THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1955.
THE GREAT GAMBLERS
·Alx pinyad with fire
(No. 2)
THE HOUSE THAT
T
MR. WRIGHT
HE jury were out for only an hour before they found the prisoner, Whitaker
Wright, guilty of "knowing ly making false statements with intent to defraud shareholders" in his Com~ panies. The sentence Was the severest allowed by the law: seven years' penal ser- vitude.
Whitaker Wright heard it without flinching. He bowed slightly, said that he WILA innocent of
to any intent deceive anyone, und stepped
of the dock. out
Before
being taken to prison he
a short
was allowed
sultation with his
and two friends,
Con-
solicitor
He thanked them
Hues;
he Fe
1
TOW
ll
bill
*T
Beith
he mai
"
To them
bave (kone
think
Have
L
ין
BUILT
had a billiard-room below an artificial lake. It stood among man-made hills and grottoes.
It was surrounded by a scara of fountains and statusi ona weighing 60 tams. it had a theatre, an observatory.
T coat one and
» quarter million pounds... and it started a fabulous financier on his fast adventure.
*
on
fine hend and
easy manner, and at one set up 17) business,
From modest offices at 43, Lobury, In the heart of the City, he doutex dozens of com- Most of the set out INTJES.
to exploit the recently discovered
goldfelds
Western Australia,
parently they were
of
ap-
muccessful.
At least they paid dividendis, and their shares mereased PITEE.
irt
Wright
turned
to bigger
by Julian Symons
રા
parin
other
As
要
three reason why Wright, in spite of his ruccess in floating companies, found himself flonncial trouble,
The second was the strango affair of Lake View Consols. This was an Australian mining company,
went
Thon
Lho
exploiting a fleld
which hnd been producing 30,000 ounces of gold a month, The price of Lake View shares up from ED to £20. gold production declined suddenly, the shares slumped, and Wright tried to support them with money drawn from other companies. The London and Globe lost £750,000 ανατ Linke View Consola.
Dream of luxury
U T
B beyond
The juggler in millions
was something of a rarity among the 19th century Whitcikar Wright promoters... many of his gold mines really bod gold in them,
the
the by Dufferin's
of 'could
William Fish visits the troubled border between Malaya and Siam
*
STORM CLOUDS ARE RED
St
Kroh, Northern Malaya, 300-mile border, one of the | ECURITY officers are most rugged in the world, today asking them vary from 150 (Slamese selves what goes on in official estimate) to 1,500
jungle - clad, mist (unofficial British figure). swathed mountains where the unmarked frontier Malaya meets that Siam.
tho
Chin Peng, leader Malaya's Communlat
The Malayan police aro reinforced in their fight
of
of
against terrorists by the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots
of Fusiliers -- but no British
La
to allowed ter- soldier
rorists, is reported to have operate inside Siamese ter moved into the Betong ritory. salient of south Siam, which begins four miles northeast of here.
The 40-mile-long sullent the points like a finger at jungle heart of Malaya. It Lord at one point asked the jury it is flanked by the rice and
the transac- understoodi
not they
nol.
weighi doubt,
TATT primo reason why
disaster Wright found postpone
Within
fow months the in hunself short vf
Lorton and Globo announced money Was
WIN his self insolvent, and brought extraordinary down with it all Wright's other travagance in relation to his companies. hoine ut LAB Godalming.
