alone from his search began.
€ prison place, it is douinful, even if Hong
anything
thecaned He entered
Army 45 Kong had not been swept by the rejoining the Army as a
was free for five He had installed himself in the factory and ravages of war, whether the old private, and was demobilised as Union Jack Club at Waterloo (18. nights, four days. on February 1
He had
द hand-drawn MULD 9d. a night), eaten a few good| regime, based upon privilege, one. That was
this year.
drafted by a meals
a fellow-prinower, an in careers for cadets, and an enor-To-day Leslie Brown is 27, with
apen two movies, mous "Sterling Salary" budget, 28 coming up fast.
The young vagance").
a little window shopping and a gaice of the progressive element hotel before the war has. like a pair of shoes at £2 155.. some
Roveral millions of Britishers. tics had been somewhat modified in ROV
the
and
Soho ("my one extra of the Holland "contact.”
a bicycle stolen from the factory.
6d..
With his cooking knowledge he
could have lung survived. The man who was chef at a Llandudno} little buying a scarf at 16. had constructed two puddings, ong |
room.
LANE NORCUTT
ing any steel ***
The
was due to ggaphical reasons and also to the good luck that The Starm Breaks
she was governed by Salazar, one of the ablest of Europe's "Just because he's too lazy statesmen, and that he was able to produce sted, he thinks he to take a long-sighted view of can give himself airs. I aup his country's True interests. pase he's too grand to touch the
The first great service which stuff.
And for all he cares, we Portugal rendered the Allies might all atarve. He wouldn't lift a finger to get a bit of steel. Was the part sho played in keep- started Not hel Him and his accounting Spain from joining the Axis
ue the powers, This process ancy. That won't get
In 1989, when Salazar conclud- steel. All he cares about 1sed the first iberian Pact with himself. Steel's not good enough Franco. This pact was further for him, I suppoa. He ought reinforced by successivo agree-
You can't hong to cure your to be in prison, that's what,
The object of all these agree-
its insistence, it is true, but only backed a wealth of experience into ties between 6s, 6d. And 12s. 6d., of finctu grated biscuits, jam, milk self of that wanderlust without a Sixty with the cat, That'd teachments in 1942 and 1943. because of the impact of Euro e interval. He has travelled. and two shirts at 14 and 18s.) powder, raisins, prunes; the other copy of our Victory Atlan, the him to sneer at steel, the dirtyments was to preserve the neu-
pean War problems on local con- ditions. It was ready to call for the new dispensation when im perial necessities were less clamor This being so it is deplor
the
aug.
lied; d.), has been to a dance at the of made new
ew friends, has had his PoW. Chub. Cadogan-square, had first airplane ride. has kissed a phoned his cirl friend
once, when Ox- French girl, has ridders 95 miles he found himself walking up
stolen bicycle through
靄
able, folly, to throw away laboration hike.
for
3
ATHLM
checne
This is becauso
ו לי
Eagle Stunned by......
Falling Cheese
and potato: would-be emigrant's friend, In-Fascist. Our boys didn't go out trailty of the Iberian Peninsula.
deed, it is ridiculous to try.
international to fight so that swine like him Franco was as anxious to keep culinary experts and barmen have could sit back and refuse to pro- his country out of the war as cunningly compiled the work on duce steel. Concentration camp, was Salazar, but the Spanish that's where he ought to be dictator was far more subject to and
entirely new principle
to Parliament German and a deputation Let us suppose that you have a
Italian pressure craving
leave to
this island about him.”
than was the dictator of Per- fortress and go to say. Yozgad, in
tugl Tharo were several Turkey, or the Bissagos Isles, off
times when it seemed as if North Africa, either for ever or
Spain would be partly forced for a holiday from austerity.
and partly tempted into the Well, we know that you can't do
"The genuine music-lover," war on the site of the Axis. that, so we have omlited these places entirely from the map. writes a critle, "will not, be dis- Invariably, Salazar used his in- In their slead you will find a tracted by the appearance of fluence to keep Spain neutral.
He not only told Franco but dainty foreign recine, which will the player or singer," If she is give you the lilusion of forbidden wearing diving-boots, an old also told the Germans that, if travel, thereby relieving you tom dressing-gown, and busby, he Spain becante belligerent on norarily of that boxed-in fool-
will just close his eyes, and con- the Axis sile, Portugal would ink and that gawing dread of centrate on the music.
enough, he estimated for a 17-day journey
On the fifth day out in Ger- Hitler's Germany, has seen flying ford-street. He dronped in at the many he was recaptured.
"I'd like to go back to Ger- Resettlement Advice office opposite
many," he says. "It's a well-paid fish, and slept in a hammock, and
D. H. Evans, quite along in
afler All his life, in and out of the job with allowances, and has wandered Eurave in a mad fortnight's post- Army, Leslie Brown as "Brown" hard work I could enjoy my leave his much more I want to go to Sean He was called “Brosen" in None of which could, or did, hotel, and "Brown" by most of his-dinavia and Switzerland, especially happen in Llandudno.
