Queen Scots
THE DING OF DONG
TERRIBLY SORRY.. HIS EXCELLENCY IS GRAVELY SIRIWELL,
AND CANNOT BE DIFTURBED --
THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1951.
DIPLOMATIC INCIDENT
Larry
CL THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN
Adler
AMBASSADORS ARE HERE, AND DEMAND AN INSTANT REPLY,
TO THEIR NOTE -...
writes
of Tokyo-
PAR AVION
HIGHLAND QUEEN
SCOTCH WHISKY
BANER SETH SCOTLAND
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HIGHLAND QUEEN
SCOTCH WHISKY
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DODWELL & CO. LTD
MACDONALD & MUIR LTD. DISTILLERS,
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PRODUCE OF SPAIN
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'UTILITY' DEBUTANTES
Less glamour, less expense, but the etiquette of the
Court is just the same
Burt
musi
debutantes
the ap
MONTH
there ago should have appeared social ble consists of
505. and a in the
newspapers parce at Court
ball the debutantes those dignified advertise- takes to ments from
Lord given in aid of Queen Charlotte's
the
BRITTEN MAKES IT SEVEN...
B
ILLY BUDD, Benjamin Britten's seventh opera in its has had ten years, curtain-rise al Covent Garden. The first performance was conducted by Britten himself. who, in slacks and windbreaker jacket. spent
Chamberlain announcing Hospital the dates when the newest During the war. when there debutantes can gather in were no presentations, the ball round-eyed excitement to was the only subsulute-though be presented at Court, officially it didn't count.
The King's planned con-
The unan who organised valescence cruise in the
the bali for years was tall. the spring may mean no pre- aristociatie toking Lady sentation courts next year. Hanund-Gineme
Does it mat.
ter?
To the anxious mothers who are telephoning the Lord Chamber- lain's office find out if there are any instruc- tions from the
10
Palace it appears t.o matter great deal.
22
nt
MADURO
SHIPPED SOLELY BY
HUNT, ROOPE & CO FROM JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA
Sole Agents
DODWELL & CO., LTD.
Queen's Building
NOW OPEN
Before the war costing Was
like something £500,000 a year to bring out the debutantes. Father was lucky
1
to get away with bill of any-
thing under
Tel. 20636.
CANTONESE
RESTAURANT
AT
Victor's
(Next to Shell House)
Cantonese Food served from
4 P.M.-Midnight
Small Parties a Speciality
Experienced Cantonese Cooks
Reasonable Prices
Ground Floor Restaurant European Meals as Usual.
ย
This watch isn't only
WATERproof-
V
for the Oyster case
❤
wasn't designed primar-
lly for swimmers, but to
keep out dust and damp and perspiration, too. And it all adds up to perfect protection to a perfect watch - the famous Rolex Oyster.
The world-famous
ROLEX
OYSTER
£1,000 for
season.
She has just re- tired from the task,
month of
MAN OF CONFLICT
Benjamin Britten
London Express Service
by CHARLES REID
at Sadler's Wells (where Pea i created the name part) cannot have been more than £750,
But Grimes brought fame, and fame is a better investment than rubies.
AT
THE MIRACLE
TOU
may
think the
Yo United Nations is
operating in Paris, but I've got newa for you. You'll find a very powerful branch at the American General Hospital in Tokyo.
Playing there was an ex- perience I'll never forgel.
I was the guest of the British Commonwealth Division. When
I was ushered into the first Red ward by Miss Drew, & Cross worker, 1 said hello to the men and asked them what they wanted to hear. They looked blankly at me.
Tonce Britien and Pears were in universal demand as recitalists. Often they would give four recitals in one week. Every four cecitals meant another hundred gulneas n Britten's pocket. (Since then his fees have Colombia.” risen.)
To get about the country more
handily he bought 1920 Rolls Royce for £700 later replacing
it by a 1935 model. There! were United States and
mornings and THE ANTI-WAR COMPOSER TAKES continential trips.
vent A NELSON WARSHIP—AND THROWS lowed by four other stage
afternoons in
Garden crush
room
Peter Grimes was fol-
"Mr Adler," said Miss Drew, "these men don't understand English. They're mostly from
for
"Oh," I replied, (1 am noted Dispensing my repartee.) with announcements, 1 played Besame Mucho," "La Paloma," "La Cumparsita," which suited tay audience frie.
