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PARIS NEWSLETTER FROM SAM WHITE
THE" - CHINA ↑ MAIL, MONDAY, FEBRUARY
Casino King Travels
Second
Class
Parla, The Andres nee ench other advised them of what they could
E TOUQUET, that only for two weeks in the year, take with them. Barred were
Lclassic, English
Q
during
Christmas which they M. Coty's collection of resort
spend in the favourite of his paintings. Also barred were France where it is almost two chateaux.
Madame Coty's housekeeper and social lapse to
was allowed to speak Andre eats little, mostly roup cook, but sho French, has been the scene he loathes what he describes take her personal maid with her. us the cuisine de tuxe- and Thore was some dificulty these past few days of
drinks
His only about the Cotys' two cats, but it only red wine. considerable "take - over"
hobby is fishing.
was finally decided that M. deal.
Aurlo! had set a precedent by having his dog, which died two year ago, at the Palace.
QUOTES
The bulk of de Touquet has long been a possession of two brothers, Roger and Pierre Abondaram.
Now Dhey have sold out to veteran casino “king" Francois Andre. M. Andre has paid what
Le Touquet luis made a slow Lecovery from the wat, and And will try to restore it to popularity with prewne English visitors.
He travels between Poria and his various resorts by train, and always second class. He claims to have the best collection of dud cheques la the world.
PAINTINGS BARRED
new President, M.
FRANCE'S appears to be a bargain-bate- Rene Coty, und als homely ment price £180,000 for two wife made an instant success in hotels, two casinos, two cintas, the erremonter which
Become panted their moving-in frou and a racecourse.
their modest flat to the Elyses Palace. It
was a moving and dignified ceremonid display in which the uutgoing. President, M
Auriol, was the object of demonstrations of affection rarely beture
seen in the history of the Republic.
Sidelights on the changeover; M. Coty's secretary's first task was to write a teller to a Riviera hotel canceling his plans for a
16
ONCE A DRIVER To do so will entall the risk of Increased competition with wother of his properties-near- by Denuvilje.
To his close business associates who profes concern over tus, brief February holiday "owing Andre gives a Galle reassurance;
TARENCH
Plerro catarist Dnaon: Opon the brain of on Englishman and you will find Cruiser of Her it contains Majesty's Navy, a raincoat, a *** ul ten,
the a policeman, cup rules of the Ron and Ancient Golf Club of St Andreas, a Guardaman, the time-table the Calais-Mediterraneon train, a cricketball, some fog, a piece of the earth on which the sun finally deep in never sets, and
cat-o'-nine-
his subconscious
talls.
*
*
Filin nctress Danielle Darrieux on ex-hushan Porfirio Rubiroga, who bus Just married heiress Barbara Hutton: Some hachelers to unforeseen cacumSTANCES,”
are too old Before the Cotys moved into eligilde, and others pre too Palace. protocal officials eligible to be considered old.
"I have taken a new mistress, but my heart will always be with the Deauville.
At 73 Amit Rey-huuret Agure
aundrome,
with mer! Tu wyr and charm.ng manners
cft rvelining see hi
the red piusli sents of
fashionable restaurant, with 11: sightly foppish Edward air and his alert qves for a pretty face, one could take him for a wealthy boulevardier, concerned only about good fuel and beautiful women.
In het, he works an 18-hour day. He was once a lorry driver for a brewKETS ST. Later, because of his handsome, dignified appear- unre. a Marsellies undertaker hired him to walk, dressed in top bat and frock coat at the head of
his frin's Tuse; al pro- ression
SAW HIS CHANCE
in
At the begining of the cen- tury. when baccarat Was vogue, Andre, then 20, catne to Parts and saw his choice in the aristocrulle exclusiveness of the existing gambling clubs.
M
He started his own clubs which were considerably less exclusive, and unde a RETINAL deal more to money.
.8, 1954.
to be considered "You'll be sorry when you read: 'Co-driver damped on lonely mountain road because he had the snuffles," "
Across The Sealed Frontiers With Kenneth
-London Express Service)
Macaulay
THREE STOPS IN THE
HEART
ANY stories are told way CARE
along the path chosen like a fieldsman slinging in hard to the wicket-keeper on a short
were
OF RED RED
Meria
star.
oni
EUROPE
and
her
of whom
Puzzled
whole werk A
มา
HARD ON THESE MODERNS
By George Ross
THOSE of us who have
TTH
been vaguely alarmed .. by our inability to compre- hend modern art breathing a lot more easily.
are
It may well be that there is nothing there to compre- hend.
