THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1951.

Happy Landings Ahead SINKING OF SCHARNHORST

on

BRAATHENS

REMOVES

ין יז

MENACE

CHAPTER 14 OF "CLOSING THE RING," THE FIFTH BOOK OF SECOND WORLD WAR MEMOIRS

By Winston Churchill

O avoid new charges

of breach of faith

our efforts to help them proved vain, 1 insert- ed

Holiday Koute from the Soviet, is

HONCKONC

OSLO via AMSTERDAM

BOOKINOM ACCEPTED FOR ALL EUROPE

Braathens S.A.F.E. Airtransport A/S DEPARTURE HONGKONG EVERY FRIDAY

EVENT SECOND FLIGHT IN CONJUNCTION WITH CPA, Book Posanges & Freight Through Your Travel Agent or

Agents:

WALLEM & COMPANY LIMITED

Hongkong & Shanghai Bank Building

Tel: 38041-5

birr

BEER

is now available

in Hong Kong. It is a fine Light Export Bcer a product of the

Union Brewery, Dortmund

the largest brewing

establishment in Germany.

UNION BRAN

RTMUNDER

Sole Importers: L. RONDON & CO. (H.K.) LTD.

French Bank Building.

THE ORIENTS OWN

Tel: 36031

CAT

B safeguarding para- graph: "However, I must put it on record that this is no contract or bargain, but rather a declaration of our solemn and earnest re solve."

1 then proceeded with our Est of grievances about the treat- ment of our wen In North Russia.

If we are to resume the convoy. we shall have to relaforce our establishments in North Russia. been reduced in which have numbers since Jast March. The present numbers of naval personnel are below what is necessary, even for our presen requirements,

I

Arctic convoys to Russia had been suspend- ed in April 1943, until the autumn dark- ness should give better protection. On demand October 1, in reply to a from Molotov for a resumption of the sail- ings, Mr Churchill informed Stalin that we planned to send convoys in Novem- ber, December, January and February.

not been granted. Please re- member that we may have. heavy casualties.

must also ask your help in re- medying the conditions under which our Service personnel and sesmen at present find themselves

in North Ruasin. men are. of course,

engaged in opera'tons against the enemy in our joint interest, and chiefly to bring Allied sup. They plies to your country.

are, I am sure you will admit, in a wholly different position from ordinary Individuals proceeding to Russian terrilogy.

Yet they are subjected by your

authorities to the restrictions, which seem to me Inappropriate for men sent by an ally to carry out operations of the greatest interest to the Soviet Union:

These owing to men having to be sent home with- out relief. Your civil authori- ties have refused us all visas for men to go to North Russia. even to relieve those who are seriously overdue for relief. M. Molotov has pressed His Majesty's Government to agree that

of British the number Service personnel in North Russia should not exceed that of the Soviet Service personnel and trade delegation in this country. We have been unable to accept this proposal, since their work is quite dissimilar and the number of men needed for war operations carmot be

in such an determined practical way. Secondly, as we have already in- formed the Soviet Government, we must ask to be the judges of the personnel required to carry out operations for which we are responsible..

Visas for

Britons

T

MUST

you to

un-

ask

therefore agree to the immediate grant of Visas for the additional personne

and for your now required, assurance that you will not in future withhold visas

when we and it necessary to ask for them In connection with the assistance that we are giving yunu in North Ruaslo. emphasise that of about 170 naval personnel at present in the North over 150 should have

relieved some been

months Soviet ago, but

visas have The state of been withheld. health of these men, who are unaccustomed to the climatie and other conditions, makes it very necessary to relieve them without further delay.

We should also wish to send the snall medical unit for Archangel to which your authorities agreed, but for

which the necessary visas have

CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT

CIVIL AIR TRANSPORT

in conjunction with their agent

TA HING CO., (HK) LTD.

announce

the opening of passenger and freight

Booking Office

ON

1957

25 October,

AT

ST. GEORGE'S BUILDING

ICE HOUSE STREET

TELEPHONES: 31288 & 31289

required for the shipment of all stores and mail.

