Did It Happen?
One more problem for you
Lo solve in this series of FACT
or FICTION tales by famous
writers. All theas stories COULD be true. Tomorrow the answer will be given.
Ο
Na day in March we
THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1955.
PANCAKE AND THE
MYSTIC
WORD...
were
to on our way
1944 # naval cap-Arromanches?" tain leaned back in
his office chair, gave
in
alone
"Walls
I
"Hush!" He looked at me me a tigerish grin, and horror, though we were said: "You've got to be told and the door was shut. certain things, and course, you are well aware that if you should speak of said
of
have cars!"
Our relationship stiffened.
formally: "My name's Moore," Equally formally he them to anybody else you replied: "Glad to meet you, would be shot...." Half an Meore. My name's Pancake". hour later I knew the Allied plan for the invasion of Normandy.
"Pardon me mentioning it, but we don't scribble on blot- ting pads here. You might ro out for lunch, a messenger reads your notes, and there's a breach of security! The Admiral had
though all the guy had done guy on the mat for it last week: was to make a note of a tele- waa phone number when he dating up a dame"
I soon discovered that Pan- cake was possessed, bedevilled, idea utterly "bewitched by the of Security. He talked and Inexcusably.. I laughed, I was thought of nothing else.. He feeling tense after my initiation was one of those admirable but the plan was vast, majestic and tiresome people who seemed to burden of the frightening: I was appalled by take
He Straight from my initia- he responsibility of knowing war upon their shoulders. tion I was conducted to the Also I didn't believe anybody always left the office later than to share with could be called Pancake, and I-I did and arrived before me in office I was
Thus he found thought he was pulling my leg. the morning. my American counterpart. He said sharply: "What's funny one day, a French dictionary which I had left overnight on Ike had declared: "We have about that?"
my desk.
by JOHN MOORE
John Moore's usuel canvas is the English countryside.
✔ Of his studies and stories, Branskom Vliage and The
Blue Field are the best known. The Season of the Year
i latest book-appeared fast aufumo.
In 1929 Moore abandoned rod and rucksack and bised the Hory. At first p pilot in the Fist Air Arm he went to the Admiralty in 1944. That period is the ** point of departure for this episode.
Moore 17, married, has noor Tawksbury, and has been chairman of the Challanham Festival of Con- temporary Literature ince 1949. He is cla en accom
•plished broadcollar.
take the whole
German agents
The cleaning woman," said, "must have notleed What do you imagine she may hopeus a report about you have deduced from it? I ought 'really."
He had got it into his head that I was a Bad Security Risk, and my reaction, was to assume
UNITED STA
"DRAWING BY SHOWELL,
We were both tired out and overwrought and I dare say we were
cetually shouting at each other when a messenger came ta..
What if I should talk in my April passed, the May days sleep there was no limit to the lengthened, that beautiful spring absurdity of my fears and tell came and went unknown to us my wife when and where we
series
ha
NATHANIEL
GUBBINS
UCETTE CANFIN, 19- But my cosband say. 'No. Stop
Lyear-old French, sici Parties mean for men only,
married to an RAF Afterwards I find every-.
thing is stag. He go to stay policeman, has informed a
dinners, he ave a stag cloob. reporter in Paris that she is
But when he say he is going scared of going to England.
to 'are a stag "oliday I say, No, no, no. I cannot be sure if you are going away wis re stags
something nicer," "
Although I don't know what's scaring her apart from strikes "and" terrible tales told in France of the food sold in English cafes
I car both warm her and get her mind at rest about one or two matters.
OT
IF you ever take a tour round
the
England Locatie, you can
avold hardly
Lavender Ladies in their olde worlde tea
shoppes.
For instance, she might have read about a man. suspended from his club in Porthcawl. for
eating snails and candles to At first you will be sorry for the consternation and discom- them. fort of members."
