Page
DON IDDON'S
SHIPBOARD DIARY
THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1956.
THE COMMODORE
IS SOCCER MAD
Aboard the Queen Elizabeth. But the tourists
T'S been an interesting
voyage. We skirted hurricane but were
tossed about a bit. Sir Ivan are mad about
Thompson, Commodore of the Cunard Line, demon- strated that he is one of Britain's greatest experts on Soccer and perhaps foot- ball's most fanatical fol- lower, Michael Redgrave was tralled by autograph seekers who sometimes
'dirty' Britain
have heard quite a com-
returning American travellers, but have put up the well-known spirited defence.
prints about Britain from the
Several
Americans aboord this ship have said to me: "Isn't it time you cleaned up London?" I've replied: "Clean it up-
up why it's a darned sight cleaner than New York."
The critical Americans have said: "We mean the women of the streets the street-walkers the liner United States is far around Piccadilly, Park Lane, bigger than the Queen Elizabeth. Wardour Street, Greek Street, all I have pointed out that on the over the West End. It's terrible. addressed assenger llst it says plainly: It's disgusting."
Elizabeth world's "Queen
I am
I have to agree sfrald largest liner," but the Americans with them. It is a delicate sub- ray that's just salomanship. I've told them manship, ye jeet, but the world's oldest pro-
fession practitioners United States and it is dwarfed stranger right in the eye when by the Elizabeth and Mary, but he visits London. It is very rare indeed to be accosted in New have fulled to convince them.
York or any other American city that I know. The street- walker has been driven off the American streets.
him as Mr Wilding, and got first-hand knowledge of American tourist reaction to Britain and Europe,
The gloomiest mún aboard was producer and bandleader Maurice Winnick, who has just ween n. televisión dream, the biggest project he has ever tackled, vanish.
Most dazzling personality by
Hud- for was James Hanson. dersilold business man and ship's auctioneer supreme, who Wis once engaged to Audrey Hepburn,
Some titles
It's his hobby
1
The oth
other complaints from
waiters' dirty
and
The
the
waltresses'
The cat-girl flourishes and IR IVAN THOMPSON talked in some hotel lounges the women
football over a drink on the
are on the lookout for pick-ups, "Every time but there is nothing a blatantly second day out. Preston North End do well you ugly as the West End's
parade. become insufferable, he said. stĮ admit they ne a good team collar dispensers who disembark playing polished football, and today in New York are the
but should do well this season,
familiar oncs; dirty washrooms, there are other good teams."
"Who do you think is better uniforms, dirty menus in many WE haven't been loaded down Tem Finney, of North End, or of the cheaper hotels, Inns, and
of Black-
dirty
trains and with titles though we have Stanley Matthews,
restaurants, rallway stations, copper and Admiral Sir Gordon Ramsey and pool?" I asked. Lady Ramsey, Sir Russell The Commodore said: "Finney, sliver ecins far too big, telephone delays, outdated Kottle, Lady Ross of Balnagown, He not only makes
goals, he tangles and Sir Harold Webbe, M.P. and scores plenty of them. Fox- lcensing laws, lack of ice and various foreign Excellencies.
ball's my great hobby. I travel lee-water, the Inability to make Eighty percent the hundreds of miles to see even cold and dry cktails. passengers are Americans, some Third Division matches. I'll of whom have difficulty in
AS anywhere handling the English inngunge, see socere and everywhere to
Just when I have been pro- 个
1 asked the Commodore which testing that charges of American teams le tipped for champions bans and Cup-winners, but he said It into no fewer than four Ameri- was far too early in the season can passengers who insist that
10 attempt a forecast,
Sir Ivan comes from Warring ton and is mas! unassuming Knight.
of
are untrue I
"All Taste
No Waste!
SMOKED
KIPPER FILLETS
8 oz. pkt.
14 oz. pkt.
$1.45 $2.10
ESKIMO
QUICK FROZEN SEAFOODS
from
Lane Crawford
& PROGRESSIVE COMPRADORES
They forget
NATIONALISATION
MAKES HAPPY
LOWER PRICES
EFFICIENCY
WORKS!