(e)

Private service mat is subjected to censorship. Although for an operational force of this kind censorship should, in our view, be left In the

British hands of Service authorities.

lions makes

The imposition of these restric

An impression upon officers and men alike which is bad for Anglo-Soviet relations, and would be deeply injurious if Parliament got to hear of it...No such restric- tions are placed upon Soviet personnel here....

M. Stalin, that find it possible to

I trust Indeed, following

you will have these difficulties smoothed out in a friendly spirit, so that we may each help each other, and the common cause, to the utmost of cur strength.

(0) No one may land from

one of H. M. ships or frem

British merchant

ship

except by s Soviet boat in

the presence of a Soviet official and after examina.

of documents on each

tlon

occasion.

Reply from Stalin

question Supplies from the British Government to he USSR., armaments and other military goods, cannot be con- sidered otherwise than as an obligation, which, by special

between agreement

out countries, the British Govern- ment undertook in respect of the USSR., which bears on Its shoulders, already for the

third year, the enormous

burden of struggle with the common enemy of the AlliesTM Hitlerite Germany....

By the way, for some reason or other there was a very con- siderable decrease in the delivery of military goods sent by the Northern route this year in comparison with those received last year; and this makes it impossible to fulal the established [Soviet] plan of military

the supplies [to armies) and is in contradiction Anglo- to the corresponding Soviet protocol for military supplies.

Therefore, at the present time, when the forces of the Soviet Union

are strained to the utmost to secure the needs of the front in the interests of saccess of the struggle against the main forces of our com- mon enemy, it would be inadmissible to have the sup- plice of the Soviet armies de- pend on the arbitrary judgment of the British side. It is in- possible to consider this poring

FINLANDS

Baltic Sea

Prograd

OPERATIONS IN. RUŠŠIA

July-Dec-1949

Frant July 2, 1993 Front Det. 1943

·German attacks

Russian sitacks

Rattan purbat

international frontiers"

LATVIA

Velike Luiz

Viszma

1 Smolensa

Ntog.lv

Bryansh

POLAND

(1939)

*plinsa

Jitomir

ROUMANIA

300 WHILE

Krivo. Ro

•Moscow

stonezh

„Kursa

Bagorea

(Dnepropetrovsk

Toganrog Reston I

CRIMEA

Sroastoper

Sea of

AZ04

BLACK SEA

in view that such formalities him to settle the matter on the and restrictions are unayold- spot, and that therefore I did not able in zones near and at the wish to receive the message. I front, if one does not forget then handed back to the the war altuation which exists Ambassador an envelope. in the U.S.S.R. I may add that this applies equally to the British and other foreigners as well as to Soviet eltizens...

Great place

of the question to be other than refusal of the British Government to fulfi the in world

a

obligations it undertook,

and

as a kind of threat addressed

to the U.S.S.R....

I

THESE were modest requests I do not see the necessity for him earnestly about the great doorway about his coming to

We

considering the efforts were now to make. No answer was received for nearly a fort- night.

ter,

13 Oct. 43.

(b) No ope from a British

warship is allowed to proceed Premler Stalin to Prime Minis alongside u British merchant- man wi hout the Soviet authorities being informed beforehand. This appiles to the British admira' in charge.

(c)

I received your message of Oct, 1 inten- informing me of the ever

Bilish officers and men are required to ob ain special passes before they con go from ship to shore or be- tween

tion to send four convoys 40 the Soviet Union by the Northern route in November, December. January, and February. How ечет,

this communication loses its value by your statement that this intention to send Northern shore

Convoys to the U.S.S.R. is neither an obliga- tion nor an agreement, but only a statement, which, as it may be understood, is one the British aide can at any moment (d) No stores, luggage, or mail renounce regardless of any in-

for

force this operationa!

fluence it may have on the may be landed except in the Soviet armies at the front. presence of a Sovlet official, I must say that I cannot agree and numerous formalities are

with

such a posing of the

two British station. These passes are otten much delayed. with consequent dislocation of the work in hand.

