FREE AND
T
London.
HE crazy railway strike was over. The crazy seamen's strike Was
[THE_CHINA" MAIL, MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 1955.′′
ENTERPRISE HAS LABOUR IS
WON
CONFUSED
By SIR BEVERLEY BAXTER, M.P.
"he cohood, "Ten
"Well... minutes later Churchill chuck- ed me out. I was Minister of Labour! And just to add to the fun
Winglon eald he was re- ducing
Cabinet saiarles he was from £5,000 to £4,000,"
still 01. Sir Walter Monckton, the Minis- ter of Labour, rose to open the debate in the Commons on the industrial situation.
a l way s As courteous and scrupulously fair, but as the interruptions came from all sections of the Socialists the shadows under his eyes darkened and
Inan
is
The
Wisely Str Anthony Eden, Chancellor Buller and Labour Minister Sir Walter Mockton, are encouraging the industrial- Irla to a greater spirit of co- partnership. Some of the big introduced Industrialists have profit sharing with their workers, and this is likely to spread.
Sir Walter So we return to
Organised Inbour Monckton.
lees him and trusts him, but it is worried by the realisation that behind his courtesy and humari- tarianism there is a surprising toughness. For example, young men of military exempted from army service if they sign on to go to sea. But scamen walked off the Queen Mary on strike than they received notice from Sir Walter's de
by and wait for their army call- up papers.
4.20
Ord
his shoulders drooped with Ministry of Labour at a period and the railway engine drivera material for their inflaminatory hardly had the exempted yours
fatigue.
ot
years he has the Trade Union Congress and and not just quick profits will pariment that they must stand
Monekton might have added that as a divorced man he had two wives to support, but no doubs! It was in the back of his nindh At any rate there was
task--to bis
take over the
In the resentment of Merce labour ranks following their When the time came for winding
the Up
debate, Sir Government's defeat, And pince.
for live not in his Walter was
his nature had at last served
sentence Outraged
without taken its revenge. The debonair any remission for good conduct. of men the ambition on the verge Truly Monckton พง of collapse and had been order- leads them into strange paths. ed to rest.
Monckton was born 04 years When
heard the news my ago, but his figure has remained mind went back to 1051, a few slim and youthful, and his hair
In Conservatives is plentiful and dark. the days after had
returned to been
powor favourable light he could pass following six years of Socialist for 50. Kovernment.
the heads of the striking uniona, Day by day he answered ques ttons in the House of Commons. Nor did he ever fail to meet the with ab- Parliamentary attack solute courtesy.
strike.
Truly It is a strange story, line with wages and salaries. of such gifts The fact that a lot of silly or Here is a and charm that he could have shrewd women have cashed in
not important. made a fortune as a lawyer or on It is an industrial adviser. Instead very essence of a stock market that shares can be freely he chose the path of service to
Fold, Otherwise the State with all its hazards, bought and
there would be its strain and its meagre finan-
means By cind reward,
new which
could reward,
companies But clear-visioned as he is I
raise
essential capital, doubt he foresaw the storms
Nevertheless, the paychological shoud. Labour
nearly al-
effect has been bad and has ways restive, but he had to face supplied the agitators with a crisis when both the dockerя
speeches. Fortunately the at the nation's market now seema to have were to strike
existence. By night and settled down so that investment, very by day he met the leaders
its chief concern. be
The ugliest feature of the strikes has been the un-British iew attitude of strikers towards the
who refused to There
is An English phrase, "Being sent to Coventry," which has a cruel meaning. The origin of the saying is obscure but the meaning is stark clear. When a man is sent to Coventry, none of his mates will speak to him. the Socialist No wonder
Thus, after the railway sielice
would 1 leaders paid tribute to him—but ended, there
they could not arrest the fatigue
driving a train, who him down.
not speak to his fireman pomposity. In the first war he that was wearing
M.C. in France, but won the
Yet he did not save the post of because he had remained at his almost
dist never certainly
the railway strikers post during dhe strike. In many duty until Bred the Germans. As a young
cases this ailence treniment was had gone back to work. fellow he went to Oxford und,
What has gone wrong with continued off duty, and was even of course, became President of
In Great Bri- extended to the fireman's wife. the Union. He ok not have to organised labsur
The ordinary British open a Choli
was always taln?
has not changed his wherever he wanted to worker jar
spots. At heart he is a decent, fellow, inclined enter.