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
NICE TO HAVE
MET YOU, he said
by
Edgar Lustgarten
GO to the pub, not sure of that-probably part for company, but for of the catch trade from near-
There quiet.
are by Piccadilly-yet I have a enough people dashing vague feeling that some- in and out at home, and the where or other I'd come telephone rings its head off across that face before. 12 hours of the day. They know this at my local, and they all leave me alone.
About fifty, I judged him ONE passenger said to me: "
don't think the British really
to be; light eyes, a beaky' want tourists. It hurts their
nose, rather protruding cars. pride. They are not tourist- minded like the French or Swiss
That night, however, 1 I didn't find him particularly or Italians." He could be right.
knew I was in for it right prepossessing, although 1 listed patiently 1. have
was no mis- realised he had the sort of the complaints, but
aaway. There when The purser, of course, is Lionel group of American business men taking the change in his flashy looks some
the Carine,
diplomat in the smoke-room
last night expression as I entered. You would call handsome. party-giver and celebrity mixer said to me: "The trouble is
I sat down as far away of the North Atlantic.
rence Britain and Europe are 50 years can always tell the difference knows more names and remem behind the times that is the between
great
to 10
DID IT HAPPEN?
A writer with a reputation
for finding something new in notorious crimes today tells a story "with, of course, phoney names."
Tomorrow he will reveal the answer to the question he poses: DID IT HAPPEN?
"Yes, I do remember it," I
women
Baid,
("You never wrote about it?" "Nothing special in it to write someone who is from him as possible, and about," bers them than Elsa Maxwell American times," I replied: merely recognising you and buried my nose deep in the "No?" He smiled smugly. has ever had nightmares about, "You mean British Inventions
tell ons someone who is recognising evening paper. It did no "Perhaps, I could For years I have been trying to like radar, the jet plune, tele-
British discoveries like an opportunity.
good, though; it did no good
persuade Lionel to write a book, islom. British speed records
but he seems to be leaving that to the retired captains.
grand job
on
American
and record-broken the lot!
He was a
clifforent."
He
you
TORY FREEDOM
London Express service
That case of a wife-murderer, not long before the war
"Wouldn't he have hiddợn chap and a most devoted hus- bend. But the libertine went more away than that?" scot-free, and the decent chap
"Do you support the robber was hanged,
theory, then?" I asked. He folded the sheet of news-
He shook his hand. and Foper
ralpaced it with. something like tenderness, in his wallet.
an
"No he answered, grinning again. "That im't my theory. took out a wallet, and ·
My theory is that it broke when "So you think there's nothing she was strangled. And that in the air, on land, and I got my drink at the bar, at all. I don't know how the
of tattered sheet and I could see in the mirror manoeuvre was effected carefully extracted from it a water."
newspaper special in the Ellison case?" he would be enough to make it quite deliberately I wasn't
which he unfolded, smoothed raid. The smug smile broaderted down on Bless me, it our
anyone that it had think merch opposite that his eyes were looking up-but in next to and spread out on the table. into
evers smugger grin. betler be removed for fear of cousins didn't
"Remember about the pocket?" Ingerprints." WE are lucky in our Cunard U.S. had invented, discovered, glued to me.
stranger there, I felt pretty no time he had sat himself
in the chair beside me. officers. They have some of the world's most exacting and in some ways boring jobs. Almost every night at sea they have to entertain "Blue Riband" passengers, "regulars," friends the company, actors, men,
columnistr
of
business politicians, and other often tiresome people. How would you like to preside week over five cocktail parties à and dine and lunch in public every other day? They do, and And time to ran the ship as well I've come to the conclusion that the British are better on sen than on land. There hotel in Britain, not even
to match the Cunard's London, to Queens. The food, the service, the lavishness, the efficiency, sre magnificent,
ܣܐ
no
in
Ir we want dollars then our Board of Trade officials and our hotel owners had better see how the Queens do it.