Anyhow that's what Frank Sallsbury, Britain's top portrait painter thluks——— and he cut loose with a lot of strong language to back up the point,
He told the Men and Women of Today Club in London: "We are stifled and debased by the Incompetent work encouraged in modern art.
"If the art fostered by the Arts Council and the con- temptible mean Contern- porary Art Society is any indication, we Rre a de- generating nation."
Gone The Spirit
What is the matter?
The
old spirlt of craftsmanship has gone and
Mr Salisbury thinks the traditional business of art— "the achievement and the portrayal of the beautiful in nature"-hns become too difficult for us.
"If I were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, I would close the Arts Council and thus save not only the spirit of the times but also the taxpayers' money. Let the inspiration of true art still inspire the hearts of mon."
Now this is pretty rough, and hardly anyone would want to go all the way with Mr Salisbury. But he is # fresh wind blowing through a mighty mouldy situation.
The question, in the long run, is simple: "What should we expect from art,
tho Queen's the material is better than some Progue is us proud of its I wis while I was in Prague! A fierce, red light beats per- and his travelling ather
material
1 bayê seert in profile as any
And that
Mrs Moclean of refugees trying Messenger
petually down on the waxen face wall might be for it has children lad from Geneva, and drooping moustaches. to get from un-curity officer. They kept to another hon.
their compartment and them. "The Tovar Superintendent graceful, médiéval spires, bas- It so happened that I was. The only mound is of people, gary to the
West selves, brewing tea and cooking bells me today that I am wasting on gateways and, the staying in the Hotel, Alcron, chattering as they
stroll or across the minefields on the their meals on a spirit stove his time by making him tako bastle hll. the beautifully, which is the official caravanseral gossiping an street corners. frontier.
they had brought with them, the material down from the seated Cathedrui of St. Vitus for visitina VIPs and uneinssi- A man with squealey boots
Bucharest The recognised way seems
dressed all shelves but never buying. was
with He
Himself Theresa's palace fable people such as journalists. mankes
conspicuous, over. to use the be to
naval term; now refuses to serve me at all. beyond.
Into the lounge of this hotel almost, by introducing an allen approach with
buses and cars were imported Is this
In Fight
1 Peoples
was taken for o peep at one morning came a woman with sound." pockets full of stones the from
Poland, and Demogrney*** Hungary
this paince, and my companion found it amusing to shove ash-
one three children, Just before the 1914-18 War size of cricket balls. These Czechoslovakia to make up for Madam, it is not right in any - on this occasion was not he took over the then highly
SPENT The woman anid of local transport; body's democracy and I hope the Czech, He pointed out one of trays around. fashionable ensibo 131 Ostend, are hurled on to the ground the poverty
perfect darling."
English accent: Sola wandering where anyhow?" and after the war he opened his
and no effort was spared to roll department of State which deals the sights that no local guide in a out the barrel.
with
about complaints
come would dare to show a visitor-
"Don't do
She pleased and talking with whom must successful gambling club
One afternoon I was taken to munal shops
I could without the services of sent you an the window from
coffe in Preis, which still exists.
see one
which the ordered of Bucharest's model apology.
despairing Jan Masaryk jumped A little later she was joined a guide or interpreter. It seems was then that he began to
suburbs, decorated with flage
No queues
to his death in February 1948 by another woman who was also that my arrival had taken the acquire seaside
with resorts
baimers of baby blue
of Foreign Affairs by the escaping
after my interpreter search d'etat. the Communist their casinos-La Boule, Deau-
Why, I can't think. fugee ville, Cannes.
is lucky and aims his emblazoned with Picasso doves. I the book to see if anyone
Someoric his sow what there was to see,
must have The mine in
given Andre married, but has no signes well.
the w- including
rations State owned had complained about the off and he la
Instructions for my visa
to be children.
wife, a former path goes dressmaker, is a tall, handsome harned. Hospitals and isoms drapery-cum-grocery store that not being issued for the month
issued. prisons
of July. It seemed that no woman with Eton-crop blonde in the area. I was told, are full serves the district
It was just as we were coming had. Citizens of Bucharest got hair, She is full-time manager of people who were untucky.
They either
run out of stones out of the store that I noticed July and August together, the book idea being, so one housewife told a bailored before they were cleur
red excreise of the
that double distribution minefield or they touched off the hanging on a nall with a pencil
would
prevent queues at the food hidden explosive As they crept on a piece of string beside it.
shops.
This would not look well through,
at all with 30,000 foreign visitors in the town.
of La Baule.
B
Headaches (BAYER
Toothaches
Colds
are quickly Overcom. by
CAFASPIN
THREE
•
run.
