*
TODAY the ninth tale is told
by
"H
Robert Henriques
OW. I hate growing old!" the Naval Captain said. It was his first human remark during the fortnight that we had been together in the Normandy beach- head.
Though he was an amiable man by nature, his professional views and mine were in direct conflict. Somehow they had to be reconciled, for we had been sent to Normandy, at the head of a commission, to report on the inter-Service arrangements for landing on enemy beaches.
' ;
I wanted drastic changes; he wanted none at all. We were no nearer agree- ment than when we had arst arrived; prid every day cur relationship had lost a little more at fis format cordiality, our speech had become more curt, OUT respective views more adamant.
"You're not particularly old," I said. He was 40, two years older than myself. in the summer of 1944.
"Can't we oven agree on the subject
of ages?" he asked. It was his first
smile for several days.
I was nominally the head of the
outfit and I said: "Let's serd the boys
home; let 13
two stay out here and go on the
razzic to-
night. Time's
no object.
He
glocmity:
gaid
So old that I.
N
THE
GIRL
THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, APRIL 2
#26, 1955.
IN THE CAR
A very smell woman-la very large, pujamas .
dream was too pleasant to
be
unkindly broken.
stantly asleep. In the morning my "daily Woman" had not
come by nine o'clock when woke up. So I made tea and took a cup to my guest's door. I called and knocked in vain.
The room was empty, and the
RED OCTOPUS IN MALAYA
By MAURICE MANNING
ап
AKE advice from succeeded in -arousing. ang one who has learned enthusiasm among the popula
In spite of all their talk about a Soo Yoke-koon,
ex- "Races Liberation War.** terrorist in Malaya, who has surrendered to the Govern- 90 percent Chinese in its cam- The MCP, incidentally, is over ment, "and keep as far position, although there are at away as possible from the least as many Malays as Chinese Malayan Communist Party in the Federation of Malaya 'Red Octopus"."
bed made. There was no trace
Sco, one of 210 disilusion- that it had ever been occupied No car was parked in the courted terrorists who gave them- yard.
1
to say nothing of Indians and ober minority races. This alone makes nonsense of the Farty's claim to be engaged in a
national" struggle.
Their Lallure to win such
selves up during 1954, said During the next few days, he became disgusted with after which I had to leave un- the MCP and its hypocri- galling, since for the last three suppert must be particularly expectedly for the United States, tical leaders" because "the and a half years the Communists I made the most extensive in
quiries, working from my own majority of higher-ups with have claimed to be concentrating headquarters outwards to the whom I came in contact on doing, Just this. But it is sufficient to show me that she Commander-in-Chief and back were most unfriendly and hardly surprising in view of
again. Everyone al was quite lovely, that she more
concerned had
their canvassing methods, which had treated the lower ranks with consist chiefly, of exterung food received than matched her voice. "You
message must be exhausted," I said, but from
mebody else, along the contempt. I had no voice or money at gun-point and answered that she was top-level lines of communication in the Party. The MCP does "climinating" anyone who re- she
was that a certain colonel on a secret | not practise what it fuses. strangely not tired, which
job must at all costs be
hurried exactly how I felt myself.
Part
communica-
in the MCP ideology,"
Strangling
After some 50 miles of this exquisite experience we had discovered in conversation that we had never met before and had no mutual friends. This dispelled was one of those rare occasions wouldn't know what to do with stonk of invective. But all he into close arrest was
In my fat at the very top of homeward. But I never a preaches. There is no truth could do was
the by the calculation that no felon when the world was 10 "record
the
there building we scrambled some where not a razzle it I met one."
of the names of these eminent re- of my status could reasonably hete
astonishing" small It was three o'clock
made tea and drank It tiens had started. All that I had place com- eggs, following morning when we re- fugees and to offer them two expect a Commander-in-Chief's posed of coincidental meetings. with brandy. Then she said she learnt from the incident was
the what happened when the a Head minded Survives as an after- blankets apiece and a wooden personal attention or
I asked her what she would do would like 2 bath. Later, QUATICS a car as a Black when she had taken me, home, bathroom door opened slightly pericnce of age was confronted Thought that we had been sent toor for bedstead.
