THE
CHINA" MAIL, WEDNESDAY, MAY
25, 1955,
The strange old man with the kindly eyes
the British Lieutenant
whose mother was superstitions.
Were th
real?
Is the story true?
Tomorrow you will know the answer.
A QUESTION OF LUCK
by Michael Pertwee
W
HEN Jim Preston jolned my
unit in the summer of 1944 я
a sort of learner officer he was a fresh-faced lieutenant who looked nearer 19 than his actual age of 29. He was trying desperately to grow a moustache and, after some six weeks of effort, a soft golden down could be de tected on very sunny days.
Jim, through no fault of his own, was a bit of a mother's boy. His father had been killed in the 1914-18 war and his mother had never really got over it. The boy waS her only link with the man she had loved and she had put what was left of her heart into him from the moment he was born.
to talk about He used mother rather in the way that..
his
old The
MAO
spoke to Preston. "Grat samething for you. Here, take this m for lack. Wouldn't part with it, but had my ahaře. Good- bye, son."
roads a away.
DRAWING BY KOOLMAN
we were
and
DID IT HAPPEN
us in the read, where our Jeep bad stood, was a guping hole, The
car had literally been blown to pieces.
As I struggled to my feet, something in Jim Preston's open palm glinted in the sun-light. 1 saw that it was a guiden four leafed clover on a chain. This must have been what the "Ogre had given him for huck-Jim's own lucky charm which the old man must have found. Well, an obscure sort of way, it had certainly proved be lucky.
TO TOM..
MESTE MARINTIST ZA PLETH
I picked it up to put it in pocket, fearing that it might be lost again. It was certainly Jim's for there was the inscrip- tion:
w
To darling Tom for Luck."
T
EVE OF ELECTION ROUND-UP
INFLUENCE OF THE FLOATING VOTERS
By ROBERT MACKENZIE
HE short answer to major propositions advanced by far this is the case, but on the the question, "who the party they intended to sup- face of it there would appear to port. In some instances, indeed, be little ground for concern in decides the out- they favoured more of the pre- the fact that the electorate is come of the elec- positions. on the list proposed not deeply moved or even parti- cularly interested in the in- tion?" is, of course: "the by the rival party.
The conclusion that appears to evitably overheated arguments floating voters." But who emerge is this: most voters carry that go on in the hothouse are they and why do they with them what the experts call atmosphere of the election cam float?
"parly image. They have paign.
2
The social scientists have been a picture in their minds of what NEW VOTERS.
The decline in importance of busily probing into this and a each party stands for and, in number of other related subjects particular, whether or not the
to serve the the individual candidate is an- since the end of the war. They party la likely
interests of people like them other matter. Here the parties themselves and the BBC appear have produred a whole serics of elec election studies, which tell us selves. much more about our own voting behaviour than we have ever known before, although merci fully it is still impossible to predict with certainty the out-
this of election. come
This image appears in most to be gravely at fault. All con- cases to have been formed of the cerned stem content to allow impressions built up over a great only a dozen national figures in
all-powerful media of many years. Asked to describe each party to make use of the In the United States it, some electors may resort to all powert the simplest of sloganeering:
every candidate without
excep unything tion
Certain patterns of behaviour "The Tarles are the party of the evers an opportunity to speak
בודדים.
com-
can now, however, be identified rich. they didn't de in bold outline. It seems clear about unemployment before the to the electors on radio and tele-
be vision in their "The Labour Party that most of us are what might war." be called "habitual voters." Not lieves in nationalisation, form- munitles This would be more everyone would go so far as the filling, ration books and queues voter who said when inter- A SHOCK viewed during the course of the
to 'the
the
studies
the
difficult to arrange, granted the present structure of broadrast ing in this country.
side
but
last campaign. "I would vote for said by the individual candi- casts on a party political basis. It would seem that very little But certainly if regional broad- a pig if my party put one
most dates or his party in the course were permitted, there would not But it appears that voters pay very little attention of an election campaign is likely be the slightest difficulty in in seeing to it that several kun personal qualities of the to change the party image But I looked again. Tom-candidates between whom they the minds of the great majority dred candidates of each
were able to be heard or seen. So of electors. yes Tom, not Jim. stood there,
invited to choose.