Sumetimes
re- and
But the night I reached the frontier from the West there
Frustration
were no explosions. On the MY interpreter said it was the contrary, friendly reception com- complaints boole. I asked him loud- to rend me one or two specimens. speakers Were playing lively He did. They went something
miittees were waiting:
urs,
Wong.
through
like this:
HAD
A
coup
This is, apparently, an old form ritual suicide in Czecho- slovakia and is known of the grim name of "defenestration."
Keep moving
unmistakably English. I thought try
For a week no one seemed to know what to do with a four-
maybe
hoard
say that "Donald" had
out for a haircut. gone They chatted away and there was no mistaking the next part of their conversation, Sald the Woman with the children:
"What are you doing this nalist from the West, afternoon?"
it was Come the answer: because,
such D long time e're going to "We're
to look over the since anyone had seen one. N the great cobbled square Burgcises flat."
However, when the placo before the palace la not u There was,
fortunately, a finally got organised, an im- good place to linger, because the taxi in Wenceslas Square just maculate Buick, a chauffeur and official residence of President when I needed one badly. It is an interproter were put at my But I should like to take you Antonin Zupotocky is there and a pleturesque drive through the disposal and trips were arranged the Black Sen. Into the back to that State shop for a the police make pedestrians walk old town to the British Embassy, te
when one is in a mountains and round about. moment because the pricing of well on the other side and keep but too far goods there demonstrates the moving.
hurry. At the embassy I asked I asked to see a co-operativo design for living that has been
difficult, now I come to if there was anyone in town with farm and off we went to Bresto worked out for a Communist thing about it, to get good the name of Burgess.
vitan, near the ancient capital of look at any official residence or
Plovdly. This is probably the most famous vineyard district in Bulgaria.
"I came into this shop a few the windows on the left of Government building anywhere
at
No one is allowed to use the
Laughter
Thomas was
much
This hospitality was laid on minutes before it closed last because I was with a party of night and the Tovarna
THEY said there certainly was, delegates going
the front door food and clothing behind the Iron Curtain. to (Comrade) Superintendent re-
on the ration were displayed.
but that he would not be in After inspecting the procest Bucharest for the Fourth World fused to keep upen so that The windows on the right con- pavement opposite the Ministry Prague very much
His of longer.
winsmaking. Youth Festival, and everything could buy
hospitality all the things
tained exactly the same goods, of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest, name was Mr George
laid on in the director'a was being done to let us know wanted. Is this right in อ
but
of
and the ration, tut any preconceived ideas we People's Democracy?"
where several streets are per Bungees, an embassy accountant, office, Bulgariens dearly love to manently closed to all traffic, on his way to a new posting at see a guest having a may have had about
correspondingly higher prices. austerity Fury and frustration had ap
except officint cars.
Beirut, Jus successor had They also like to see home. behind the Iron Curtain were all parently made the woman's
Anomalies
Twice while I was unescorted arrived and was hoping to take of a good time he can take. signature illegible.
In Soña I was shooed down over his fat in Prague.
There were seven of us in the POINTS system similar to aldo streets by tommy-gunner But Customs formalities? Forget
the day had
not yet director's office, and for drink- about them. Have some more plainant is also unimportant, but
the one we had in Britain guards to prevent my walking exhausted
At ing glasses we used beakers from Sta surprises. keadquarters nine o'clock that evening I dis- the laboratory. First there was Try the cherry brandy.
commodities like in front of party Just toes to show that allows scarce Passports? Pout! A merc
women are the same no katter soap and clothing to be bought or some such. And it is asking covered, by a chance encounter Raitia, a powerful plum brandy, formality. Another
sandwich,
When the for trouble to pause to glance at with a Bulgarian diplomat ih With the pickled salmion and sitor may I call you convade? tain they go shopping:
on which side of the Iron Curs at the Axed price.
points are exhausted and the an inscription on any of the the same hotel lounge, that his cheese made from sheep's ralik, No, you may not.
number each person gets varies wreatha
the outside
had authorised a there was the red wine of the "I have come
Georgi Government
vien for Sofia for mo-the first district. The only passengers who did for the past three or four days to
granted to a Western Journalist
wine.
The name of the next com-
into this shop with his value to the Slate as Dimitrov mausoleum.
戥 worker-the free market is
not get wine, sandwiches, bunches choose some material for Ü
of gladioli, and a Communist frock. i sce a pattern I ilke, open to all who have the money
farewell as the train went on Its but I cannot decide whether to spare.
