THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1955.
DID IT HAPPEN? ◄
MY FIRST
FIRST SECRET AGENT
U13420 -
N 1939, just after the war began, I wrote a thriller about German secret agents in Turkey, called Journey Into Fear." Later it was chosen as the Evening Standard Book of the Month for July 1940, In that book, there is a professional secret agent called Banat. He is the only character I have ever drawn directly from life. This is how I came to meet him.
In the summer of '39 I went to Turkey, intending to spend a week or two on Prinkipo. However, the only possible hotel on the island was crowded and very short of fresh water, so after a bit I went back to Istanbul and bocked a passage on boat trading down the coast Beirut. It was to leave in three days.
The summer is not the best time to be in Istanbul. The temperature may stay in the nineties for days on end, and sometimes gres into the hundreds. Then, everything seems to quiver and you feel as if you were walking on layers of rubber hot water bottles. On those" days, one of the cooler places in the city is the Great Razaar of Stambul.
was
Emperor's stable
!] It is a curious place. Some kay that the oldest part of it built originally by the Emperor Justinian as stabling for his wo thousand horses. Now, it is a miniature town,
and with streets and squares cross-roads and alleyways; but cade vast arcade el roofed in like
inhabited entirely and
shopkeepers
every evening
who
leave
hv
by
It
covers a wide area, has eight
massive entrances, and is
one
of the Easiest
places i
the.
world in which to get lost.
However, you go in by the NuruGemanly gate, turn right
walk for Immediately and hundred yards or so, you will come to a lane called Sahadár Caddesi. A short way along Is the shop
of Murad Shitin, who dcals in rugs. silver. embroidery, and jewellery: He descent and a is of Persian. founder member of the Istanbul .. Billiards Club.
It was in Murad's shop, that I Arst saw Banat."
SPY
by
ERIC
AMBLER
PY stories with exotic set- lings have always been He
Eric Ambler's speciality.
is also the man responsible for such exciting film scenarios as The Way Ahead (1944) and The Cruel Sea (1953) His own life has been eventful enough. From London Univer- uty he went first to engineer- advertising. ing. Then #inally professional writing. He began the war in the artillery, ended as Assistant Director of Army Kinema- tography with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
to
He 13 45; married, much-travelled. has a South Kensington address.
to
Drawing by BELE "Banat's eyes never left the ring. It fascinated bim. Once or twice he held it up to the electric Ilght and then the stone glowed red like a ruby.
electric light and then the storie glowed red like a ruby. The only
time he spoke
ask in was to halting French who the previous cwner had been. At last he rose" and said he would come back.
Murad nodded and saw him out of the shop without another word.
This was unusual, for Murad was a talkative salesman. When le came back, I said: "Will he buy?"
"I hope cot."
"Who is he?"
Murad hesitated. "He is secret agent," he said at length.
With the heart
"I don't know. Why?"" "Because I am afraid alone with him,”
I thought, of course, that he was being fanciful Minds are tortuous in that part of the world, and there is D belief in the prevalence of secret agens
that amounts to an obsession. In Turkey last year I was solemnly assured by intelligent friends that Douglas Fairbanks. Jnr., who had recently spent a few days there discussing a pro- jected alm about the life of Kemal Ataturk. was really "member of the British secret service and that the film project was his "cover story." For the gossips of Istanbul an elaborate "ypy" action is always more credible than a dull fact.
Corner table
ܕ ܂
dine
Just by the Beyazit mosque is a pleasant garden with
a small restaurant und a cafe outside where old men play tric-trac and smoke narghilye. Two nights later I went up there to and read. I had been there some time before I noticed that one of the two men sitting at an isclated corner table by the kitchen was "Banat."
suffocatingly
The night was hol, but he still wore his lumpy. brown suit and his new grey te He was eating a kebab of mutter. floating on, yoghourt. He would examine each piece of mest to be carefully before putting it in his mouth. Then, as he chewed, he would look round the room like dog over a plate of scraps. It he had recognised me, he gave no sign of having done so; and he seemed equally unaware of the person with whom he was dining.