These discoveries about the in the homes of the electors trembling, staring down at the are
so that much
processes of the voter during the campaign. Such a "Ogre's" calm, dead face and
would not in itself of the main have come as a shock to some change headquarters
have ensure a revival in importance firmly ardent democrats. They Divistun. It was just collapsing from old twisted body, one arm of which elections (and the experts at the mental
was thrown in a curiously pro parties) seem
fairly
the individual
candidate, tective gesture round the
agreed that no candidate, how been disturbed to discover that of shoulders of the unconscious ever strong or weak, is likely to the election does not bear much it would undoubtedly be a step
resemblance to a court of law, in that direction. Preston, and I heard a voice
be worth more than 500 vates
with
the electors sitting
But to return to the question saying:
either way.
Jurymen Judge and
pondering who decides? Three categories "Got something for you. Here,
arguments of the defence of voters are of vital importance take this for luck, Wouldn't PARTY IMAGE
in and prosecution.
to answer this attempting part with it but had my 'share.
The election studies also seem
But is there any real ground question. Goodbye-son."
the new to show that most voters are not
First, there are for disillusionment? Is it neces- much influenced by the specias carily either stupid or wrong voters, the people who have issues raised by either side in headed
ignore the turned 21 during the last three. largely to their manifestos and in their heated arguments during the and a half years and who campaign oratory,
few weeks which precede voting place on the electoral rolls those In the course of the last two day? Surely it can be argued adults who have died or left the eminently country during the same period campaigns a sample of the elec- that the elector is
record On balance sensible in assessing the
sems clear that torate were invited to express their approval or disapproval of of a party in and out of office Lebour is likely to make a net
or more?
gain in what might be called the five propositions formulated by over ten 20 years of is Is per-
and of each party. Admittedly-and
"cradle
factor. New grave" representatives
express a ground for concern this voters expr a preference for propositions were in each haps
may be Labour in proportions of perhaps assessment process of case major items of policy which
haphazard and 6 to 5. while the voting prefer- were prominently displayed in dangerously
65. favour the parties frivolous ("Aunt Minnie couldn't ences of those over the literature of
Conservatives in almost get her pension under Laour but the concerned.
exactly the same ratio,, It was discovered that in the Tories have seen to it").
The election studies have not REAL FLOATERS many cases voters actually dis approved of a number of the beer able to determine in
Armoured a gold locket of Guards the rest of us spoke about our showed me
faded, neglect. A wives or girl friends, He was a exactly the same design, which, which was leading the spearhead age
peasant woman little bit ashamed of this and with an astonishing faith in the into Belgium. We drove through middle-aged
bis a countryside littered with the greeted us with the rather weary tried to cover up his obvious efficacy of lucky charms, affection by laughing gently at mother had given him when he wreckage of the German armies, friendliness that was noticeable
With what I Sometimes
even in the liberated areas of north- her idiosyncrasies, one of which went overseas, was that she was extraordinarily privately thought to be ominous advancing parallel with German east France. We gave her grome superstitious,
lack of originality, was troops retreating unhindered on Army rations and she prepared inscribed:
couple of kilometres us a meal.
The sight of the bully beef seemed to cheer her up and she became more conversational. She told us that she was barren; that her husband worked in the fields, that he could talk English better than an Englishman and that he was the ugliest man in Passy-le-Rel, known to one and all as "L'Ogre."