But temperamentally he was good-natured drawn to lost causes. He was a leave things too much to his official adviser to the Indian union leaders, prone to give car
A to the hotheads an offi
whose chief naret is a gift of one gab, princes when the Independence Ministry, $0
of the sub-continent was
IL is a fact, and a disturbing that in a period when ending its day of glory. He was
Unionism has won its Allorney-General to the Prince fact,
In later Trade of Wales and, when
crisis place as the Fifth Realm of the the Abdication
State, there has not been such Monckton years came, it was
Why unrest since
the dark days of rather stood by the side of the young
of us who are con- All
Parliament hadi Without any effort he exudes for he is the unaffected charm, not yet assembled, but in
concel Or Smoking Room of the Houte of totally without Commons I saw Monckien allting confortable in it pensively chair, staring at nothing in particular.
His Sentence
for 1 offered a penny thoughts and he smiled rueful
his
ly. "Every man is his ambitions," he
Churchdil Was knew that forming
entitled to
said
"I
his
I
But by my telephone and never left L There was no particular reason why I should be given office, but there is always hope, And sure enough the summons came."
1. cam
What's Wrong?
be оп
His Dreams
It is hard to explain in a normally characterised people by humour and broad humanity. But probably the defeat of the Socialist Party at the polis, and the clear evidence that State ownership is doomed to fallure, has robbed the British workman of dreams that he had cherished for generations.
Free enterprise has won the war against Socialisin
in- However drive
to No. 10," he said. "I the beginning of his wander affairs are trying to understand dividualism has won the war
what is going on beneath the against collectivism. As ings in exile.
ณ
surface.
he might phrase it, the cry of danced along the streets.
would
Undoubtedly the failure of the British worker is, "Give me Jawyer I know that I
But he knows come out of Downing Street as
nationalisation has much to do my dreams!"
his dreams have been Solleitor-General or
with it. From the days of the that General."
Tolpuddle Martyrs, the ery of destroyed by reality.
He waved his hand like
a conductor violins into action. "I did not Edward away to
1826
bringing the King until the destroyer looked with the trend of Dublin
Attorney-
"Well...." was the obvious
query.
(BAYER
Parasitic skin- disease, itching iczema etc
'Mitigal
OIL & OINTMENT
»Bayer » LEVERKUSEN GERMANY.
""This
is
France and
Strange Story
Commons as
11 wuuk require all my Labour has been for State con- of essential supplies and space, and more, to enumerate trol the various offices that Monck services. Instead of the wicked ton held after that. Suffice If coal owner riding in his carriage to say that finally he entered and grinding the faces of the the House of
at poor,
there would be the un- Conservative A few weeks be scinsh benevolenca of the all- fore the General Election of wise and all-human State.
he was And
the transformation 1945. To his delight
Solicitor-General, a appointed
come to pass. With a mighty
in very great honour in the legal majority us- Socialist world, but hardly had he
Goverment,
the nation-
sumed that splendid role when alised the railways, road trans-
a grateful electorate threw out port, coal and sted. Utopla had
the war-winning Tory Govern been born at last ment heartiness.
The
with extraordinary
who
been Iron
had Soilcltor-General for a few days was no more than just a private
A Paradox
Instead
of the hard-faced
Member at a salary of £1,000 a mine owner and his managers, become there was the Coal Board situa-
ycar.
did But he
Chairman of the Governor uffed far away. It was remote St George's Hospital (unpaid), "I do not vibrale to the money medium," he said ruefully.
So there came the elections of
control-so remote in fact that the miners could not reach them
with their grievances.
Real Bosses
"Why did you act to quickly?" demanded the Socialists in the Commons. To which the suave Sir Walter replied: "Because otherwise I would not have been able to find them." Nothing more was said. That velvet glove of Monciston's conceals a particular- ly tough bit of metal.
that or-
My own foeling is ganised labour will be brought to reason, not by employers or politicians, but by their real boseer. There is an old saying that strikes end when the wives can no longer endure their bus- boods idling about the house.
It may well be that the women of Britain will play the last cand.
the If, as scems probable, wives' patience, is exhausted, we may see a definite change in the troubled psychology of organised labour.
