"THE" CHINA" MAIL,
GET ME
ME SOME
I
N Shaftesbury Avenue Hoon after the war I picked up
al
American fare who climbed into my cab and or- dered me to get him some hashish. It was a Saturday evening in late summer and the West End was crowded with people when suddenly I spotted him on the edge of the pavement, nearly 7 ft. of solid brawn and muscle, his arm outstretched, 'waiting for cab.
HASHISH!
'Stop stallin' and keep drivin',' he yelled, 'I want Rome hashish-quick" The story could be true but that is for you to decide.
Not since I took Carmera, former heavyweight boxing my feet.
DID IT HAPPEN ?
The answer will be published tomorrow.
¡
"And don't call the Bailey itself and speaking as champion of the world to tee. If you do 'I't tell them normally would to any American you purposely took that money tourist I was taking round the White City
to fight hom me to find me hashish. It's London for the first ime, "that's criminal court," Larry Gaing, had I ever a numbered In my notebook, our biggest
big o don't start saying the money hardly realising what I was say picked up anybody so and muscular. His muscles longed to you and not to me. ing. When a man commits
if I'm goin' down the drink murder the judge in there puts almost burst out of his you're gonna come, with me. And on little black cap and sentences him to death. Only tight-fitting trousers and as you know somethin' else?"
which was
here we don't electrocute them-- lumber jacket,
"What?" I asked, searching we hang them." the streets frantically fot much too small for him. His hair was cut almost down to policeman. his scalp, making his face look more pugnacious than
ever.
Second gear
A
The last time a cabby double- ssed me in New York I cut his face so bad his wife didn't recognise him for three months. Here, watch out...."
As I turned my hend the knife whizzed post my
car
and
ite was in my cab even before embedded itself firmly into the I bad time to stop, slamming the Wooden pillar separating the two door behind him and shooting side windows, its handle quiver- 20 cubic feet of air out of my like a jelly and making a tyres as he sank heavily on to noise like a top spinning round at a tremendous speed. I felt the back out.
like opening the side window and vomiting into the road.
"Stop stallin and keep driven" he yelled, "I went some hashish and I want it quick!"
1 shot into second gear and started moving slowly towards Cambridge Circus with the idea
of explaining to him a few seconds later that I had
just
re-
Sudden urge
"Why don't you believe me?" i said desperately, although I was trying hard to make my appear normal. "I've voice
membered in important engage, nitt elsewhere. But on second ready told you there isn't the Dwughts I decided to treat the ghost of a chance me getting matter lightly and to drop him you hashish,"
Cross amewhere in
within easy know where
with
reach. I
policering
wouldn't
"Where's your Harlem?"
"Harlem" What Harlem? You mean you want me to find you
to get hashish even if I was a drug addict myself. Articles in short supply at the time I could a Negro?" get easily, unrationed
things
"That's it," the American said, "take me to
Harlem and your like packets of cigarettes or Scotch whisky manufactured in then you can clear off."
Japan. But hashish?
"ll take you anywhere you ko," I said with renewed con-
• Adence, "but take that knilo out
Save your breath' of my car and sit back more
"Look here, old chap," I said gruffly, making it clearly under stood that this was my cub and not his. "I'll drop you wherever you like, but don't talk to me about hashish. There's nothing doing."
"I give you 10 quid for your trouble," my fave said, digging his hand into his back pockel.
"Save your breath," I retorted, "I wouldn't do it for a million."
"You'll to it if I slit your throat in two," my fare said Lavagely.
WDS
"T see you gotta sense of humour." my fare said irritably. "How far we gotta go now?it
"About a mile,” I replied, feel- ing my stomach turning over inside me.
"What's that big block over there?" my fare asked as approached
tho Tower
London, "a penitentiary?
we of
"No," I replied, feeling that fate was, against me in every way, "it's the Tower of London.
If a man didn't behave himself they used to cut him up to bits and throw his body into the moat--that's where that deep
by
Maurice
Levinson
MAURICE LEVINSON is 44. He
was educated at an elemen- fary school in London's East End. When his father died in 1918, Lavinson and his two brothers antared an ephanoge at West Norwood, from the orphanoge, fu was apprenticed to a cobinst maker, but when he was 23 he married and took up lest-driving.
На published an autobio graphical book, The Trouble With Yesterday, in 1946. He still drives bli cob in the West End but now spends half his day writing. He hopes to publish a Dayal Joon,
„Levinson tires in Kenton, Mid- dlaseng die has a daughter aged 17 and a son aged 12.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1955.