A CHARM
¿
300
"To, darling Jim for Luck." I remember remarking that,
father's ate as an L'OGRE Apparently she spent a large with his
curious ||||||| part of her life touching wood, example," it seemed a
both talisman and avoiding ladders, burying her choice of
Presion tea-cups and hurling inscription,
merely It was evening when we got hose in
and to Passy-le-Roi and, with no She was shrugged his shoulders salt about the room,
signs of the Armoured Division never without a St Christopher grinned."
"It gives Mum pleasure and we decided to stay in the village in the car and a sprig of white
for the night. I'm not superstitious,"
heather, when obtainable, in her button-hole..
When her husband had set off to the wars in, 1915, Mrs Preston had determined to ensure his safety by presenting him with a lucky charm. This was a little gold locker, in the shape of a four-leafed clover, inscribed:
He wasn't then, and neither was I
WRECKAGE
jeep, but it
When, later, he came in we. I cannot remember why, but,
were bound to agree with her as Preston and E climbed out of description, though not with the
claim my jeep, he suddenly realised
that he spoke English that the locket rund his neck better then an Englishman, for had disappeared. We searched his diction was so slurred and around for it in case it had indistinct that it was sometimes What fellowed happened in a fallen off *S be jumped hard to tell what language he little village called Passy-le-Roi, from the somewhere. near Arras, during Anally "To darling Tom for Luck." She hung it round his neck and that extraordinary advance from fallen
Beachhead made him swear never to remove, the Normandy
Whether he did or not no Brussels, and beyond, I had a took the it. one ever knew, for he was miss ittle Field Security Unit, which phically. ing in action a week
after had been attached to 21 Army. Jim Preston and I decided to Despite leaving her and was never seen Group Headquarters until the billet in one of the tiny houses dact that one could not hold any
breakout,
in the village, which looked as sort of conversation with him, agalb
for he warmed
to him, Now we were racing eastwards if it had been hit by a shell, one All this I learned from Jim
the kindest pair of Preston when,
day, he with orders to join up with the although I don't think it had possessed
eyes I have ever seen bright blue, like a sailor's, twinkling with sincere good will upon a world which had done its besti to break him.
decided was speaking. He was obvious- that must have ly a trifle weak in the head. off en route,
He for it
WELS a thin little fellow 10 was nowhere to be seen. He with a twisted body and
quite philoso- nounced limp. His face
nut-brown and very wrinkled. his ugliness, and the
alto
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A SHOUT
pro-
was
It was a strange and some- what strained evening. The woman wÉB naturally taciturn a little difficult to and it was make conversation with a man who constantly said such, things
as
"How are you?...Glad to see you...! Enchante...! Ravi...! Dear old Blighty...! Highty- tiddley-highty.
이
WORLD COPYRIGHT RÉSERVED.
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES
NO
Put your tick in the space share and keep this panel by you`autil iomorrow when the exiger will be givut=w!1!
nother story in this series by ... NICHOLAS MONSARRAT
2
Did resterday's story --- All Dressed Up and Sommeisers to Ge. Painay—actually by Peter do
happen? The answer: NO.
The
Death
haw
Nathaniel Gubbins
from
apart
editorial
re-
The second category are those | former Liberal voters who, must choose between Labour and Con- in this election be- servatives
no Liberal candidate is cause standing in their constituencies.. Almost certainly on balance the
Otherwise Pravda would not Conservatives are likely to bene EVER Know and mained in my memory,
the regular bumping have published another sting at in these circumstances, unless
the the Intervention accusing
of Lady Floating Vote
was the destration of what puzzled, plastered comrades of Megan, Lloyd George on behalf Were walking hand off of unco-operative comrades, ing
to-of Labour
makes 1 decisive in hand.
was described as bourgeoise "drunkenness, boorishiness
wards women and towards the difference.
hooligan- They wept like anything mortality.
family, and general because
Ism.
•
They couldn't understand The questions put by Gallup
polls
Up and down the land.
"I wish I knew," said Fibating
Vote,
"The problems of the hour, And what new Ministers may do And who will be in power." But Never Know said, "Spring
is here,
I'd like to smell 'n flower.""