Lucette mast be accustomed
to snail-eating in her
to candles
CAD
an
They are obviously out phrage
of the top drawer, a
meaning people of good breed- ing. You will say this is wint
It has
are so
white
country. As everybody who has the Welfare State has done for these pathetic, disinherited been to Boulogne for a
gentlewomen.
tured knows, it is one of the national them into tradespeople and dishes. But she is also aware that French snails are bred for waitresses when they ought to «be drinking bes on the terrace Instead
peaked her of
the table, are cooked appetising- despatch-rider's
cap she worey in garlic and are "rather at the old ancestral home. an absurd little
The Lavender Ladies which different from snails picked up matched the summer day. Her in the garden and eaten raw. called because they are usually coat and skirt were of the latest
dressed in starched lavender fashionable shade
of 'red. I If she is scared that she will
smocks, were going, to land? She was a save when we glimpsed blue couldn't have described it, but be expected to cat garden snails
please igners give the oddest names and desig
Their hair is unmlly Wren, but she came up to Lon- skies through the effice window to the most ordinary colours. eccentric host she needn't worry and their sad, refined faces acr
The horrible their any more.
thurninated meal occasionally
..by he don occasionally for week-end and thought grimly: "We shall and they had exercised
upon this one; for was eaten for a wager, or "pour quick, brave smiles to give you despatch need this weather in June." We imagination leave. She had that.
in le sport,"
old is not an Did the impression that they don't rider's pass, and once or twice
"the were overworked, anxious and my wife included both of us at
For the same really voice British custom.
understand this sord irritable. We had a
disarming grin, and in of સ office, an informality of which little quarrels Culminating in which seemed to ring like a bell reason sporting chaps in Britain world of profit making but had called to see me
Pancake
He disapproved
their crosses. his one great quarrel on the last through the whole building she have eaten 24 basins of jellied bearing scrabbled
eels at a sitting and all the thoroughbreds. ostentatiously
she morning of all. Later in the inquired:
Sausages that could be strung papers into a heap when
day we were going to join our
"How do you like my mul-between two lamp-posts. respective ships, we had no came in.
more work to do, and idly berry sult?"
If Lucette thinks she may de They wouldn't have meant
reading a pacer I
that noticed
come 2 mother, a statement tried teebly to explain:
much to her: the job we were a perse called Overlord was I saw Pancake's head jerk up made by the Rov: JD. Under-
When you see that long- in running
3 race Overlord from the no opposite numbers on my
papers which he'd
wood of Warlingham, Surrey. Angered, blue-veined, aristo British, "Shrove Tuesday. You toss them
working on concerned the arti- "staff, American or
was the code name of the in- benn leaning over like a hen might make her a bit uneasy; cratic hand trembling as it tots Acial harbours. The code name in a frying pan."
"Mulberry," and even
vasion plan: Mainly to tease incubating her eggs. I caught a In his parish magazine he asked we are all one"; so although
within the four walls of our Pancake I said I would back the glimpse of his white and has godmothers at christenings the American did in fact sit "We call those Rapjacks," he
office we spoke this
mystic
S horse.
gard face, and I don't remember to shake crying babies up word in hushed tones; we even
much of what happened next-down like cocktails. opposite me, at one of those sald.
witch ased
It. Like
"And give the whole show my wife tells me I shooed her flat oblong desks
And you all know, security
speaking of their most
out of the office as if she'd been which one passes the red busied ourselves with our papers.
Is mortci's chiefert enemy,
saying sacred
"Soft away," said Pancake nastily. would pass the I suspected that in this parti- which he didn't think funny at
Poor Pancake. fruits" instead ink as one
German agents who
ten I cular instance Allied co-opera- all. He saw
whose nervousness pepper at a restaurant,
Oddest names imagination times his
than mine, grew. worse wasn't going to work as evented London with spies, still more harassed and haggard tried hard to think of him tion
I as something other than an well as the Supreme Commander populated
and as D-day approached as the days went by, and I
ner- caught his unreasonable opposite number, and per- would
coming a trifle unbalanced He haps I began a shade too sure of it a little later, when vousness I would wake up in sometimes thought he was be
during a telephone conversation the night and sweat with terror said to me one day: heartily, for I said:
I jotted down some notes on my lest I might accidentally in the blotting pad, and Pancake, fx- course of a conversation let slip Don't you wish, old, boy, ing me with his bleak stare, a revealing word, lest indeed I
had already done so. was over and said patiently: that all this
T
across
I
After that we sat down and
have wished. I was
light-hearted and mocking attitude to the whole business which I was very far from feel ing. I teased him about Security. I even copied out a quotation from Macbeth and hung it up in the office:
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HE calendar watch has become as essen-
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Incorporated in this superb watch are many famous Rolex features; the intricate movement is perfectly guarded from dust, damp, and perspiration by the unique Oyster case and "Twinlock" Safety Crown, which keep it water- proof even when the 'stem is pulled out for hand- setting; the seconds are counted out by a priceful, sweep second-hand; the date is clearly showi automatically, in a neat window on the dial; and, of course, the movement itself is beautifully built by Rolex craftsmen, ensuring the accuracy for which every Rolex watch is justly famous."