"Que quieres ustedes ahora, amigos?" I inquired. works: The Rupe of -1Jna rumba." replied
accent was compre- a new setting of The that my Beggar's Opere and The hensible.
In five Flushed with linguistic suc- played the "Peanut years his operas had 600 Cess,
0110
and CONVENTION OVERBOARD-FOR HIS Lucretia, Albert Herring, auditor, courteously pretending but throughout her coaching 16 NEW OPERA-WITH-PROFIT BID Little Sweep.
other places
1
time she Was the at so prin- sergeant - major of cipal singers to the sour Democracy, in the spring of 1930, performances in nine languages Vendor." Next ward.
words by Randall Swingler. in 15, countries. debutantes. With a tinkle of rehearsal pianos. which, after declaring that the
10
our
microphone in front of her
It cannot be said that he "big bosses" were plotting she would command and chide
and his librettists (E. M. doom, called upon the people to
rise against war Forster, the novelist, and Eric Crozier) have gone out of their way to make things easy for the box office.
the while-gowned debutantes.
"Last year." said Hamond- Lady
Graeme
Rise as a single being On one resolve arrayed- Life shall be for the people That's for the people made. 1A the Advance Democracy is now out There are no women
that Therefore there are no of print. But the mood
The staple dictated it has its importaner in love duels, hitherto
the Britten record. diet of operagoers.
"I really told them off. I said cast. they were the worst lot 1 tud ever mei.
been his companion and
On the crest of that mood he Put your heads up The sixteen principals, like the
enture chorus, are men and boys and the tenor Peter Pears, who and your sterns in.
aboard the 74-gun serving the You'll enter
of has Indomitable,
warship a room like a lot of Nelson's day. Budd is a hand musical partner ever since, sailed camels? } told
virtuous foretopman who, for America in the early summer
Britten 1990.
talked of got lover by all but the ship's sinister of That
American subject were master at arms, is betrayed into becoming an
for an offence against the Mutiny and staying in the USA. Art and, after court martial,
the
The Hon. Jennifer Lowther Most popular debutants 1951
them.
Thee,
Before a girl can be presented
They the best of the lot."""
At last the miracle had hap- Here was English opera ---or, at any rate, serious opera- pened.
which was pleasing to the home market and it for export.
of
•
66ELJ, fellows, what would
like
to heary" I asked.
you
"Mr Adler," said Miss Drew, "these men are French,"
patients," said Miss
"Alors, mes amis," I said, dis- Meanwhile Britten's social life
missing the temptation to dis The was beginning to glitter.
cuss the plume of my tante, man who in 1939 contributed "qu'estce
voudriez Vous que anti-war music (including a maintenant? Le jazz hot, ou, io a peut-etre, une chose classique?" satirical Dance of Death)
"La Vie en Rose," replied one Festival of Music for the People
patient. I played that, also at the old Queen's Hall stood
"Feuilles Mortes," "Pigalle," eleven years later as godparent and "Aupres de ma Blonde." with Queen Mary and Princess Next ward. Elizabeth at the christening
"These the Esrl and Countess of Hare- Drew, with something like an air of triumph. "are Greek and wood's baby
Turkish "
"I said, which began "Yassou." At frst his Suffolk retreat was a converted stump of windmill and ended my Greek- know less Turkish--and went even at Snape. Now he has a solid, into "Misirlou" and some Greek bourgeois-looking house facing folk songs I learned in Athens the sea at Aldeburgh, In the this past summer. I just made music room are enviable paint-up Turkish music as I went
Next ward. ings: A Blake, a Cotman, a along.
Con- Bonington, a Turner, a stable. "But," he explains, "it's Britain exercised a queer pull Peter who's the experi on over exiles of every stripe. By paintings. He can tell you much March, 1942, after much
more about them than I." posing and joint concert giving, he and Pears were back in Lon-
Britten was anxious help the common cause, if don
could, through music.
ยก Lady Hamond-Graeme is hanged from the yard-arm. Such good.