Maria. I wondered if I to France for a We
was She said, "I suppose I shall just and a voice asked if it could with the opportunities of youth, perhaps travelling incognito. I drive back again. I know of perhaps borrow 1 pair of
WORLD purpose.
began to wonder found
I who was
stay in London, pyjamas. This, on my second night of
anything to very little sleep, was evidently a not uncommon kind of dream. sprung from a wishful source.
had
2
dispossessed
+
chef who had cooked us superb dinner,
3
and cellor from which we
And Ind
chosen several differ- eat wines. We had reached solid agreement on the question
age. the horrors of
V
too
led for romance, and ot slipping so sud- denly from an
era
of opportunity, for which we lacked experience, into onr where our väst "experience har no opportunities Cr. which operate. We were agreed at last!
10
The fest was easy. By the fight of candles, now guttering to their end we scribbled down the headings of our joint report and fell into each other's arms in a spirit of generous remorse.
My colleague proposed a last toast. Gentlemen he said to me solemnly. "I give you the experience of our age and the opportunity of our youth. It only the two might meet!".
Icy gale
· ROBERT HENRIQUES van Jame
with a prize-winning novel, Na Art, No Armour, based experiences in the Army.
bined the Royal Artillery 1924, sirved in Egypt and the Sudan, retired in 1933. ---
Within a few manth; of publi. tation of his book in 1939, he vas back in the Army. He wai with the Commandos en several' Falda and served at Combined Operations Headquarters, win- King
American Silver and Stors Arenza
and becoming
Henriques, 49, mottied a hiacy Bearsted in 1977.
of Viscount
They have two at and two daughters, and farm Cotswolds
the
***TOMORROW``ssists
The tenth author to keep you guesting will be
Bernard Newman
He tells-another story with o question at the and. Did it really happen.
?
Staff
The dream continued with the
nowhere to unless you have suggest?"
*
The lesson*
ก
COPYRIGHT RESERVED
-
copatching
New evidence of these methods has come to hand in the form of Commmist recently captured documents. The most striking is a ductive for the "elimina- which makes it tion of
spies, clear that even boys of 15 are killed if they withhold food Several other ex-bandits gave from the bandits. In case any similar reasons for handing themselves over; one of
one should feel squeamish about them.
such juvenile Tal Shing, sald he had turned
it is flat had
asserted that, that my
against the Party because they
years, their for the car and courtyard
though young in communicate
is Now YOU have to decide: Dia forbade him to
"intelligence above that of spare bed for herself, if she did
his with his family and forced himi not consider the suggestion:
Robert Heuriques imagine improper one. She said:
There is no more ridiculous story or did it really happen to to take part in "senseless and other boys of the same age."
of erring him? Make a note whether you human executions don't worry about things like and enchanting sight than that”
small woman in a very think story No. 9 is FACT or comrades. The victims of these
sald Tai; In
Large pair of pyjamas. From FICTION and see this page to executions,
strangled with "a rope. This "was usually wound round their quite black As I hauled my perhaps have one last glass of
Yesterday's
story W necks and then pulled by twa ki: out of the car. I felt very that brandy" I brought two
people, one on each side-a pain glasses and sat on the foot of FICTION. reluctant to face the
imminent
her bed while we drank the
ful and horrid death.” ordeal of light and, surely, of
ring me home," I said minor adventure to end
here * and
it to dissolve
Was "After all, the dream
wasn't it?" she said gently in the rattle of a morn- ing teacup. "Come on!" I said.
silent arrival of a vast Cadilias, In the rough night it was scarcely visible, identifled only by the faintest reflections in its
of some distant paint
light somewhere which.
or
London the
an
"Oh.
wind had
very
must be escaping the bis. other, dropped, but it was of course her bed she called: "Could we merrow._
I
A. small figure was holding the deo: asked. "Mayn't sit in front?" The answer came low and sweet: "Just as you wish, sir."