The Rolex Oysterdate fulfils a need for a bighly legible calendar watch of elegance and precision at a moderate cost.
ROLEX
Landmark in the history of
Time measurement.
28
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"
in the Rolex Oysterdate
借
1 Shows the date clarly and automatically in a neat window on the dial
2 Completely, waterproofiat
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3 Further protected by the
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10 World-wide Rolex perekce e
was
was
an
on Intruding car, and I have impression ot Pancake glaring at me and saying "So like a Secret Service agent on the films,
and
not
Get that idea out
of your head
Lucette. The art once. Lavender Licies are the modern highwaymen of Englarxi
up the bill with a coloured
pencil decorated
and Par
with ribbons,
don't imagine that the Lavender Lady is confused
an ice-cold,
humed by figures:
Under those white curls there is cold, calculating brain putting
on extra twoperices for india-rubber
buns full scores,
LTHOUGH I can testify that, of phoney cream, and even add- unfortunately, this is an old ing 6d. for extra hot water to fill up your teapot. The hand is British custom. I can assure her, trembling because the owner is
a godfather. The absurdity of this made
Then he stumped off no as a father me laugh, and Pancake saw fit doubt to see the nest of Naval that it never does the baby any wondering if she can get away to remark that if I was pre- Intelligence. I caught my train permanent
though it with it. pared to sacrifice the lives of
often makes it sick. I never saw him
"The landlady's small boy half a million men for the sake to Portsmouth and duly landed where I lodge says he wants to
of a bet of a few shillings, well, in France; He asked me Judas was the word he would keep silkworms. about them. Do you think it's use. all right?"
In the club
again..
harm.
two All the same there are aspects of English Hfe that
and go there is another
AND that's not all. If you It sometimes makes me sad to will seem peculiar to Lucette if think you will just pay your
10 bill she ever Ands the courage think that somewhere in the
party and the other Ye Olde
All around you in conspicuous Soon we were at it hammer and great United States of America / make the trip. One is the stag shock coming to you.
there lives a man called Pan- Woride Tea Shoppe, run by the places there will be Ittle boxes cake who firmly believes that a Lavender Ladies.
with slits in them asking for. Sritish naval officer confided to
Lips.
At the door, barring your his wife in full detall the plan
I once met a French girl,
exit,
there will be the frailest for the landings in Normandy. married to an Englishman, who and sweetest Lavender Lady
was puzzled and finally in with the whitest hair » WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED
***
and furiated by the stag situation.
smoothest line of sales talk. She will be the owner of
this When her husband told her tough joint who will try to soon after their marriage, that he was going to a party, it was charm you into buying useless trifles barbola and poker natural for her to assume that
and mugs in- she was going too. Frenchmen bed with Whimsey phrases in
I snapped back at him and tongs. We were both, of course, tired out and overwrought, and I dare say
we were actually "What on earth do you mean?" shouting at each other when
messenger came in to say my wife had called to see me.
her up." and said: "Show
Pancake, with 2 watched pincers movement of his arms. sweep up his papers into a heap.
on
feed "Well, silkworms mulberry, don't they? Maybe it's just a coincidence; but, bo asked me about it several times. It got me worried, somehow, Couldn't sleep.".
My wife entered, leaving the Another day, when he was door open behind her, explain- looking really ill. I took him out ing all in one breath that she'd to my club for a drink. He stood got 24 hours leave, she'd been at the bar squinting furtively shopping, the sunshine had had. over the top of his glass at the its usual effect, she's bought a members, new coat and skirt, she couldn't highly
respectable obviously trying to decide which resist wearing it, she hoped the Wren wouldn't see her were spies. On the way back to Queen
I out of uniform,... She looked the office he suggested that ought to lay off that joint," so pleased with herself where the folks looked kind of have melted the heart of ang-
body except perhaps Pancake. insecure."
she'd
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES
NO
• Put your tick in the apɑze abors and kaợp this panel by you until tomorro
when the answer vili la plyen-with unsther story in this sarist by ja
STANLEY® MOSS
Did yesterday's story on The Cold Cigarette Casa, by Charlet Morgan actually happen? The answer : NO.
always. took their wives to the
parties.