Ex-
near Park
Zwo
'The Siamese police have It in no military backing. popularly believed there are two reasons for this,
Night Curfew
Army personnei must be paid more if they are moved outside
for long. los Isanes had been describ-timber-rich Malayan states
dk of Kedah and Perak. The jury sold they
Security officers watching Bangkok-the capit, und Slam Odds against him Communist trends through-ready overspent on military commitments. The Siamese ero out the length and breadth probably more worried--though IN this confusion of the country
It about are finding they among finan-ncreasing
that events on their northern border. evidence cial detaily Luy
where Communist forces with Wright's best hope many top-ranking terror- maltraters from Indo-China are of acquittal. Ho ista have quitted their known to be massing. could call no use- former operational areas und
'There followed one of the most astonishing features of the Whitaker Wright
For story. years the Govern- ment refused to initiate prosecution against him on the ground that it was unlikely to Could 11 man be
Succe
prosecuted for ising a falso
for the
fut witmesses, but
don't admit
The betting here is that if
He bought ปก properly for £230,000. und 1904 luna obseusd other remark- things. lle formed
spent another £1,000,000 on 10 able features in his career. Be company named tho 1kj|{} Thie grounda Wert recon-- was a rarity amarg the
114) Cilobe Finance Corpora- structed to make u parvenu's pany promoters win) fairished tion, with a sapital of £2,000,-
sireuz of luxury,
something end of the nineteenth do 'The Function Al Whe
he between a museum aud a fun
Army moves any- he took the stand himself, and moved to Chin Peng's new the Slameso
where it will be northwards. mained calm, century --many of his gold mines London ni Globe wak te
futr was at really had gold in them. People provide
made a good impression by his headquarters. Im
travelled by winding jungle morey for hus
You could play billards in a balance sheet? The Solicitor-
They believe that own obvious bellef that he had
the road to Betong, in Slam, and utter why
them often companies when negeSSATY glass salvo wnder one of the General was very doubtful.
acted
best when he Communist leader intends to heard at first-hand how artificial lakes.
the Justice," made a great deal of money.
Kinrouter of
Its stability
You could row In the endi, the order for his
schools. former Viceroy of India, When his companas collapsed
the yourself over the largest take prosecution was issued, not by
manipulated the balance
advantage of slacker Siamese regard the situation. "Things looked very different take he Bed from justice-unct The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, into u ravern and step ashore The Attorney-Generul
There are 8,500 people living but by
he Badd security precautions on the himself
afterwards," for talui Recepiled the position of chair- to look
statues at expensive
Official Receiver.
In the salient, and two-thirds Before the years
"I'll guarantee to go to
the Siamese side of the border
them are
are Chinese. But the voluntarily There is no douot an of the board.
which had been brought from order was issued,
however, Bank of England and twist and to reorganise his forces for that he drmly believed in his
halt a dozen different countries. Wright had lost his nerve. He
distort anything years att t
You could walk up grassy hills fled from England to
France. wards."
another blow at Malaya. belief he shaqb<r& wilh the
or into
grootees all of them There he received a warning counsel who defended hmm.
built quickly by contractors telegram Drom his wife iti Walton
and (who
from England pccusionally moved
and look a ship one place to another as Wright America,
by u accompanied took it into his bead to change young Frenchwoman named
nothing wrong- dugroveful" He gave ou
friends, who had stood buil for hims
the unprecedented Amount of £28,000, his Rodd
chain. *Thei Chanikud them all for what they
watch
und
*
не
ixwf
***
had done and made an excILA" to go to another room.
cyanide of Туда инак
tappsle, ks{ within
mbuites be
a
was
**
Attorney-General) apri Filetare Aiuta. afterwards
Cmunise
the Muir, indeed, sald
Was
india
Ist
10
Strange affair
Javay
it
E Louch and Globe backed
revolutionary scheme for the
Live
A
TATE Send pas Treasury.
Chat Wright
new London rail- was doul
bundel to death for having
way, to be called Had the police searched him failst
By Intention, he was the Baker Street and Waterloo before he entered the dock un
criminal, It
but an Railway. This Is Bow the blant lay of the trid they
nitvenirer.
Bakerloo Underground line, but would have found on him not
Wight won born in Cheshire, in Wright's day it was simply only two cyanide capsties buil
but he spent anany yesurs in the
[ well into which gearty and United States a revolver, loaded
Dyer
million pounds cockod,
company promoter. He went The dramın
Whitaker back tx Bingkund * 1600, Wright's
January thack-necked heavy
mun, with
[
suicide fra
A reflection of good taste
BORN 1820
STILL GOING
-STRONG
ה
Johnnie Walker
FINE OLD SCOTCH WHISKY
Sole Distributper;
MACGREGOR
14
Andreon),
known
Through a
maze
DJ
on
the fact that
after-
Jungle Belt
Siamese believe that, unlike the Chinese In Malaye, these
will
not supply or co-operate with the terrorists.