Let the Future Scholar have a Start Now!
Lessrpabi
from
Rand
Leamin
Count
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, LTD.
HONG KONG & KOWIDUN -
that
ON OCTOBER 1, SWEDEN WILL ABANDON LIQUOR RATIONING
Even Glasses Are Male And Female
By JAMES WHITE
regarding his "alcoholic capa- card-indexed by the Monopoly
No preamble
"You're the crime bloke,” he said, without preamble. "Knew you at once. Scen you on the flicks."
"Oh, yes?" I said, non- committally.
"Articles, too," he said. "Read 'em all. Like 'em very much."
At present no Swedish hotel from ben public authorities and crime." or restaurant may serve alcohol other sources. beloro midday on weekdays' or
p.m.
"You see," he said, "this is the beat report they printed of the trial."
The locket had been the most curious feature in the case, and
THIS story has been something of
a holiday for Edgar Lustgarten, As a writer about famous crimes, his usual traffic is in facts about other people-criminal facts. Hare for d change he puts: 'himself under sxamination and can please himsel whether his story is true or falsa, The reader is the jury,
Lustgarten born in 1907, educated at Manchester Grammar School and St. John's College, Oxford. He is married and lives in Albany. He has also found fame. In broadcasting, TV and films.
"Well, where is it now?" I said.
"I have it," he said.
We sat without speaking for a fuli minute or more. He was manifestly savouring his drumu« fic triumph. I was trying to .... absorb its implications.
"Aren't you sticking out your neck a bit?" I said. "Suppos- ing I described this conversation to the police?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Wouldn't matter. They'd nover move. Not now."
"Don't be too sure,” I said. "Anyway, I'd deny everything. I'd say you ma le it up.".
"There's the locket," I said.
'They won't find that In à million years," he said. “No, they couldn't prove a thing."
w I noticed that, while I glanced almost the only effective point in
lifted that
He got up
"Nice of you,” I said. There was a silence then, Halsingborg. standing, age, sex and personal
the 15 and I turned back to the IX million Swedes are requirements, from
pinta given to spinsters of over paper. But instinct told me awaiting October 1 with 5 to the maximum of 5 pints that he hadn't finished, that mixed feelings. On and after awarded to the head of he had some other purpose
day, after
Every adult Swede is besides passing compliments. being famly. restricted, rationed and re
"I could tell you some- strained for some 35 years, city." The information record thing interesting," he went a Swede will be able to enter ed, which Includes details of on presently. "Something casually at the headlines, be Ellison's daftried. Ho declared. a shop or restaurant and marital status, moral conduct
had come home and etc., is compulsorily obtained interesting in the way of kept a hand over some pictures that he order what he fancies.
I guessed that he was right. in the middle of the page. He found his wife already murdered
hand when he (a story he maintained unvaried I gazed at him, helplessly Inse I'm very used to this par- observed that I was no longer to the last, even protesting his tive, as, he finished off his drink
innocence on the scaffold), end got up from the chair. ticular gambit. Once in a reading.
"Well, it's been nice meeting "I'm George Brand," he said. Now there was clear evidence you." he said. hundred times, perhaps, it
that Mrs Eillson habitually word really does herald something
That
Tell me just one thing.” was it, then, that was a locket on a gold chain round interesting and new. But generally it doesn't lead to why I vaguely knew his face, hornock, and evidence that she said. "Have you ever breathed to anyone anything more, at best, than George Brand, the wife's lover had in fact been wearing it that word of this
day; but when the police arrived before?” There in no locket hung around her neck, some worthless gossip about in the Ellison case.
the yellowing paper was his nor did they come upon it in a some trivial case.
photograph, appropriately placed close search of the house. Elli- in between wife and husband. son's counsel made the most of The years
bad thinned his hair thie, and suggested that she was
the victim of a robber, there were the light eyes, the but otherwise he hadn't changed;
оп Sundays. Until 3
ozs. of spirits
ozs. In order to p.m.,
025.