"But," she said to me, “when
ABSA
local patois like "Cum
and Tak a Dish o In the gentle, spothing I put on my 'at my cusband say, voice of the hypnotist, she will remind you thet *today's You can take it off because you souvenirs are tomorrow's heir-
When I k 'are not coming?
looms."
why, he say, 'Because it is for No, Lucette, they don't carry
uns.
stags.' For a moment I think per cps the English are as mad as they say and they take stags to parties before, they "unt them.
They do very nicely without the
CAN WE FACE RUSSIA'S
T
World. Copyright.]
HIGH-OCTANE DIPLOMACY?
HIS dizzily revolving
scene of international
diplomacy on which
By Rene MacColl
you and I are gazing these go eating humble-pie in fact that Krushchev took at the lodge of the Russian days reminds me of the dif- Titoland. ference between the world wars.
; repertory until just recently, are out this season. Expect, instead, an exponent of the noble art of self-disarmament · whose technique will make the one over the eight in public Embassy, who a year ago Marits of Queensberry seem
like a bar-room, brawler, at the farewell party in would have received me Belgrade when Russia belts with about as much enthur What of the West? Display- hardly say, was not the re- them a savage diplomatic siasm as though I had been ing perhaps a certain nervous
you could call it, more THE 1914 BRAND pro- sult of some sentimentally blow by asking West Ger- Trotsky's ghost, the other kindly closing their wanks! duced the long agony of rash, impulse. static trench watchfulness. agree with
just passed.
two
That decision, I need
"
Nor do I
WHAT NEXT?
week.
they
Dulles and Play the suggestion many's Adenauer to come day led me tenderly into Macmillan,
and have a nice time in the embassy's garden and went into a preliminary buck
: Moscow. You could compare that that it was caused by eco-
asked me how I like the die in New with the seven
of domic agricultural troubles
Then, heads held years
roses!
flew to San-Francisco Russia, although "cold war" inside
Everywhere the Russians diplomatic
are putting on The Greatest
got what tit Have our steam g which
we "have those do exist. through
But In-
with ithe Show on Earth.
takes to keep paed The great Krushchev
stead of shouting Father
bewilderingly new-model Ros a deli-
kiars?
I reserve judgment. Francisco WORLD WAR II was all fawning act was
That started a coming, right up.
Until the other it's wonderful!" with
day Dulles sweep and thrust, with the berate piece of cold policy-Divine's slogan of "Peace What next? San armoured divisions whip planning. And it has paid scowl and a threat, they merely as a sort of Old Boys was obsessed with Formosa
reunion, to mark the 10th ami Now Formosa might just as ping about here, there, and off.
are now smilingly murmur- versary of the founding of well have been quietly sunk at behind you. That is what
ing it to background music" UNO, TITO A NEHRU. goes on diplomatically to-
of "Hearts and Flowers," day.
kas..
-
Ms moorings, the Red Chinese having obligingly stopped mak It has changed into some ing, menacing noises inite. direction at the request of Mos- thing I don't think that the played on massed balalai-
quite different, President A Elsenhower himself is to
have There is no question Russians are at all dissatis-
a look at Britain's Macmillan, o about whose hands hold the fied with what they got in. It is policy, of course, America's Johm Foster Dulles, Dulles, like Macmillan and A Belgrade a blanket Tito just as all the rudeness of Russia's Molotov, and France's Pinry, is no fool. Our team initiative: Russia's. series of moves is coming endorsement of their entire the last seven years was Pinay, in a get-together of the are sharp, Intelligent men
But believe utmost significance the anal good will. But they are on the out of the Kremlin which, foreign policy, which, when policy, too.
ley at
of
ar defensive. Somehow they have
at the summit in Geneva got later this summer.
for sheer audacity, will all the shouting's done me, it is nevertheless rather curtain-raiser before the "par- take a good deal of match- practically transforms Tito ing by us of the West
into a Nehru Verwhelming." --~
to rid themselves of the Maginot Line mentality where Russia Is concerned, and Molotov in Paris says: What surprise will Old Pro crashing in with a few smart
pul at the Golden moves of their owng took audacity and
The Americans are still And in Belgrade, the courage, too for Krush- chey and his minions to busy chuckling over the MV.D. (secret police) goon down, all part of
face.
"Let bygones be bygones." Molotov
Gate? Butting, biting, and aggres
hitting you
opponent when... Change hangs electric in the
Molotov's air. We have got to accept i