Even
50 Chinese have been from the area in the deported
SKY,
He did his best, but what- ever chanco he might have had with the Jury was des- the immense pre- troyed bry Judice roused by his flight to
The America.
oxida were heavily
weighted against him have made many parts of ed from remote parts. "Just n
routine
a Stamere precaution," he was Malaya impossible for ter- offloor also by
told me.
Soon it is tried by a speelal jury of the rorists, are virtually non- planned to
whole City
pince the of London. Since the
⚫ salient under a night curfew, had In City ON arrival
suffered so heavily existent in Siam.
I Siamese
asked . Malayan New York he through him this was the worst
Siames Intelli- vacillated uneasily possible sort of jury to try the police jointly control a 20- gence officer how many Min Yuen (or terrorist supporters) deflance case from the point of view of mile-wide belt of jungle he believed to be in the aren, und apology. At prejudice. Mr Justice Bigham
Last two and A holi years. Food restrictions, which Hundreds more have been shift-
fundscape's appearance, Miss
of You could look at a score board as Misa Brown. marble fountains, one of them
મા of
block of carved marble which weighed 80 tons had to be brought to Lea Park You could by traction engine. visit the private observatory
and the private theatre.
was done on
of the the ceilings
#
stables
have
Everything elsappeared. The Baker Street Railway. 22 scale of grand vulgarity. Even long-term success but a short- tem failure, was one of the showed carvings of hunting
Up to the autumna of 1899 Whitaker Wright might been reckless, but he had done nothing criminal. Now, how- ever, he put Lord Dusserùs up to make a speech to the share- holders
the London wald Globe, showing that the Cor- poration was In a flourishing it condition and possessed £500,- 000 in cash.
Lusty
between
Ansi
to deceive
and
He shrugged, smiled broadly
no doubt of his own opinion. 200 men, have been found, and said: "Ten Eleven, maybe." The jury found him guilty on
I queried the reply. "If there were more," said the Siamese, concept two counts.
Currently the situation is "I would arrest them."
Throughout the trial Wright quiet
had expected a verdict in ha
the on
frontier. He seemed satisfied that there a8 could not possibly, under any be terrorists Or helpers in the salient that ho
The same
he resisted in summing up asked whether lying on both sides of the
his netivities were what might border, Neither will com- Much Happening extrudition. Then declared that he be he suddenly
called justifiable window-ment on recent reports that was prepared to go home and dressing or whether they were
Communist camps, with deliberately devised surender,
since he had done the shareholders and he left accommodation for up to nothing wrong. In the Autumn of 1903 he returned 10 England, leaving Miss Andreoni in New York,
The prosecution might have been inflated reluctantly, but
favour, or at least diagreement. Malayan police take this Way forced home with
He showed a brave face to the a sign that the Commun- circumstances, vigour. Leader for the
world, but even his optimism iste are, avoiding trouble does not know about, prosecution way Hufus Isaacs,
must have wavered at the end. while the best lawyer in the country when, on the last day, he put organisation of their forces men who have spent most of they complete re- went for his superiors-affable to financial casts In order not to confuse the Jury. he concentrated
on the charge of capsules and
mirst have realised that the Issuing false bulance sheets.
els. adventure of his life was over Nevertheless, bath Mr Justice Bigham, who tried the and the jury found it at times Impossible to trace
way through the maze of Wright's finance.
In fact the
was company utterly Insolvent, and Wright was able to show a favourable balance only by Juggling with the finances of ali his other
companies. Lord Dufferin who knew nothing about Inance, apoke from Wright's notes and sold what he had been told to say, He retired from public life when he realised the way In which he had been tricked. But even a speech backed
The Judge frequently Cóm issed his own bufflement, and
into his pocicets the cyanide
the revolver ho
WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED
SAM WHITE'S Paris Newsletter
Next Saturday The Brighton wife who became London's Night Club Queen
and supply lines.
their lives in the plicid little Stamese police are widely town of Betony inclined to the view that our side of the border with re- But sa more patrois return to
there is no great concen- ports of new trucks leading in tration of terrorists on their and out of Star, the feeling grows that a lot is going on side of the border.
about which the Slameso know nothing
Estimates of the total
Or about which they are say- number of terrorists on the ing nothing.