Bet
The rationing of intoxicating
oc
Dm. each guest may consumo 2 liquors is being abandoned bo
૩ only. After causo it led many a Swede to these quantities the guest must drink the maximum quantity
obiainabloon any given order (though he is under no obligation to eat) food costing the Swedes this whiter makes the equivalent of three shillings. the Swedes greater per capite Woman are allowed only 1 consumers of spirits than any ozs. of epirits before 3 p.m. ander nation. To prevent a
I waited, therefore, with 2 075, after that hour. To make further rise in the consumption
of alcohol the change-over out enthusiasm. sure that there is no switching being preceded by a nation- "Remember the Turley
are wide campaign in which actor Common affair the Ell of glasses "Ladies' portions"
Milland is playing a part
Ferved in glass of a shone dif- as the flim "Lost Weekend," sona?" he said.
foring from "male glasses."
Wife murder
beaky nose, the rather protrud- ing cars, the sort of flashy looks that some women would call handsome.
No sign
"No," ha suld..
"Why did you pick on me?" He had the nerve to wink.
"You can make a story out of it when yötre short of one." "He winked again, took a stop or two The consumption of sherry Ironically enough the campaign
towards the door, then come back and spoke low into my ear. and simlar "stroog wines" has received a 200,000 contribu similarly restricted and the sale tion from the very firms which
The Crown, however, empha- rised that there was no sign of
"Of course, containing alcohol is are to take over the sale of
with phoney of beer
"For your banned....
alcohol from the State Liquor The Ellisons, The Ellisons, yes, I'm George Brand," he admit that there was nothing protection, not for mins of
breaking-in; the defence hod is names," he said Monopoly,
It didn't ring a bell. I had said again, and gave his soup also missing; and the jury were course, with phoner names." If he prefers a drink in his Such Arms will be forbidden to rack my brains, and then smile to though that fact were not apparently impressed. But He winked yet a third time, own home, the Swede comes to sell, wines and spirits in the
sare part of their stores where it came to mind--on yes, something to be proud of. I the absolute disappearance of and finally, went out.
the lockout had remained in And so here is the story- up against an even more com-
on sale. Otherwise a that case of wife murder not couldn't see it myself as I plicated set of restrictions. First beer
must be in possession of a customer who comes to buy bees long before the war. Young recalled the part he had played important-puzzle to that day course, with phptcy namat
migit be tempted to buy gin! #matbok. This is a privilege thewise it hàn' boen” decreed the big provincial towns; volorkus suburban libertino who: You're supposed to be an ex-'
middle-class couple in one of in the Eillson trogody--that of a "Remember, about the locke!? WORLD, CÓFTEIGHT RESREVED granted only to
to worthy citizens who have paid their taxes Bod ·that bottics must be display proved
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN! generally
ed horizontally so that their wife had a lover; husband had persistently pursued a weak port; how did it come to vanish
right out of this world?" About every fourth swede has tempting labels cannot be read. found out and strangled her and silly married woman: this coveted liquor-ration book. Liquor advertisements and win in their bungalow. It was all
"Coincidelices happen," I said. "Could be the women lost it that very afternoon."
he
law-abiding.
Of these 200,000 are women, dow displays are to be strictly of common pattern and the (who must be over 25), two controlled.
million
What October 1 will *men ever. 25 and adul one million men under 25 who
Fippiituous Tomak
outcome cut-and-dried; so
coming-of-age national sensation." Just "a had
Decent chap
are allowed matbokh merely any adultSwede colebrates it never became a full-scale". It came out in court that she "And no one ever, found- jt
boomume they are married.
to be seen. Many fear nine-days wonder in the end
The The size of the monthly ration is will mark the start of neighbourhood, and after alw which can be bought from the wildest work ince historio forrotten excer State, Liquor homopoly's .. shops. Bleckholm Bloodbath: 62 1639)
erime" colleétors.
ne
several aftongpts to Or found it, and, with the whole ntrigue, but he had town talking about the lockel,
aw. cont to kept it to LunchPRIVUK?!
every "Maybe, Prison hid it away!
YES
I