Perhaps Sir Walter will even be able to get away for a sum- mer holiday where he can ait on the sands and watch the blue the sun-kissed shore. waters of the Mediterranean lap
But in his heart he will know that the time has not yet coma when he can utter those last immortal words of Hamlet: "The rest is Silence,”
Cummings
SOLIN OSCAR
PEACE PRIZE
FOR
OF
PEACE
LEGION HONOUR
THE HERO OF THE CONFERENCE
THE WOULD-BE
་
DID IT
FACT or FICTION? All the stories in this serios COULD be true. But did this incident
HAPPEN? actually happen 7, Tomorrow
E
XAMINATION nerves
the answer will be published.
"Can't really make him out, can make people do like. Hope for your sake they
aren't all like him." funny things. I my-
self was sick twice Some impulse made me say:
The rumblings and the grum- before the French Oral in "He's not called Ifan-Thomas,
1950 and 1951. The 20 years of blings grew into a menacing School Cert. But only once "That's right, man. Dead
Socialist rule which Aneurin growl Production dropped and have I come across
Bevan prophesied had come ar end in six. And
by any chance?"
an funny
that. Well, roll on, in-
10 custs rose. In fact, Britain be examinee who threatened deed. Struck you as queer too, Walter
came an importer of coal which, Monckton, who could have
you will
will agree, is absurdity in suicide if he failed and has he?" earned £25,000 a year at the excelsis, The year 1955 will meant it.
"Yes," I said. "Very queer."
Bar became, as you know, the marks the biggest imports of coal It happened during my "You want to watch that boy,
£4,000 a year Minister of La- bour.
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in our history.
"In the
you know, Worried about him, the meantime, the dockers first year as a lecturer at were proving fruitful soll for the University College of I am."
the glib-tongued Communist Swansea. My subject is Eng- "Why, what's the matter with ugitators. Over the last three lish, a popular one with years we have hardly had students because there's a
more than a few weeks at a time without holdups in docks,
him?"
"These exams, you know, the pretty hefty demand from they're driving him half round the schools for people to the bend, honest. Do you know teach it, and a good majority what he told mo?"
Yet here is the paradox. Despite the plague of strikes British industry, under priyate ownership, was doing well and
which
has
of Swansea graduates on the A twinge of anxiety made me Arts side go in for teaching. bite my lip. "No?"
share prices were rising right · So the Eng- glish classes across the board,
It is fact that for more are large, and than
now there a year
any large class been a surtained alock market contains a num- boom
hing brought ber of medio- untaxable gains to investors critics. One of and gamblers alike. Women the most me- especially have found that the
diocre medio- Stock Exchange is far more arities that first exciting than Monte Carlo,
year of mine and the experts was chap fored allice, and when prices called Howard
fall acemed likely to
the Kan-Thomas, a I shall American investors stepped in name and sent them up again. never forget,
The mugs
Americans had discovered that Britian equities were giving tham American a higher yield equities,
Un-British
I don't know wby, but exam time op- proached I got worried about Ifan. Thomas He came to
by
Kingsley Amis
KINGSLEY AMIS bored in Lucky Jin-hts kilarious moral af lifa In a previścial untrarsity--that he is thorough scquented With acudenic predicaments. AIN B distinguished_ppef,,he_is_hipssita product of Offerd und Netwer in English to the Welsh at Suntee University College.
„Andy was born at Clapham, An 1927 bes a wife and three children. That Uncerte's Fabling it the promising title of his waxt novolum to be published in August.
lectures regularly enough, silting to chat to somo
at the front, a smail, pale, dried-
}
London Express Barrios
SUICIDE
of
I went into my room and shut the door. If things had got as far as this, Mrs Hughes couldn't help.
Ifan-Thomas sat under tho standard lamp. A rash of sweat glittered on his upper. Ilp. His eyes were closed, screwed up. there From his open.mouth CORTE
a harsh, shallow. gosping. Hla hands clawed at his stomach. Very slowly, he opened his eyes and saw "I'm dying," he said, and a faint smile touched his wet lips-
"I'm dying. Sorry."
me.
"Oh God," I said.
"You
fool, How could you? Just
over an exam."
"I know....silly
Came to apologise "
"Whatever for?"
of me.
"Your lectures........not prying”” attention....I was rude."
"What on
earth does that
.. matter how?"
*
In Triumph
A
Arash of sweat Ijan-Thomas sat under a standard lamp. glittered on his upper lip. His hands clawed at his stomach.
up his arms. Any remnant It read:
He⚫ acemed to rally for Tentson wrote several long hope I might have had that the porma called narative poems Science student had been lying moment.