Murad is a lean, powerfully built man even now, Then, the idea of his being frightened by the odd creature who had just gone cut made me laugh,
He struck he breast insig- "You think I am, jok- rargly, ing? You saw the way he locked at the ring. He has a passion fer stones, that one. I know: He would think nothing of kiil- g me there was no other
way."
4
A
A monotone
The latter had his back to me. He was a tall, thin, bald man ir a blue cotton shirt. His comm- panion's inattention did not seem to trouble him, for he talked steadily in a low monotone and with many small gestures, caught an occasional interroga- tive uttered in a louder tone. He was speaking German.
Another story in the series of FACT or FICTION tales which poin tho probism... Did it really kappon? Tomorrow brings
the answer.
INDIA'S NEW REVOLUTION
DIVORCE INSTEAD
OF SUICIDE
By T. VOHRA
21
'New Delhi. only on her husband. REMARKABLE social Another breach in the citadel of orthodoxy is being made by revolution. whose.
ahl which for the first time main author is Mr in the long history of Hindus, Jawaharlal Nehru, has been will confer equal rights on brought about by the daugters with their brothers to passage of a bill granting the property of their parenta,
The Qual reform concerning the right of divorce to the divorce and property rights has Hindu wife.
common purpose, as completa How urgent the need for economie dependence of women The other man toked down this step is borne out by the Was a necessary postulata for the indissoluble nature of the at a thin brief-case propped fact that in one of India's
Hindu marriage, against the wall by
Small states, ... Saurash- In the Nest,
according to us and then with his toe pushed it along the wall until it was by tra, comprising a popula- authority, the daughter was "Banat's chair. After
this tion of only four raillions, legislated out of existence, the wife became part of the neither of them said a word
there is an average of one husband's family and the widow When soon after they got up and left, it was "Barat who suicide a day among women was presumed to have died."
almost all of the suicides Now, under Mr Nehru's
book
cok the brief-case.
was
So casual
his chair,
a
guldanduced is
re-
radical
and:
seven
My boat sailed the next day. being attributable to the formist and it was three weeks before cruelty of husbands and change I got back to Istanbul; but I had
orthodoxy, which maintained hitherto indissoluble nature the murder in a
its hold over Hinda society read about crian
during the long' Muslim andi Syrian newspaper, A German of the Hindu marriage. Erabassy official in Ankara had According to the text, the re- British rules,.. has visibly!
Hindu the husband's weakened.. under the been found with his throat cut. lation outlasted
rule within that It
the death, and even a widow could majority rumoured victim had previously asked the not therefore remarry: This is years of India's independence.
British Reforms Turkish Government for political now a thing of the past.
Mr Nehru asylum.
For eight years, has made the cause
cause of
women The basis of the Hindu social his own and has fought a bitter revolution was partly laid in a long battle to secure for the British period when, in do- thém marital enquality.
Hindu with faces of the existing who, hitherto, had all the code, allegedly hallowed by res cede in his ownj favour. "
ligion, British administrators Though legislatively defeated, boldly banned self-immolation Hindu orthodoxy has by no of widows on their husbands" incans died. Immediately after funeral pyrs, as well as the passage of the Hindu fanticide
of daughters. At the orTM same time the age of consent Marriage Bill, Brahmins ganised
attended was raised and child marriage largely
in was restrained. husbandworship
These
reforms Lucknow.
despite Initial opposition, have stood society in good ancisted
When I saw Murad, I asked him casually about the alexan- drite ting. The casualness did not deceive him.
"Ah! So you have been read
thinking. Perhaps ing and was not so fanciful after all, eh?"
""Did he come back?" I asked, "Immediately after the mur-
"And?"
der."
Murad smiled thinly. "He paid for the ring in German marks." WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES
Put your
a
ceremony
Popular Reaction .. Hind:
the scene.
been
#teach long-suffering Scores of husbands accom- and panied by their obedient wives, women to gain social freedom.
billis are
mark of They The new arrived on squatted in a row while their the awaldened social conscience respective wives sat in front of of free India, seeking to confer Women them. After washing their an honoured place on
new democracy, which husbands feet, they then "wer in the
Do doubt, cecupled in shipped them to the chanting they
carient India.. of hymns by Brahmins.,
The British reforms of Hindu Popular reaction ic this quaint ceremony has been che society, accompanied by spread- ing education, have spelled the of ridicule. IL has
rula of Brahmanical sway. Fer interpreted as the last stand of haps the queerest point is that retreating orthodoxy.