Where to?
The girl got in "Where to, sir?"
beside
me:
1 said: "I haven't the leasti Idea. Where would you like?"
She said: "I'd rather like the 400 Club myself, but by the time we get to town it's likely to be shut." She had perhaps twist of Scots or Ulster in her slight and most attractive speech. She said that she had simply been told to await my arrival and obey my orders.
4.
I was easily the most junior officer at the tail end of this reprocchful queue. Being in no hurry at all to get to Whitehall, and being able, in those days, to sleep on a wooden floor as
By now I was so deeply in- well as anywhere else. I was not much worried by our fate. volved in the mystery, or
dream, or whatever it was, that
the
I gave my name to the harassed I had ceased to be surprised. I officer. His response was said that we might as well go astounding "Colonel Henriques? to London as anywhere else, Thank God!”
since had a fat there which
Arranging a rendezvous in He grabbed the telephone and I used as a kind of operational Whitehall, we came home called into it: "He's here!" To base for my far-flung duties. separately, the sailer by, a private escape route and I by the patrol boat which conveyed senior officers to England each right.
me he reported: "Your car, sir, will be round in a couple of minutes." I inquired whence the car was coming and where it was going to. He said: "It's been ordered by the Commander-in- Chlef personally, sir, and been standing by since o'clock."
"Why?" I asked.
it's seven
Good driver
the
We landed at one o'clock of an arcile July morning and were led through savage sleet and an icy gale to a small room manned by a very sleepy and very junior officer, helpless and" "It" was the Commander-in. inarticulate against our lavish Chief's personal instructions." braid and scarlet
I had at least the sagacity to He received, in turn, from nod in a confident manner. The - Admiral, General and Air Mar- uneasy feeling that an escort at last see her face. I began shal, a broadside, a blitz, or a might be arriving to take me to hope I never would. The
Freshind-aire
of disillusionment when I should
AUTOMATIC
disillusionment. I wanted this. brandy. "Thank you for bring-
I kissed her forehead
orders,
and
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN? No, 9: The Girl in the Car
YES
NO
The light in the lobby was went to my own bedroom. Not dimmed, by blue paint, but in the least sleepy, I was in-
OLD
In Formosa, BERTRAM JONES
י
were
Threats
The decuments also included three threatening letters, all containing such words as: "If you won't change your attitude.. Few people in Malaya actual- you will have to face the con- harshest of 13 need Soo Yoke-koon's warn- sequences." The ing to keep away from the "Red that the people of Malaya" (the these variants was an assurance Octopus." Most
phrase the MCP caly too glad to do so if they paganda
always ust can. The Communists have not ferret you out, no matter to describe itself)
SOLDIERS NEVER
ABOUT
of them
finds that
SING
WAR
Taipei. Nothing happened. Just a military population of Chelsea their slim-fitting
think
are
how long or where you are hiding, and punish you for your sins.'
*
This letter also told its re- cipient: "Your activities, the movements of your car, your family circumstances, your social connections, your aid, to the enemy...are all known to us"- creepy news indeed when one is living in a countryside noted for its loneliness.
But these captured documents not only illustrate the unpleasant | methods used by the Communists; they also reveal that things are
silk gowns not going at all well for the terrorists. Food and money are O you remember the galite silence. And after a few Pensioners, to whom mainland slashed thigh-high.
minutes the loudspeaker battles of 1949 will be what.. And ageless China can outjive getting very short. A statement Phoney War? The out the perche emptied, and the Relief of Maseiding is to our Brooklyn, If you of by two experienced Party mem- time when beleagured the troops drifted away into Boer War veterans at home. invasion-threatened Formosa as bers says that it is becoming Britain waited for Hitler to the right...