"I had to fall, you see. Dad or exaggerating completely because they tell storys,
vanished. Then, before I could would have made me go into
school
otherwise, - teaching At the Examiners meeting 1 stop him, he wheeled away: Couldn't have atood that "Said if he found that Ifan-Thomas, by stumbling for a moment, and don't pass he'll having recollected such matters ran off down the drive. I started Managed it all right, didn't I?" He shook alightly, "God, wish forward after him. do away with as Milton's blindness and Shake.
I was going to die, Been himself."
hard.
All that speare's authorship of Hamlet, "Oh,
I hurried round to his digs, celebrating ho's had collected a total of 17 marks pulling your out of a possible 300, the lowest but there was nobody there ex- gin."
said, aggregate in living, memory, copt the landlady. She said she trying to laugh. The Examining Board recorded wasn't expecting him in to ten
a verdict of FAILED.
leg
I
A
without word of a Lle,
man. He meant They could hardly have done it. I know him otherwise.,
and he meant.
1 went
or any special time, like.
No Luck
I couldn't speak. I was to low later: that the would-be suicide, Llewelyn Ifan
to i Zephaniah Thomas (known' his friends as fan) hád passed with 88 percent and gone home in triumph. But just
I next rang up a colleague now I could only gape at
As He
All
it. Disinfectant I came out of the meeting feel. ho
ho'd ing very low. I kept thinking said: LISC."
I should have mentioned the who I knew would be sympathe. Howard. Ifan-Thomas story told me by the Science tic, but he too was out. It was stood up.
"Where can I be sick? trying to laugh, student. But what good would now after six o'clock. I called
They still at the pub in the hope of seeing right, I'll find It Here... but it didn't that have done?
couldn't have passed him. The the Science student, but no luck He took a bottle of in from noun.convin...
thing now was to get hold of again. Things were getting too is pocket and hold it, out to
and I started him, tell him the result and much for The Science watch his behaviour.
cing.
#tudent went off of his raalus soon after and I got no mora
Yot there was a perfectly
behind up sigure with lank hun fa out of him. I thought a good Found reson
aver his brow. What marked
Straight Up
the'
me,
A
me fat, telling myself
"Have that in a minuto. I'd igo.
swig while I'm back to Ilan-Thomas's digs and gone. You look as it you.. sit there until he returned. But could do with it? hig I didn't goi I was afraid he
- WORLD COPYRIGHT. RESERVED
and
When Sir Stafford Cripps him out was his extraordinary bit about what he'd told me, The chance camo sooner than might have got back carller and became Labour's Chancellor of apathy.
ispecially one afternoon the I expected. He was waiting done whatever he was going to the Exchequer in 1948, he
following work when one of the outside the main College build- do. called for a dividend restraint. I felt for him no more than Englis exams was being held ing tle spart from
Ten o'clock, oame In fact he demanded it. On the usual blend of exasperation I went into the exam room, for usual group of students who'd wandered home. the other hand, there was no and pity one feels for a difficult something and saw. Han-Thomas come to find out their results MAY
My landlady met me on her comparable wage restirant,'s
student until one evening just alting at one of the desks, by w did I do Mr. Amis?" doorstep,
He came straight up to me., Stalletics show that from 1947 a week before the exams, the wall, to 1954, the period which was in the pub for a couple of
he anked in his low, mumbleton Mr Amis, thank heaven oponed with i Crippe stand quick beer before all plays and reading when I got ghalling sto
I swallowed. : He was paler you're back...
25,475 Selence student: who
"I'm afraid, "16" land Mrs Hughenden
across and lociped over sorry a but canyou've : failed his shoulder, he gave no sign he Wall & mbyter I
9,205
He looked just as he'd looked.
Right; "Aftér n- bit!I handruded; at my lectures: «not "writing, hot, thari)usin?), and wil, biting. Why," whatever'a thai matter, Kre); You in the same period, interent: to adic " him, If he thro
salarice million to and dividind those by only
Therefore, Cawhat /
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST., LTD. 2331 millon
KOWLOON happenedol
the chap who dia really only one," he said.
#boud
DID IT BEALLY HAPPEN?
YES
NO
korn, this possí
* what the
JOEN
he
!