Brahmins like Mes assailed or many sides.
The complete hold which the until new held, "over inale has
Educated women. liberally he weaker sex is illustrated by
represented in Parliament and the theory that a daughter was
mary high public edices, no held in trust by the parents longer believe in the old ideal
ner" of husband-god and have until her legitimate "owner"
therefore could not the worship of the husband, Whipple-daughter,
any The answer: inherit
properly of hor however degraded, is equal to parents' family, She had claim the worship of God himself.
NO
space
the tick In above, and keep the panel until Monday, when the answer will be given together with another story by ..
now
have now led the assault
against their own caste.
that afternoon private office
1.described is how and this "Bana" in "Journey Into Fear." "He was a short, thin man with a stupid face; very bony,
"KP'li Tha: little men?" with large nostrils, prominent
"Why not? It is his business, cheekbones, and full lips pressed
killing for money.". together as if he had sore guns
“You said he was
3 secret or were trying to keep his tem-
digent per. He was intensely pale and his small, deep-set eyes and
That is
what he calls him
come up in the thinning, curly hair seemed in
Now, although I had written seif. He has consequence
darker than they a number of stories about sples world. Once, his price for killing
William Sansom At last he stopped. "Banat really
The
-hundred were.
only was his and secret agents, I had never, man
story Fire, arrived 10 marry her A belled against the notion that. plastered in streaks across
to my knowledge, se eyes on pounds Turkish. Now he works swallowed the food in his mouth
be thinking. Did yesterday's wore a skull. He
crumpled que before. I was intensely for the German itelligence ser- and appeared to
by Dorothy I have never bought anything brown suit with lumpy padded curious. Whom did he work for? vice and buys jewels. You would Then he glanced across the Fire
once and went actually happen? from Murad, who deals only it
shoulders. ឌ soft shirt with an What was his nationality? Where not call me sentimental about table, nodded
NO. the more precious objects, but almost invisible collar and a did he work? + he is a hospitable man, fond of
"No, I wouldn't.” talking English and fond of new grey tie." showing for your admiration He was sweating profusely,
Attar of roses
the
what he has to sell One of the things he had shown me that time had been a fine alexand- rite ring priced at 5,000 Turkish le his shop I went
fire..
Jire.
When I
the following day, he came out of his private office and told me that he had someone in there who was interested in the ring. I said that I would come back later. but he seemed anxious for me to stay and, having sent the boy out for coffee, ushered me
hair
w35
and exuded a strong small of altar of roses. He did nos leck though he had 5,000 lire; Murad introduced me friend, there co other business,
as a
"Let us not speak of him." "But I'm interested. How do you know he's a secret agent?”.
"In the bazaar one knows many things,"
money."
Պ
Obsession
"All the same, I do not like it
alexandrite ring, then got out when he buys from me." Murad stared gloomily down at the
safe. But after a moment his keys and began to open the
two he paused and looked at me
"Well, why do you hope he won't
bug that ring "Barat" eyed me absently and like that must be bought, with "It is not for him. A jewel.. thes resumed his contemplation
the table the heart." of the ring lying on
Has he got the money to pay before him. Murad had bought
he for it the ring in Cairo and now he
"He might have." produced a British Beard of
"I didn't know spies earned again. Trade assay certificate which had come with it. But "Banat's" so much," eyes never left the ring. It This is how I saw the man appeared to faschate him. Once who sat or the diver in Murad's or twice he held it up to the
j.
Murad signed irritably. "I did not say he was a spy. Way do you think I forced you to stay?"
*
CE
"I have to take the money from his hands," he said, "and thirsk of what those hands may have done for it."
A CHILD OF FORTUNE.
B
SAID
RITAIN was shocked.
Greek rebels had shot
six ministers and
THE
GIPSY.