But Fermocons do not worry.. a land full of inscrutable people more and more difficult to collect
only people you and taking with hands thrust up black tunic funds. make a move and could not
This only perously are the top, sleeves, forget it. make out why he didn't;
notchers-the Government, their IL when our puzzled little army
'and grew
more more browned off with square-
"Our objectives are not will-
13
Chiong's inactive army will cerizinly try to fight back to
Certainly your pedicab driver the mainland if they are order officials, the Service chiefs. and the women who do many of ing to pay their subscriptions, ed. But they show few signs
The other night, when an the street-sweeping jobs still The "objectives are in fact, be of "impatience" to be off,
air raid alert was sounded by wear conical straw coolie hats.coming extremely wily. "When
the middle part. But everybody is well dressed unit 'A' of car organisation ap understandable. mistake over
of "Back to the mainland" means stemnation but no real alarm. not seen one beggar.
the
there island, was con- not utility stuff here and 1-bave proached you for funds you said you had paid to unit 'B', and" when unit B' asked you said you had paid to unit ‘A?!!
bashing and Naafi tea?.. And that is
I couldn't help thinking nothing about it here in Taipei.
441
own
to the
younger men,
when the Communists drove
came
ARP
Less Corrupt
Air There is work and food for everybody," Chiang's spokes«
Hunger
The pod position is even The documents provide
+
getting
sauce
to add more
She was a most expert driver The car was warm, and battering of the gale" and sloet which enhanced her perfume,
a minute for they have never been there. And the all-clear enhanced her voice. It was one
A parkful of Chiang Kai- They are Taiwanese that is, later when the local
chaps realised they had been of the most attractive that I
I had
Formosa-born--who have been shek's little slant-eyed heard in all my life. And, as
fooled conscripted into the Nation-
by a Nationalist we drove at high speed to Lon- soldiers, with nothing better als
forces; and they would Force exercise. don, I began to fear the moment to do, sat on hard benches much prefer to stay on their By morning everything was men tell me, with the pride of?
back to
normal which in Peking henchman diaiming the leave island and the beneath
trees, ate mainland to the mainlanders.
Formosa means swindling with have abolished fies as well as a mile. Everybody, does it so poverty. But one thing that oranges, and listened with- out enthusiasm to loud- Settled Down,
delightfully that you cannot even Chiang's totalitarianism has worse, really feel vexed. speaker music blasting at
not rid Formosa ofend, it same light relief in the several If you want to go to them in the dark from an here with Calang Kai-shelf pictures the only way to get in bly a less sprogtehage than his Pin
The others, those who came
the a totalitarianism, although posscunts of larder-raiding by hungry comradesComrade Pingei without queueing for hours is mainland gregue superstle wiped intention of
slipped empty bandstand.
The singer was a girl him out of China proper, have to buy a black market ettion.
the swarms of cheerful Nationalist China's Vera settled down very comfortably from
crooks who waylay
you outside Lynn, the sweetheart of the and would not mind greatly
cinema. back-to-the-mainland forces meeting the mainland.
their leader forgot all about every who is perhaps too du- scarlet, because red clothes are instead :
a sign of day and white worn. who do not see a cat's Even on £1 month, which is kind a word They are pro- only at funerals. chance of going back any. about the pay of a Nationalist fessional queuers. They line up
The superstion that makes bowl z lemon water. A at the box office, grab as manay where (except to their private, they are better on tickets as they can afford (best every dutiful best man togs ex- ache for a whole.
ole might, and so have ever beert. billets) and do not particu- milions of dollars which the seats about 3s.), add 120 per ploding Brecrackers from the on. An ex-band larly want to,
United States is pouring defen- cent for their trouble and in wedding car to frighten devils rendered in December 1954 said and bad influences away? i the quest for food, had hebame sively into Formosa give them you go, no waiting.