He has
moreover spent-as of thousands of his hundreds
have spent Sellow-countrymen between a quarter and a thi
third of is lived life Army.
the Loglie Brown, ex- To-day
a Lob. soldier, is looking for
Leslie Brown like all young mon returning from the
has
Britain's "Milk Bars" New Style
By
magnificent, opportunity fresh start presented by the mis
Everybody of war. fortunes knows that it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good, but ap parently there is no correspond ing piece of proverbial wisdom to apprise the Colonial Office pundits which way the wind is
Army blowing. In the last few months,
Job-hunting advantagea. He public opinion has not been vigor has some time, some money. In ous in expression because it has Leslie's case the time amounts to simply been taking it for granted four months, based on the rogu- Lation 56 days plus service over- that substantial changes in the
The "milk bars" that have el in their job and in people. money consists of
74 £147 28. structure of Hong Kong's adminis bank balance of
prung up all over Britain since They appeared to feel the coal- payments made the war ended are becoming in-lenge of this tremendous trative machinery were in blue-adorned
popular now. The settlement problem, They take u print. This implied the elimina- when he ceased to be P-.-W.
*creasingly from mavings. In tion of dead wood, and the ap- and to inayadi. chromium plate and gay paint pride in being able to answer or
work of the Ministry of Labour'a in
Ming
the answer to any pointment of new officials to cer day) and ration money (8s. 5d. a
of Resettlement Advice question however tricky. You are is responsible for this told that your vroblem can be tain key posts entrusted with a day), and there is something like ones
and such a In such ss gratuity and description. Alternatively they are dealt with £80. to compe well-defined task. Information post-war credit on that day in known as "ice-cream parlours." Ministry, in Hoom X. by de therefore, which indicates that
June when all War
from
J.. C. Griffith-jonos
-
English peace-time food.
Read what
Mrs
Bootle, of Bag-
wash. Sussex, writer:
Wonders Of The
..
automatically be forced to ful- fill her full treaty obligations to Great Britala ard enter the war on the side of the Western Allies. There is no doubt that this influence, exerted patiently many and continuously over. years, exercised à decisive effect In keeping Spaly out of the Britain is receiving' a" number of in- WELL, quirk from abroad for her quarta That the Allies knew where and has even promised to take crystal osellistor clock, which is accurate Salazar stood in this matter is me to the picture next Satur- to whats on the weandch part of a
in
"Last work
my husband wanted to leave me to become a Free Indian, but when he looked Your Atlas he couldn't find anywhere to go-only a recipe for Baluchistan Curry. So we had that instead, and now he is quite resigned to his fate again
day"
Quartz Crystal
second per day. The clock is the result shown by the little-known fact The Rev. Timothy Losh, M.A. of wartizan menced work. In constion that, on the night the Allies..
with aircraft equipment) carried out by
Office re- The other reason for thila ironie and an appointment is made for wrly might never have tasted radio laboratory, uarta chaitala were November, 1942, the British Britain's Post es engineers. In their landed in North Africa, in these expectations are to be disponsibility for Leslie Brown ends. note is that Service people tend you with Mr. Y by telephone.all
the to be seentical of what Govern Leslie Brown remembers
There 13 a humorous
Baghdad Sparkling Bhang embold in the tipment that made appointed, represents for the Co-
can do for this The wife of a soldier in
possible the Arst 1000-bomber Tald on Ambassador in Juston was in- brewed from fermented prunts Cologne, and altogether 30,000 crystal structed to inform Salazar and lony severe let-down. It por doy War Office responsibility ment Departments
Burma arrived at one office in
and fle gases. If I hadn't opened of this type wandaced by the lost to ask him to use his Influence tends an attempt to run the same began. He remembers the strange them.
your Atlas at random on a ralle De engineers in four years,
to deter France from interven- old show in the same old way; in night in 133 when, habituated to
There are now scores of these November clutching a child in sleeping between sheets in his own
way bookstall while trying to The principle is that quartz crystal lation. And all who fought in offers which specialise in advien cach hand. "Please tell me where Llandudno,
escape from East Putney. It is air alload and the slicnerkleed into other words, to slip back quietly:
can get some fireworks for the
African campaign comfortable room at into the old groove. Yet surethin wookly
cortainly the end that cheers and vibration when consected appropriately the North question batreri
to valve simplifier. The resaltant can judge. how disastrous, and suddenly is a hard problems--no
consoles!"
and this Write to us for an illegal fracture the us to come possibly fatal, Spanish inter- now that it is upon an entirely new iron barrackroom bed with 29 Wales has 30. Where the salah officer did not answer that this ions in the bed-llishment of a special milk bar was hardly a resettlement problem
but
• precise clock, for an interval of tins vontion might have been at that friend whom ha booklet and risk petty reprisals. enoring companions approach that much of the har-1.room He remembers the tin komt has not been feasible-la amallor telephoned attock of fire-t To-day's Cooling Hint for Pro- be measured by mounting the nam- particular moment;
ber of erratal vibestións which oetur. and towns-there is a special departe works and the children at their tecting Yourself Against Govern mony of government and of so- for his kelt, the "terrible boots and ciety at large in the coming years) qwful_haircut," the 145. a sonok with an advice officer in charge, mobond soldier whore wife Bleked ment Inspectors of All Sorts: will depend.
it should have been obvious by found himself packet £4 10s hoon how to deal with Civvie Street cds" she asked. The advice
now.
mant
know had amall the Inbour Exchange quibs Then there was the de
2.700
WAKE.