Like magic the street seemed tdenly full of Negroes. They came dashing out of all the houses and shops and began sailing into the American,
"I'm thirty-five," I suid, salling Into the American for all they were worth. There was "How would you like to be a flurry of arms and legs and thirty-six?"
the flash of a knife as my fare like to very much," I But ble and strong as he was he brought his arm up and down. was no match for his assailants.
per There were far too many of them.
The last I saw of hum
"I'd said.
J
"Then don't try anything funny, I ain't interested in any fun associations. I got my own associations to worry about. Where are we now?"
"We're in Cable Street."
*Then
Negro
pull up at the first
Lanky Negro
At the corner of Cable Street and Leman Street I pulled up with a sudden jerk. Normally, pull my cab to a graceful halt. But this time I was too nervous. Ahead of us, just 10 yards across the street, was a lanky Negro, leaning against a brick wall and looking morosely down at his fingernails,
was his huge body being slowly forced to the ground while all the surrounding windows forked open, emitting white and black faces in various degrees of tear and surprise.
Quickly I churned iny gears into action and drove as fast as I could to the nearest police station. There I picked up four policemen and rushed them back to Cable Street. On the way I pleked up a ofth policeman whom I found smoking 4 cigarette in a deep doorway.
Still alive
Fortunately
we were just In time. The American we found lying in the middle of the road "What do I do now?" I
way in a large puddle of his own asked, after my fare had climbed blood. But he was still alive.
stretched As
there out of my cab and
for his assailants, himself until he appeared to rise wasn't a sign of them anywhere. up high into the sky, his eyes The street
completely searching the Negro from head deserted.
to foot.
"I want my dough back," he said, tightening his belt round his trousers. "And make it quick."
Without hesitation I gathered the pound notes from around my feet and handed them back to my fare, I was in no mood to
comfortably. We haven't any Harlem here in your sense of the word, but there's a place in Cable Street where you'll find as many Negroes as you want."
The ride towards
the East End
was uneventful. It was late evening and the late sum- mer sky gave an air of peace space is round the sides. Do you argue about the 4a on my meter. and dignity to the streets lead know how old it is?" ing past St Paul's. Outside the Mansion House three policemen stood Idly chatting together, and dash to- a sudden urge w and them. But my Lara had you ever heard of William the
them long before I did. Conqueror?" Again the knife flew past my ear and embedded itself almost in the same place. This chap, decided, was the best knife- thrower I had ever seen.
seen
"No; you tell me."
"Two thousand years.
"No; who was he?".
Have
Deep gash
I
·
WO
After an ambulance had taken my fare away I made a state- explaining ment to the police, exactly what had happened, stressing the fact that my fare still owed me four shillings. In the end the police thanked me for my co-operation and warned me not to get into any further mischief.
After that I drove back to the But for the moment my West End. All around me in the curiosity got the better of me, streets leading past the Mansion and as soon as my fare had House was an air of peace and crossed towards the Negro dignity which made me wonder the whole thing had backed my cab in an adjoining
three happened The side-street and waited with my policemen were still idly chatting engine running.
together, and in the distance an old lady in black lace signalled for me to stop.
She seemed a little surprised What happened next remind when I dashed out of the cab to open the door for her. After- ed me of the films I saw in the wards she told me I was the fleaplt of my local cinema in the politest taxi-driver she had ever "He didn't want anything. In East End when I was a child. '
met. those days people used to con- After a few words of conversa- the American suddenly Quickly I doubled back along quer each other with bows and lon Cheapside and towards the Old arrows. Do you see those slits brought his fist up and struck Batley, hoping to hurt myself in the walls? They were used the Negro a heavy blow on the You'll side of his head. I didn't hear into the back seat of a passing to fire on the enemy. police car. I suddenly didn't see them better if I pull up a what was said, and so I have fancy going to the Eust End. The little closer....
Old Bailey
With that I turned my head with surprise and I saw that he holding a wad of pound notes in one hand and an open knife in the other.
"Leak
here." I
I sald. in a voice which strangely seemed to belong to somebody else, "I've already told you there isn't any chance of me getting you any hashish. Besides, I wouldn't know what it looked like even if I saw some
"Here, take this money," the streets there at this time of the
throwing the day were too deserted. American
said,
my cabin. pound notes into
"See that building over there," where they fluttered down at I said, pointing
to the Old
Shirts
lasting
Van
"Ho was a Frenchman who came over hero in 1088,"
“What did he want?"