SILENT
SALESMEN
真真真
Lurgees Morning
Largo Afternoon
Largest Bunday-
Cireutation
Cireutation
Diroulation
for five years. From Russia
well 05
Hopping Mad
The tussle is between the people who think art is "just art" and shouldn't be communicate expected to anything, and those who think that a painting should interpret the world, portray "the beautiful in nature,” or, at least, let us in some significant emotional experience which we would otherwise miss.
on
Probably, the bulk of "Contemporary" artists the boys who churn out pieces of canvas on which they have spewed a jumblo of colour, leaving roughly the effect of a raw egg shot from a cannon at a brick wall sit in the first camp.
They get hopping mad when anyone tells them that they should "say" some- thing.
But there are also serious contemporary artists whose efforts, while unintelligble, are nonetheless significant Mind? No
attempts to unwind an ar-
The sugar ration, for instance, HIS obsession with security ful as
T
The chance of seen won RX prodused a second wine ray of technical puzzles. interesting, which they said they usual- They are trying to find out, at tho 1 is, I suppose, copied from While Sofa is in no way as
for example, how to convey controlled price of 3s. a lb. But Russian practice, and it has now architecturally distinguished as and want quite of str it can be bought on the free reached the point where
tha Progue,
the Bulgarian capital people in England too believed
said that quite a lot of colour and motion on a flat markot at 11s. 106. lb.
Creat Ones seem to be por has the charm of quietude and
this drink to be practically non-
surface. It seems there is one price manently withdrawn from public la people the gift of laughter ledholle. (It was an exceedingly for the rich and another for the gaze and recognition.
This the
potent port. Door.
Outside the meeting place of heard them laugh right out Well, then, who are the rich? ahy Council of Ministers where loud once. That was when the Lots of funpecially for the I found that in all the five me rows of limousines Olted all leader of the band at the Hotel man who had been detalled to Iron Curtain countries I visited round with drawn curtains res Moskva in Gottwaldov dang try to drink the guest under the there are odd anomalies, In miniscent of those old-time "Three Little Fishes Swam Veble. Czechoslovakia a doctor gola-the sedan chairs. The curialas Over The Dam.”: uvernge working-mon's wage of preserve the anonymity of the Promenade 240 a month. But an airline pectipant of the back seat and
fis llb. 10 oz. a month
a
On Use way home my inter- proter said: "During the con- versation, the director said that
he supposed
the
the
pilot com knock up as much as reckoned to be safer than SOFIA reema to have only 20` as you were clearly an im £250 a month on a miles-flown bullet-proof glass, Cheaper too. taxis to serve its population partant test of the Ministry of
But this withdrawal must be of 600,000 people, and there are Foreign
Affairs, back official explanation is that a bit drkaome to Rumania's not many more privately owned you were s
Centri Commember of the doctor is free to earn extra Chairman of the Fracsialtum car by taking in private patients Groza, reputedly a cheerful and On a warm evening the whole British Communist Party, after his eight hour day at the gregarious soul who betore town seems to turn out to pro-"I didn't translate that for State clinic is done, Some of achieving high offico used to be menada up and down the you," the Interpreter went on. then do this. One I know more agroat hand at telling stories Boulevard Ruski, which is laid "I was a litle afraid you might tään dõubles his income
in a most attractive style with think the conversation - was gett ing the plato in a dance play- ut diplomatie functions,
band.
He knows London quite wat warm, orangcoloured pricking political answered, for But he must find it hard going, and his favourite party, plega
at The
In The Basement
This, however, la pot arte and ouglit, one would think, to slay in the basement where. It was created. When they have untangled their problems and are ready to say something, they should display it. In the meantime, they ought to keep quiet.
Some of them,
of course, have mastered some" of the puzzles and' ARE busy ssy-. ing something.
playing undia, tour o'clock in the sonkákhăĩ, thể time he set off to the DANS DESPIN at a METODA moriemeli so majic25] UW^koukzY+ZNIN,
morning before starting the day's and the girl how at the Windmill Boulevard, the mon am in com, vald,
Theatre
the girls hand in hand; They
echoed trouble with being a He says: "My accent, must all the road completely, fright pester "Didri you notice avery. doctor
Is that he
nedosá" not have been very bad that nighly up as farida:
Fall of a sudden produce anything that the stale rder the tealacriter anklebenk cou
another?” can well or exchange, Bit L
tinfortunate that your
Because a
It may be hard to find› out · wibut the result may justify the offert.
Jor the moment, however, the **E #feri, to be giving [they Záhone Wisely, we could be fairly. tain that our effort would pay
But long ng thay