By Harold M. Harris
generals, after a crushing great marriage
with a
Happy and was alredy breaking up when Philip came to a pre- paratory school in England.
king's families of Europe in his
It was arranged that
the then defeat in their country's son. She will lose her husband father's palace in Copenhagen, mother's brothers,
and founded a dynasty which Marquess of Milford Haven and interminable wars with while she is still young."
and Lord Louis Mounthatten, should Turkey. King Constantine Readers with an appetite for was to shuffle backwards
Prince's the young was in exile for the second royal gossip will find a banquet forwards between the throne and become
in a new book about the Greek exile during the Balkan and guardians.
From time to time, Princess time.
One of his brothers, royal family, (Royal Destiny, by world wars which ravaged his
Marina visited England. She Prince Andrew, was "under E. E. P. Tisdall), if they do not adopted country,
had been the favourite great- sentence of death.
get lost, in the maze of family
He fell to an assassin's bullet niece of Queen Alexandra, and relationships.
after 49 years on the throse had stayed twice at Sandring- HMS Calypso anchored in Phaleron Bay.
was succeeded by Con- ham. The Queen Mother saw Her captain, The story starts in 1663 when and
the eldest of his replica of herself when young in Commander Talbot, hurried the Greeks, having got rid of stantine,
a the beautiful Greek princess, ashore with an official British one king, were looking hopefully seven children, who married
. of grand-daughter
Queen Prince round Europe for another. He protest.
secured
STATE WEDDING Victoris. She was also -the Andrew's release, drove him
AN ASSASSIN .fl Kaiser's sister, and it was the back to the ship, and on the way collected the Prince's wife, four
allies in the 1914-18 war who Perhaps the Greek princess Constantine to me her. English second cousin, daughters, and year-old son.
They asked for Queen Vic forced King Seventeen years later, King teria's second s00: She refused abdicate the first time, They Prince George, on one of these of pro-German visits. But it was not until 1933 hat they got to know one an- George VI of England, accom to sacrifice him on such a peril accused him
other. Queen and the ous throne, and offered them her sympathies. panied by the two
Princesses, inspected Dart brother-in-law; they declined.
The Greek royal family spent She suggested the Duke of
Outside their Immediate circle mouth naval college. After tea, one of the cadets took Princess Devonshire's heir: the negotin the rest of the war in Switzer-
tions fell through. Then her land, where Marina's father, the little notice was taken when the walk in
eye tell
on William, king's brother, started painting gay bachelor prince escorted a new and dazzling beauty to the the college grounds, shrewd the baby rescued by second son of the Crown Prince professionally and gave theatre and cinema. Then, He was
her first painting He was in Lon-daughter Commander Talbot The cadet of Denmark.
the summer of 1934, be sudden- ly cancelled all his engagements, and the Princess did not meet, don for the wedding of his lessons,
Elizabeth (then aged 13) for
Li
in
for nearly six years, sister, Alexandra, to the Prince Most of the exlies returned to borrowed the Prince of Wales's There are many other links of Wales (later Edward VII).
·
Greece when the new king airplane, and flew to Yugoslavia (Constantine's second son) was whers Marina was visiting her: between the house of Windsor The Greeks elected him with bitten by a pet monkey and died sister Princess and the tempestuous Greek acclamation. On
of the Danish house of Bayan 1103, Onada, Ortber of septicaemia, Bad Constantine engagement wessoa, The Glucksburg A-fortune-teller's prophecy about a Greek prin Willy landed in Greece as King was forced to abdicate for the days Inter
cess, Prince Philip's cousin, came
Tragically true when the Dulce' of 'Als New.country, not of its HE COURi and Bow began": "ding in Wedgingler “Abbey:
Kent crashed to his death од
second time and died in Sleily, a The new Duchess of Kent George L He knew nothing of crushed and defeated man. exchanged the obscurity
Farisian exile for a state wed- was soon to language. He was just 18 com
come a republic, WHAT In the intervals of ruling his the long exile Prince Philip's counting two future This is a child of fortune" na country, King George went parents, after their terrifying, among her bridesmaki Prin the gipsy had said of the baby by steam tram to the seaside experience, found a house at St cess Julians of Holland and the Sunday swim, spent Cloud, on the outskirts of Paris, nine-year-old Elizabeth of Eng- Princesa Marina "She will be for his bematikul. She will, make a Christmas with half the royal But their marriage was not land,
the Scottish coast:
back to his kebab.
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