HE'LL

Gousev opened the envelope to see what was inside It, and, re- cognising the message, sald he had been instructed to deliver it to me. I then eaid, "I am not prepared to receive it," and got up to indicate in a friendly manner that

our conversation was at an end. I moved to the ASKED the Soviet Ambassador door and opened it,

We had a to come to see me. I spoke to

little talk in the

increasing the number

we had to work with luncheon in the near future and of desire

with discussing British Service men in

with Mrs Churchill the Russia and to be friends with north of the US.S.R., since the her, how we saw that she should some questions connected with great majority of British have a great place in the world her Russian fund, which I told Service mea who are already after the war, that we ahould him had now reached £4m. I there are not adequately welcome this, and that we would did not give M. Gousey a chance employed. and for many do our best also to make good of recurring to the question of the months have been doomed to relations between her and the "convoys or of trying to hand me idleness, as has already been United States. I further said back the envelope, and bowed pointed out several times by how much I was looking forward him cut. the Soviet side....

to a meeting with Marshal Stalin The War Cabinet endorsed my to receive Stalin's It was certainly an

There are also regrettable facts if it could be arranged, and how refusal

important this meeting of the telegram, of the Inadmissible behaviour heads of the British, American, unusual diplomatic incident, and. of individual British Service and Soviet Governments was to as I learnt later, it impressed the men who attempted, in several the future of the world.

cases

fact,

Soviet Government In to recruit, by bribery,

Molotov referred certain Soviet citizens for in-

to it several I then turned to Stalin's times in conversation. purposes. Such telegram about the convoys. I offensive to Soviet sald very briefly that I did not Molotov calls citizens, naturally gave rise to think this message would help the incidenta which led

telligence

instances,

to un situation, that it had caused me on Eden desirable complications.

a good deal of pain, that I feared Concerning

your mention or any reply which I could send formalities and certain restrie- would only make things worse, tions existing in Northern that the Foreign Secretary was ports, it is necessary to have in Morcow and I had left it to his Government greatly valued

BE BE COLONIAL SECRETARY

IF THE CONSERVATIVES GET

By David

Temple Roberts

London, Oct. 19. a great local figure in his own of Bed- LAN Lennox-Boyd, at homeland countryside

he is a man who the age of 47, can be fordshire;

takes Infinite pains to please confidently picked as his friends, Secretary of State for the He won his present seat in Colonies if a Conservative Parliament in 1981-unexpected.. Government is returned to ly because he fought as a Con- servative for a traditionally power.

Liberal seat. Since then his His career reads like the popularity and his election progress of a gilded youth majorities have grown because to the courts of fame. At he is always at the service of his electors. His eft. Fin. the age of 26, not long out figure is as noted hurrying from of Christchurch College, village to village in his corner of Oxford, he entered Parlia. rural England as it is as "tallest ment, and at the age of 28 M.P." at Westminster.

he was issuing discreet de-

nials to a report that he was the Private Secretary to an ex-Prime Minister Baldwin.

Alan Lennox-Boyd is the kind Mr of man about whom many stories are told. On the one hand he and his wife live in a

At 34 years, a job was found fine Belgravia town, house, and for him as. Parliamentary ar Secretary to the Ministry

are famous for their resplendent parties. At one of these, guests, of at a bell found 300 walking Labour, und the same year he sticks for tired dancere to lean married the second daughter of on. For their host has the the Earl of Iveagh, Lady, most remarkable collection of Patricia Guiness. The war walking sticks in London

Empire-minded

came, and found him a job in including jewelled possessions cheap for Use housewife with the Ministry of Food, then a from India, and ivory-curved out the middle man. rpell in the Navy-in the little work of Tibet.

chips of the English Channel- after which, back to Whitehall ;