Take the pointed end of lightly boiled carrot, garnish with glue, and stick it in the
kitchen keyhola.
"Somewhere I'll Find You'
Tererait was a tre-fold Improvement
the Observatory,
Three
msost
of these, the world's wonderful clocks, are now on low in the Imperial Belenne Museum in London the most recent addition to the t of Britain's museums, to re-open aine the war.
The other outstanding ser-` Britain's Royal Observatory had three vice which Portugal rendered pas. He remembers being "oh Hare your questions about release. a letter in an official buff envelope
art clocks installed in February the Allies was in allowing them around by everybody?; the phrase:
be accuracy of time sirgel trans- to occupy the Azores and to use employment, posettlement, the "You're in Army
mantelpiece into the fire
mission of utmost importance in war. training, instatement,
These quarts clocks will also be of them as a. Naval air base. This prob- Leto Brown's post-war
valow in the study of the warth's rotation not only eased the British- ler differs from vast numbers of penelons, housing and what not The husband had not seen it, did
and dftown more are belog installed American task in the Battle of RUSSIA REFUSES
arrived, looking worried, at the others in two happy respects can be answered fust as quickly not know where it was from. He
the Atlantic, but enabled thou- Firelly. he has
fow family or and thoroughly.
advice office. The officer discover In the month when these offices that it was a reply from the domestic worrice. Washington, Mar. 31,
sands of American aimraft to Leslie..
cross the Atlantic by the shor moreover, has a trade, opened in Wales, they attracted Board of Trade following an ap
test and most convenient route Russia he refused to discus
In plication made by the man for "customera." tios with Eastern He has a pro-war profession and only economie.
business. It
Some risk of German reprisals European countries as part of a background in civvy street. He February the total of advise licence to start a
was inherent in this docialon negotiations for a $1,000,000,000 has something to sell, and a highly seekers had jumped up to more asked him to call for an interview
More ment
and
Another man had everythin
and, if service to the Allied loan from the United States, in-marketable something at that, than 10,000.
At Arst aight this film looks as women ware being demobbed of fixed no to restart his old business A the formed officials gaid yesterday.
ge of 16, Lesile Brown
course but the increase was also of window-cleaning excout though it la going to be, another respondent, but she makes a fairly war effort is to continue to be countrloslavia and. Hun later
· Rumania, Cookery. He omereed six mortis due to
When he
better known as
he challenged
the advice contre which the reporters spend most of Gable and Robert Stirling as the for membership In UNO je to Bulgaria, garyarao among subjects of disap, 20% years old, he was chot, all practical advice was avall. There was, collnasible ladder Ir their time, wisserdeking at the Davis brothers both give good be judged, this nervice certainly
kable. AN
town, a second-hani ote, and. the expense of the editor, rather than performance, Robert Stirling in ranks high among those yen- cussion laid down by the United an
an hotel in Londudno,
I have visited several of the advice officer tractor w Turzer appears and the ache Tale dim Is often funny, some whether Fortugal's regime is too
it
reporting. However, when Lans one of the newer male stars of dered by neutral courtries. Leslie Brown, war did not
Hollywood, a pleasant young man. for deliberations on the
As to the other criterion States
cooking. As advice contros. The first thing mean the end
“While · stilt, In' tho! joan request
Eimen exciting, and on the whole Informer persons said that gire cooked for an Ackick that impressed me was the keen can write to the Resettlemen move to Hanoi and Batean, the Government officials were ro- battery that moved to France on type of man the Ministry had Advice Office in your home to tempб: speeds up, down f
Ce playing at the King
member of UNO this calls for sackimikod ng "oondifons to see if it Salember 8, 1909, le cooked the chosen and trained advice to mako oroliminary inquiries na Turner la not-perhaps, good entert omens Now thow Fascist to make her a worthy
dispassionate appraigal might be posible to set Rusar battery's last meal before leaving oficer. They gavemo, the In- Ask your CKO, how to do this is quite the right person
England-its-
first on recoking pression they were really interest you have a Civic Strook problem, Paula Lane, a woman | kalkwayslikmociated Press
Russian economic relations with went to the Liverpool School of the fact that the offlcon had rollangthle. Iadder. "In Ironic mood of those newspaper" stories, in convincing Job of the part. Clark one criterios by 'vhich fitness
acoma