Outside the corner of my eye I saw a police car outside the gates. But once again my fare noticed it before I did.
"Don't pull up anywhere until I tell you," he yelled, his face contorted with rage. "You ain't falking me out of anything. How old are you?”
WAY
nothing to go by whether the Negro had said something offen- sive to the American or not. But. in a matter of seconds the Negro was sprawled out on the ground, the blood flowing swiftly from a deep gash on the side of his face.
Then like magic the street rested suddenly full of Negroes. They came dinahing out of all the houses and shops and began
+
WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES
NO
"Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle. The cow took a running Jump into the stratosphere, Through the cosmic ray belt,
*
Way past the flying saucer satellites, Through the ozone layer,
And letting off a supersonic bang, went Clean over the moon."
Russian Austerity Grips Chinese Architecture
M
GLAZED TILES ARE OUT
*OST
visitors
By Stephen Garnett
Clearly it is a good thing for China that misuse of public
to ing industry has been ex- Peking have been posed and denounced all over funds (for that is what is often impressed by the the country.
The
involved."
infomunist
in
how
have
its
its
Was
to
a
amounts to) should be exposed, number and magnificence of Many may think that such and that constructional projecta its
new buildings.
In a campaign is not merely should in future bo related to.
the condition of the country and particular the four big timely, but overdue. But its less fortunato inhabitants,
But something elsa la hotels built in 1958 and both its origins and its re- 1954 seem
campaign to proclaim to aults are worth a look
all well- the new arrival a
Why, we may first in Moscow, like established, confident and quire, have architects and campaigns, had to
claborate theoretical justiaca- even prosperous regime in planners now to publish full tion. Krushchev showed that China.
apologies for such things as the over-decorated luxury of the "irremediable loss" to recent Soviet architecture The eight-storey Peking the State involved in the com to a misapplication of the Communist doctrine that "mere Hotel in the centre of the construction of the Peking technique city has dining-rooms for Cost House little more thing artists constructiona
"boungcols" two thousand guests, and
a year ago? Why was the characteristic many of the hospitable oc- extravagance of Chungking's architecture. By implication, if in so many words, he re- casions which visiting dele ceremonial hall, at which versed the theories which have gations remember have been 1,500 workers laboured from held good up to now.
What building June 1951 to March 1954,
mean does this staged in this
By and large, China? Did Saturday's story-There are the International under 40 Party agents, not
munist theory has favoured the Hotel and the Now Overseas
tho "national styles" in of Hotel also, but the most
architecture of different Com spectacular new
The official construc-
munist countries. tendency, in China has therefore tion is the elaborate Guest
been to adopt or adapt a tradi House in the western
tional manner. In the case suburbs of the capital, in
buildings tho old
• Put your tick in the space ukava und keep this panel by you unili famorrow ...when the entwar will be giren with another story in this series by
Robin Maugham
kamayampa Honeymoon, by Peter Duncan -- actúatly happen? The answer D NO.
WHISPERED THE FATHER OF THE CHIN:
•
Heusen Every Word Is Dangerous'
PHOTOGRAPHS
by our Staff Photographers
H.E.
Indian Club Party
LI Cheuk Uk Tomb Shatin Heights Hotel.
17,3 Locating Battery
Colony Swimming Finals
Stanley Village Festivities
Boy Scouts at St. Andrew's
Salvation Army Youth
Centrè
Colony Fancy Diving Championships
the Governor Visits Silvermine Bay Choral Group Concert at Hongkong University
Day Cocktail Party·· Brazilian
Po Leung Kuk Flower Day
Kowloon-Canton Rallway
Motor Cycle Cymkhana All Local Sports Local Presentations
Local Weddings
ofc. atc.
Available at
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. LTD.
Wyndham Street,
London, and terrorists) would like to get
apparent at some earlier stage?