Crozier have taken from Herman NO KHAKI
Melville.
the debuis the theme which Forster and she must have a sponsor who a position to judge
"She's very has already been to Court. The Male of testay. sponsor herself must apply for
much nicer than the girl of the She is so much the ging's invitation
prewar years,
There were
With
mannered
impover.shed better many gentlewomen seeking an easy come frightful creatures before made addition to their income, the war."
* racket soon flourished.
The
Lord Chamberlain was angry.
is just as well for their It was decreed that any woman found to have been paid to sponsors that the modern debu- present
girt would be refused tante is well behaved. For the
bolds the
sponsors re-- permission to present again. Court But, of course, there are ways sponsible for any of the errors and means of getting over that of their charges. obstacle.
20
There was a girl who dress. It skin-light
was
an all- the con-
that The possibility male cast might scare
Covent Garden occurred to ventionally minded away from Britten while the Budd score was still on the stocks.
H
E reckoned without sickness however.
home
Wartime
com-
10 be
HIT TUNES? NO
•
OTING a number of Negroes, I sighed with relief and launched into "St. Louis Blues," ordinarily a solid winner, The Negroes stared at me coldly, if not disapprovingly.
of
"You mustn't expect too much reaction to your jazz
2
music," said Miss Drew, a shade gleefully. Ethiopians."
"these
men ате
I clapped a hand to my head and, moaning softly, permitted
beautiful and she was proud of home to work out in his head Ebury House, Victoria, granted to his liking and pitch it disj Miss Drew to lead me away.
it until she arrived in the pages.
£10,000 is supposed to be the Palace. She suddenly realised highest figure a man has paid to see his daughter Court. That was just before the splitting the dress.
last war.
ever at
she
couldn't curtsy
withoul
ARISE!
"I can't help it if some people time. "Billy Budd is an opera are scared," he said to me at the that has to be written. I haven'
But no fighting, no khaki for ALTHOUGH modest enough of felt as keenly about any work And off he since Peter Grimes.
Te him.
He was firm about that. went
idea of his merta. The morning for
two-hour another
after a first performance he has wore trudge across the salt marshes His first appearance before
been known to screw up a news- near his Aldeburgh (Suffolk) C.O. tribunal did not prosper; but
in August, 1942, an appeal board paper containing a crt.bcismo not next the music for the
dozen at
In the last ward of the him unconditional exemption gustedly into a corner.
American General Hospital I from
(a armed service
rare thing) because of the importance On the other hand he has, I actually found some Americans. of his music- think, too much good sense to Accompanied on the guitar by to the nation
credit the extremist clique who Frank Allison, who has been making.
say in all seriousness that he la lent to me by the Canadian Since 1942 Britten has re the most important thing that Signal Corps, I put on an all- Che thought fast, and, with HIS linking of Budd with
TH
of his pacifist has hit music since Mozart. His request show, ranging from are nounced none fascinated eyes of every Glmes is logical. Both days since the In the economy
which I didn't output since 18 has been great; "Roll-Mop," with principles. But nine years bring a watching her, Individuals at loggerheads woman the war
old glamorous other
know, China Nights," which The signifi- difference of emphasis, especially its quality uneven. evening
I haven't learned yet, presentation Courts flung herself low in an Eastern their environment.
obeisance,
cant thing is that Britten has if they are years of success. And
He could not for the life of been at loggerheads himself. His Britten's success has, in its way,
him write a hit like One Fine Now the presentations aré Her mentor was promptly re-phase of conflict came on the eve been unmatched.
Day or Your Tiny Hand Is Son of a Lowestoft dentist who Frozen even if he wanted to-- at
Palace fused permission to appear at of the war, when he was 25.
AT noon.next day, I left for done
afternoon parties. The debutantes are not Court again.
£15,000 and three other which he ostentatiously does not. Kure, Japan. Three days For six years he had been a left presented individually. The
freelance children, Ben decided at 19 (after (He has a rather childlike con- there and then Korea. Every- thriving the high reasonably
Royal tempt for Puccini.)
one delightedly tells how theatres, Gresham's School and composer for films,
cold it will be there, the line speaking occasionally ranking woman who sponsos festivals, Proms, and so on. But College of Music) to earn his
unwittingly divorcee.