The superstition that makes so vital that for the last year or you climb 1,00 steys to have so it had absorbed all his me your, fortune told by a Buddhist/and/energy. If you can ignore the pop of mock in saffron robes, becauséa
ows clearly that and re the upward toil is presumed to bursting bubble-gum
the the Red-Octopus" sounding throat-clearing and have purged you of worthiness silk have quarters » than they ever delighted laughter in quite the and every wish assumes extra grip is getur dreamed of
wrong moments of Romeo and merit Amt they are not getting my Juliet," yau will find
And a Taipei
Room Air Conditioner
1955 MODEL, ELECTRO MAGNETIC PUSH-BUTTON CONTROLLED
POWER FACTOR in accordance with the REGULATIONS
of the Local Electricity Companies.
Sole Agents: K, CAUDRON & CO. Phone 27539
5 Queen's Hd, French Bank Bldg., 3rd, 1.
THREE
Largest Morning Circulation
SILENT
SALESMEN
Largest Afternoon Circulation
Largest Sunday Circulation.
Ensa Stuff
It was just the sort of Ensa stuff we listened to on Sunday nights back in the winter. "of 1939-40—the moon and you; my hero; my heart... apart. And SU OD...
But this was just a softening
than
clothing stronger boots, tidier (two pairs of underwear for every man), bigger rations of rice, meat, fish and vegetables,
comfortable and more
living
"Crooks"
They live
every bride go to the tal
The superstition that day broth
younger Chinng's statisticians, sudience no different from one Red Dragon
of
・
will tell. του that their on Thames-alde or Tyne-side. up process; and before long we soldiers' average age is 28. It
The superstition that, when simply loved "Brief saw what for,
is probably more.
Encounter and "Henry V." you are giving, a party, makes A walling song ended "and"" A company them were at And in Chiang's capital the you implore your invited guest ushers shuffled smilingly along drill (the Chinese are great authorities are earnestly coa mumble cottage (even if
to bestow his light upon your the rows of benches, handing ones for callisthenics) and I sidering an idea of astonishing a 20-room house); and you, you live out music sheets. This was to be stopped to watch with an simplicity to wipe out picture bow to him and assure him that it the big hit of the evening. American who has been com going profiteering--a bocking you
you await his illustrious pre The tune was simple, set out ing to Fortuosa every year since plan and advance reservations, sence, because it is ""not only
numbers--Number One 1950.
The only way to buy anything providence if you even seem to impolite not to but tempting
equalling "Doh" and Number Two "Ray"—for easy memoria- ing. The words Were simpler:"Forward to battle,"
they
even
Little Guys
"When I was here then," he
at approximately the regular price here if you are a foreigner be straig (and foreigner automatically respectable, hardworking cried "Kill all Com said, eyeing the puffing troops. money) is to send a Chinese Taipei for trying to borture he munists." Chiang's psycholog there was a little guy doing friend to
means American, loaded with mother has just been arrested in
cal warfare experts would
de your shopping, three-year-old son to death starve in Tin Pan Alley on the ground like he was then you will only be stung for without deliberately murdering
his rake-of..
because she believed he wasan evil influence iris the
areas lifts, coming straight uID
the-bare platin and out "Next time, there we though, is the jitterbugging, her away needed a lot of per- from the wings came a man in same guy, only a bit slower.... a dark lounge suit. He was aAnd, so help me, he's still Considering that nylons are a sunding to do so, because they sang-leader.
there, doing lifts. This time forbidden import (a luxury out thought she was right, y He read the words out aloud, he can hardly make it of keeping with wartime These are the things that are for the boys, then set them to'
There are so many Little austerity), Formosa's Chinese real do. Formoen-at-war not, a The music in a foow, all to Guys who can hardly make it girls manage, to show a re- Red dragon across the Formosa "gether". manner.
that Formum faces ultimately amarkably well-stockinged leg in Strait.
A microphone was set up on steel, DAN PAGE What you really should see home. And the police who took
Fhid
But he (a disinfectant) Comrade took almost all the
stomach
result he suffered from
પા
who sur
"ARTIE'S HEADLINE.
"I'm taking part in the Anglo-American study