Alan, Lennox-Boyd has had a

IN

Feeling was then running high, in 1938. For this Indiscretion he was almost forced to realgn, and, perhaps this accounts for why the two brilliant young ment of the Conservative Party In the 1980's-R.A. Butler and Lennox-Boyd have had such unequal fortunes. The Arst is an acknowledged leader and probably 'the future Chancellor: the latter will now have his chance of the Colonial Office. His politiépi views have been tempered with the years,

He has been talking, arguing and hoping for a chance to 06- sist the development of, the British Empire into a practical, going concern, ever since he left Oxford University-where he was President of the famous Union debating society. As a member of the Empire Industries Association, he has been active in the 'cause of

Empire,

But it

is only since the bour Government has been in

Oct. 18 Mr Eden telegraphed that Molotov had called on

him at the Embassy and said that

10

the eenvoys, and had sadly missed them, Molotov promised speak to Stalin about it all and arrange a meeting. The im- portant discussion took place on The 21st. Meanwhile, in order to strengthen Eden's hands, and at his suggestion, I suspended the sailing of the British destroyers, which was the first move in the resumption of the convoys, Foreign

Minister.

dr

Secretary to Prime

23 Oct. 143. I saw Stalin and Molotov last evening, His Majesty's Am- bassador was with me, and the conversation, which roumed over a large variety of topics, lasted 24 hours. Stalin said that his difference : with was not about the difficulties of the operation, but

as to

to do ither we were bound You had implied that we called

alled any one of these convoys it would be as a gift. Stalin' did not feel this true description of the was a the position. On his understanding on to of it we were under an seck to deliver them goods. When he had

sent his reply to you, however, you had been very much offended and would not accept his reply.

replied that we had never sug- gested that to send these con- voys was an act of favour, or charity. You had at all times been determined to make every effort to deliver these goods to our Ally, but for the tensons had explained you could not pledge yourself to a series of

operations which you might not be able to carry out. Stalin himself surely must have ennfidence in the good faith of ́his ́Ally, and therefore it was not mirprising that you should have been hurt by the message. The 'Marshal said that this had not been Intended...

power that Alan' Lennox Boyd has seen the prospect before him of foking over the ~ grost office of Colonial Secretary that Joseph Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, themselves once Bil- ed. So he has been travelling widely-through Africa and the Far from such dilettante career not wi houl troubles. He West Indies from which he was as Parliamentary Secretary in pleasures, Alan Lennox-Boyd is has always had strong convice recalled to fight the General the Ministry of Alrematt Prosthe most practical or enter tions, and cometimes suffered for Election of 1980, ***

them, and

for his youthful a Conservative Colonial Convoys are ductions, (under Bir Stafford prising mon found out exuberance. He was a declared Secretary, Lennox-Boya la com- resumed Cripps).

befogedfordshire -market- admirer of General Franco, (at mitted to the practical-to gardening constituents were sell could and occasion to praise then the wordly arent of political

Tell a time before. Wision, Churchil economte development, rather was arranged that the ing the carrots to the London's

convoys should be resumed. Covent Garden at 21:11 ton. Franco's handling offer advancement Wel has had The first started in November, But the future Colonial In the and the housewife had and an advocate of prewar e leading part drafting the Col and a second followed Ha Secretary is far from being the to pay at a price of £18 a ton tish friendali with Mussolini servalive policy relative to the December. Between them they dull dog with good fortune, in for the camole when they reach. to avold war

Colonial Empire-and his tenu money and connections, that eat the shops. So the wealthy... Not long after becoming

career and those Jobs M. P. for Bild-Bedfordshire ad Junior Minister as told his con would Modicate. Alan Lennoxs up his own greeng odor a shop wiltuents he thought Me Cham- Empire: Toonainis Conference were succesfully brought su. Boyd was a scholar and prize in London and woich au pricus berisiks should NOT guaranies early in 1888 promised by the man at Christchurch; bela profitable to the Zurune and the frontiers of, Capulonovakia. Conservative Party,

this

the war he

of office hould be given comprised 72 ships. All arrived Impressive end-off within safely, and at the nine sime.res

tum convoya of imply Phi

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