"You know," sald one such another there was a persistent malaise. living with his pen. At first he could never present
The prospect of war angered ploded. Peter Grimes cost him genius is, however, undoubted. morale-booster, "I wouldn't be person after that,
him. He felt very much at home a full year's work (the whole of In some ways you have to go surprised if the harmonica froze
1943) and creative
pangs back to Henry Purcell (who died right to your face," with the Bloomsbury Leftists.
unimaginable. The immediate over, 250 years ago) before you Isn't that nice? Oh well, a For mixed voices he wrote a financial return, including royal- come upon his equal or his like musician and his instrument GLENTON fervent choral piece, Advance ties on the first six performances in home-grown music,
are supposed to be inseparable.
the
bave gone.
King
and Queen walk down
to
a specially favoured
опе.
A girl can-und many do to day go to her presentation in a utility dress,
"A girl and her mother just buy the new hat, gloves, and
the summer dress they would normally get." I was told by Mrs Horace Farquharson, professional adviser on the intricacies of "coming out."
"Less fuss is made of titles
there was Then
a
She
ROBERT
That he has a measure of
•
me
Maugham On The Truth About One's Face
among debutantes today. A COMERSET MAUGHAM
title is only valuable if there
(who once described
By LEONARD MOSLEY
nose. He says, on his possibili- saw it I was shocked, I was ties as a film star
stunned. Could this face really
He made it clear that, at his age, it was quite a choice.
"London may be cold and damp, but it is such a stimulat- ing place, Things happen here. Maugham thinks. Sutherland Theatres, films, dinner parties.
is money with it. Most girls
"I don't think I performed as be mine? And then I began to work for a living. Their friends cocktail parties as "gather,
well in Encore as in the two realise that hore was far more are from varying social levels.ings where free drinks are
forced upon people who thing from his own film per- carlier ones. My timing wasn't of me than I ever enw myself."
(bo makes three so good. I slurred some of my don't want to buy by formances
is one of the 'world's great People. People with things to individuals who have doubts appearances in this one) to the words,
impact of age on a fresh mind
"I am supposed to be a cynical painters. "But now he has done say that I want to hour. So I
there man,
he would give up winter." kladly that there is a danger
"Presentation
דיי
is still one of about what they are trying in a boty no longer young. the great moments in the life to sell") gave a party of his of the modern society girl. But own in London the other no longer because she is ook day. ing for a husband. They plek their husbands differently now."
old
but
Were
wish
With a second dry martial on moments when I looked so we Lord Beaverbrook, I shall stay here through the Its way down as fuel to keep people will begin thinking of portrails.” his wite sparking, he added some me all a poppet."
It turned out to be the best, sido romarke
on a modern
the
A fire filckered for a moment In the old eyer as someone mon-
The cruelty has an out of liquld selling-job of the year: painter, the influence of day
on genius-b flm named ENCORE, money
On looking at his own face: tioned bis home at Cap Ferrat, for a a debutante's like, too, wald made from à further selection stimulus of life in Lomion. "Of course, the real way to on the Riviera. Mra Furyjuharión. The "reason" of Maugham's short stories. The;
seo your own face is not on the
"It's such a sunny, plongent could be very brutal to a girl well-distilled personality of the Picture him among a wall screen or in the mirror, but the who was shợ, dill, or plain, shrewd old party himfelf dame group of critics. His lean, home way a great artist paints it place. I like the gurk But there cured face bends forward avidly Today it can
and offers out pretty well, too,
"What do 1 think of the are morente when a man must as if he trying to hook ħlif- dom--cost, japo bo) £2,000%Cost the girl whoj Inaleta dan motive-
Seventy-eight-your-old Mir, salt into the conversation by the portrait of me by Drsham choose between sin und good thing like wom
Maugham talloed about every and of His thin, nisgillosat Butherland? The first time, & convenation."
misfondni ( see
He rubbed his hands togelber witile someone elso talked, is If warming himself on “these
London-spoken words. He leaned over to that someone for "lending me that book, T read it with, grea! Interest" (It was Gayelerd numere "Look Younger, Live Longe
Then he turned. Basic and resumed the Job at
•