CONFESSIONS
not in
Uso
public
of
for
Com
temples,
OPPOSITION
which foreigners can enjoy The answer is curious but examples followed have usually the traditional Chinese style unavoidable. It was not until been palaces, or even
with the beautiful but oftenx of curved roofs, richly December 7, 1954, that expensive features of the past, As we settled in deep chintz coloured roof tiles, and Krushchev, 8,500 miles away such as glazed tiles. THE
THE Chief of the Arab at him. Not even I have been chairs "The Pasha" said: "In carved and fretted work in Moscow, made his im-
able to visit him."
spite of Israel's success against everywhere.
portant speech to, Soviet Legion drew the red Thero has been a price on the the Arabs seven yeɛrs ago.... damask curtains NOT in a head of "The Pasha" for years, in spite of Israel's build-up
Of course it is not only architects which demolished desert base, but across the His father-in-law and near la arms and strength; the Legion hotels and show-places. previous theories and placed
There has been opposition to windows of his Georgian neighbour in Kent, Commander would give the Israelis a jolly There are new factories, cost per square foot as the
this from some Party leaders J. G. Forbes, said: "I should good run for their house in Kent. Glubb Pasha have to get permission before came to a second hey it colleges, hospitals and other most essential element in who went to the other extrema
round,
building.
in favouring cheap and tasteless has come home on leave attempting to anybody in
mut
the camel troops for public buildings for
building and now the apposi from Jordan-and a lot of touch with him?
desert security. Otherwise we visitors to admire also, and
Platis are The Soviet economy drive tion has its chance. dangerous people would like The same thing was sald by are entirely mechanised and just now there are said to was promptly reflected in being altered, unfinished bulld
an Intelligence general from the armd with the
ings
are being finished off any to track him down.
be a hundred new buildings China. Krushchev's speech how projecta.
aro beina War Office when I travelled field weapons.
under construction in the was fully reported over abandoned, and glazed tiles have down to Kent with him,
symbol of deviation. city.
more than two pages of the become
The idea of a national style four-page People's Daily in itself has become suspect. Peking on January 18, 1955. If appearance means anything, On February 4 a twenty- this is much more unfortunate
As creator and leader of the Arab Legion, which guards Jordan's frontier with Israel, Major-General John Bagot Glubb could start a new flare up in the Middle East by one,
incautious move,
A word from him and the Arab Legion would be in action Enemica in Israel wouki liko to aco hlin dead. So Glubb Patha will spend his leave behind an Iron security curtain,
The little greying "Father of the Chin", as his troops call Him because part of his face was shot away in World War I, did not look a dashing general as he received me.
*Wo Ba
moet modern
APOLOGIES
Nobody with
It is no uso talking of prace between Israel and the Arabs until the problem of the 800,000 refugees driven from their
But does all this architec- day conference opened at for China than for Russia, with He seemed more like A homes in Palestine Into Jordan
which the Peking Minister is quite different architectural country doctor than a man who has born solved
tural activity and splendour, for Building Industry and enables would shed tears bairnices the power of nationa. **Jordan is far too poor and in Peking and many other others delivered the new over a break in the "rocont and his Legion saved Iraq from bors
You had to remember that he, small to cope with these num cities, really correspond with party line to a great, as Soviet
record
of grandiose gigantic architecture the Nazis in World War IX and Glubb Pasha doce not expect the economic condition of held half Jerusalem for the the border, tension between the country as a whole? sembly of personalities in svet uxhibition Hall natio architecture, construction towers above the Chinese build- Arabe to realise that here in Lerdolls and EXyptians
to Does it correspond with the and higher education.. ings in Peking was described by this quiet Kentish
a recent villor, James Cameron, villige,, develop into www. which must be unnamed, is a
sa "demented wedding cake."! housing of ordinary people?
In January 1955, the Then began the publicity an Suleiman Said, "does not even drow the curtains
Chinese authorities decided campaign, the reporting of But Ching with all her dim.
culties, confusions and coņa the crane can he be whared: "I have that it did not. There is a astonishing examples of ex- cless orden med know his telephone number,"
Colonel Toogood, acting start diamile among hop-pickers wald, quite mough, The Midle note of reallum in the travagance and inefficiency to find her way tow Maison officer at Arab Logion now living in the village there East has seldom been more austerity campaign which from different centres in thing wority and headquarters in London, says might be some of those people complicated and delicate. Every hid boen in full awing since China, and the humiliating 4hitecture. Or so ma "We have got to be very coremic who would like to get ad him word in dangerous, Clood night,
the beginning of the year, pubile confessions of those
Krusbabay drawa ful. Quite a lot of peopia » And my Breivat had (meaning Zonat dartsutaan sentinel to 12e klas,
Ralph Hewins in which waste in the bulkis held responsible.
in
The Jordan Military Attache man who must always be alert, and prepared to
London Lieut.-Colonel :
He glanced at the curtain Pasha" pillared door,
bolt The
h