"I"reven intellectuals
A
In other words a“. marriage could be dissolved by mutual consent. A comrade and a com- radess could appear before court, declare that they were sick of the sight of each other's faces, and within Ave minutes they were both free to marry THE somebody else. Ora comrade could just say he was tired of a comradess, and that was the end of that.
Clifton Now, according to Daniel, New York Times corre
all this spondent in Moscow, has been altered overnight.·
***
Liberals who were forced to choose between the two major.. One of these days, if you are parties in the last election ap- good, I may write for you the pear to have divided, in the ratio terrible story of Fifty-two Lost of 3:2 in favour of the Con- Week-ends in Moscow, or servatives. year in the life of the Commun. ist dipsomaniac Comrade Ivan Avanother.
Border Line
paper
Boaters those voters who
Finally, there are the real 11 decide in this election to change their allegiance from one party the other. A detailed kandy to in a Bristol constituency in the 1850 and 51 elections
and
showed
fact
THE gods, who first make men that no more than four percent (Just (and women) mad before changed their allegiance
Com percent to the they distroy them, were working over three overtime last week,
servatives, fewer than one pers According to an evening new-cent to Labour).
discovered here as It was A puzzled comrade who might
column devoted to the have married a plain, squat girl goings-on in High places women elsewhere that the floaters are from the provinces in the belief competing in a boonet ball at a drawn almost equally from all that the union could be ended Lordon hotel wore thats topped social classes in the community. grapes, It is entirely wrong to think of the moment advancing years with eggs, chickens,
his bride plainer and straw, and even a live budgeri-the Boaters: as being composed made
primarily as members of the squatter
been Informed gar in a cage."
Other women to whom the middle class. They are in that the party line has changed.
peace were a cross section of the community The dumpy peasant he married gods will give to is now his for life.
writing to the papers telling with an appropriate representa-
tion of upper
working readers how they save time.
well. Even worse, as there appears One eats her breakfast while classes as to be no law of libel in Russia, having a bath, soother studies
It has been discovered, in- the newspapers denounce him foreign words and memorises cidentally, that the fosters are notably more intellectual" If he is unfaithful to his pen kitchen weights and measures then the babitual voters. Indeed,
is on the telephone "said sant, particularly if he
in the Bristal survey it was re- well-known member the waiting for a long-distance call,
vealed that most of them were address, place and another says: party. His name,
slightly less interested in the and the name
doing of employment,
am a housewife and address of his girl friend part-time job, my leisure election and paid miner less attention to the issues being for all to see,
Hime is Umited. While enjoy- are published
debated. It would appear that I can do together with a sharp editorial *handing them both a'clanger for not strictly observing the of Communist ethics," which the head boys in
The "Ogre" took to Jim Pres- Discoursed for half a year, ton at once and could not do Do you suppose,” said Floating
Vote, enough for him. I was neither jealous nor surprised, for Jim's "That we could get it clear youthful, innocent appearance "I doubt it much," said Never
to had been known
arouse Know, fatherly Instincts ever in the "Let's drink a glass of beer** stopy heart of an occasional senior Regular officer.
Never Know and Floating Vote We left at arst Eight in the
Walked on a mile or so, woman saw us Until they reached a tavern. morning. The away, but the little "Ogre" had That was comfortable, if low. already gone to the fields. When both had swallowed half
Jim and I were about to climbi a pint into
my jeep when we heard a distant shout and we saw the "Ogre" stumbling and limping towards us across Aeld. He wanted to bye" He fell twice in his efforts to hurry. To save him further ffort we left the jeep, walked in His direction and met him half-
a p
way. By this The "Ogre" saved
our lives.
ERGLISH KENNE
When we met he shook me briefly by the hand, then turned to Jim Preston and grasped his. As he spoke I realised for the first time that he was Englishman.