NEW SCHIAPARELLI
MAXINE, THE NEW
Paris, models are spare-time pro- Company and the first wife of the French Communist Party father. His major interesti
#TWENTY-NINE - YEAR- fessionals or frienda who Pablo Pleassu
TOLD Maxine de la drop in and are persuaded Although she died only
will be a heavy beneficiniy.
the
motorcycle racing. Picass employs him as his chauffour- mcohmic
21 They married in 1919 13 Falaise, who has been to try on dresses as the need few miles from Picasso's Rome
while Picasso Wie described in Paris fashion for showing arises.
Riviera home, the two had not working on settings for a Jean seen each other for 18 years Cocteau bullet
whe circles as "the new Schin-
in which
As in his Hie, so in his "art, The only office equip and Pleasso did not attend wer was appearing
A year later Olga seemed buried in Plea parelli," has told me some ment is a portable type- funeral. They weino nover his
Ho His Argotten part, was born
painted her Com- biri ended her dancing career Bomo thing of the life of a strug- writer on which Maxine and divorced. Unlike
21 portraits D her husbands, she
was and
during his gling, beginner in the in- her assistant do all
"naturalisti" the munist
Russian Revolution
He and her ended all hope of returning to Periost devoutly religious tensely competitive world complicated invoicing and religion Greek Orthodox→→
WES dissatisfied with them and nover sold any. her native Russia. of Paris fashion design- business correspondence. forbade divorce. Ing.
Maxine a former, man”
They remain in his posses- Picasso, who could have She lives in a two-roomed nequín, tells me she never
BURIED PAST
sion to this day, kopt out of divorced her, WILS deterred
sight,' and few critics or friends flat and has her showroom goes to fashionable func-
heavy THEY from doing
them. no by the
separated in:
Only 1935, have ever seen in a hotel bedroom. The tions now "because 1 settlement which under French Picasaco paying her
four. Deopla (attended-- her bedroom is the scene of re- haven't the clothes and law he would have bad to allowance which permitted her funeral, including her son Paul markable confusion as I can't afford to wear my make on her.
modestly in Geneva, and in obscure pottery worker models scamper in and out own.”
She led a lonely life interrupt- and his wilo from Picasso' # Had she survived Picasso, od only by regular viate to village, Vallauris. ogain Under French Law. Nice
where the stayed in she would have inherited auto small hotel to see her son. matically the greater part of ***
It was wlto
during one world-famous
of these man, has died in obscurity“ „in Her Goath namoved this visits that she died. Nice, Sho WED 08-year-old possibility and leaves Picasso of Olga
Kokhlova,
former more or less trao to dispose at Pauh now 38, has none of
DIAGHILEV ECHO
the two twin LITTLE-KNOWN Woman, his enormous fortune.
of the bathroom to change dresses and show them off
on
to clients seated uncomfort- ably beds,
Her
staff
consists
of a
to live
an
[only one assistant, and the dateer in the Diaghilev- Ballet it as he thinks fit. Certainly, the talent or personality of this.
MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN
THEY'RE PULLING US TO THEMI I'M GOING TO USE OUR CANNON,
IT'S JUST A POPGUN U AGAINST THAT
GIANT
I'LL USE IT ANYHOW-TO-SHOWI THEM WE HAVE TEETH TOO, O MAYBE THEY'LL SHOW. US SOME RESPECT--I HOPE--
By Lee Folk and Phil Davis
ONE OF THE STRANGEST" NAVAL. BATTLES IN HISTORY--A MILE UNDER
WATER
Will Plensso marry; again? Recently Plcamo, who is now 73, Expanded from common-law wife, 33-year-old Francoise Gilot, mother of two of his childre
They are still apart.
TALK
"ABOUT:
MAGIC!
Have you