"G
They had another go, "The time has come,"
Floating Vote,
"To talk of many things. of family men and mcome tax
And who is pulling strings, If cost of living's up or down,
Of price and cartel rings.
we ought to know what's best
for all
And not for furt the few,
norm
of
the
And why inflation's bad for u. Kremlin had only thought up
And what we all should do," the day before...
Said Never Know to Floating
Vole,
"Do you admire the blew?"
an "I ask myself," said Floating
Vote, something for you. Here "Britain should appease take this for luck.. Wouldn't The Russians or Americans part with it, but had my share. Or chat with the Chinese,” Goodby Preston's hand.
zon." He thrust some- Sald Never Knino, "I thinic Td thing into
⚫ like Suddenly tvere
was a a whistle
Some butter,
cheese."
And
to
a while she
in
is
ing television I find Carmi for some reason, perhaps vague, darkness, including cleaning perhaps specific, their party silver, grating stale bread into images had changed. They had
that bread erumbs,
trimming apparently decided
balance they should shift their sprouts, and selling peus,"
elevision is
the allegiance. I hope the people THE SWING
key who spend sleepless nights work- ing out new TV programes will take notice of this audience reaction.
The gods ** also having a
to
Nationally the net swing t the Conservatives in 1951 was no more than 11 percent, but with
the balance between the parties poised on a knife tige, this,
of course, was sufficient to
change of
If this were not enough break a puzzled comrade's heart the shake his faith in benevolence of the regime there is the acute housing shortage to make his home life even more York says we must have en H-produce miserable...
lark, with the rating people,
While tibe Archbishop of
boobnex while nokody is
Not only is the comrade ex- spared details 'of-vbat will hap. Id. “
n the
@
of
change
chap Worrying about decisive, ·
of
#1 weep. for vani," said Flogfing - woman he may, never, furus in the hammarine
Vote,
bread and and an explosion, and we were
the peasant he no longer loves, hurled violently to the ground.
but share it with her mother, a An extremely unusual occurrence place. A for 1944 had taken
loved at all' Some
unlucky "That you should be so dumb comrades share a room with all German airplane. had appeared and even had the temerity to When everyone in all the world their in-laws and their
Might go to Kingdom Come." Therefore it is not
not surprising drop a bomb.
But Never Know was munching that many puzzled comrades get
hand A
plastered before breakfast and go rolling round the town tip- ping their elbows at taverne and ika is sold all (where vodka is
ger back at Will they, stanager
room full of single room
At first I thought I wa
I was hurt, for 1 could not move. Then, as the dust settled, I
I saw the figure It was the acroes my leg awled limply geldend with a wound in "OTKER
of a
And finished every crumb. (Respectful acknowledgments to
the cheat which must have tora Paradise Enow
the heart from out of him. And
yet on that battered, ugly face
was, a look of peace which
He writes in a
***It is permissible to
if the
Rover
more than
"four per
the "population, their
of allegiance will be
A
one percent shift in
the popular vote from one party.
to
Bayo.....
that you hunt in pink, but not!
will
other
ier if it is fairly throughout the coun-
result Am 187
that you west pink coat. changing hands You wear a red cost, but you
wing were to the
cannot ty that you hunt in Conservatives it would increase red. You can also say that their majority by 36. If the one you wear a scarlet coat, but percent swing were to Labour would give them a majority the expression Hunting
slightly but not much larger scarier is on the border line than the one they had after tão Considering the times Wo live
1950 electioningly, the pärites gry, dumpy in order line is the right Not surprisingly, setexpression, pal. If you are in have been residuously attempt What happens then is any need of sympathetic medical ing to discover all they can
to a Ären and angry, women
the world to shame. WHEN I fredead about the body's guese, but there seeme attention make an appointment about the potential," Bosqera, and
Preston lay unconscious ber W
in little doubt that the dumps are with Dr. Gubbins, the phoney courting them/wlika
Fleet Street paychiatrist fervour,
aide him spreadeagled Behind Russia, the one thing that ra often knocked for six
1