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THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, JULY 16, 1956.

Why Is Aneurin Bevan Interesting Himself

In Colonial Affairs?

London

six months T is now

Mr since

Aneurin Bevan stepped into the shoes of Mr James Griffiths na "Colonial Secretary" fr the Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet.

His change to the colonial Bell surprised Britain.

came

It

a thunderclap to

by

HAROLD

JAMES

the counsels of state, unless it was in the limelight it was un- likely to have templed him.

An examinatiora

of

fective

re-

moments, Mr Bevan would not be averse from

at- ducing the present heated

discuss- of colonial mosphere tous. For one thing, he may well be the next Socialist Secretary and at Slate for the Colonies, bis task would be caster if he on speaking terms with the Opposition. There is sign of that relationship today.

Were

no

ICELAND

has at Although his temper times got the better of him, he colonial has been studiously moderate in con- of all

the people of the colonies, tais in Parliament in recent his approach to the most for he had previously shown maths shows that

Mr Bevan tentious coloniu! issue

no interest in their affairs, has taken a hand only when the Cyprus,

has been He was certainly no colonial e

and, thus,

"fan," like Oliver Stanley, The negotiations

Creech Jones and Boyd.

10

controversiai

Over Kenya he declined public interest.

House over Miss over Cyprus; divide the

Justice In Fletcher's charges, much to the Jeff the annoyance of his extreme

to wing.

Lennox-minstration He tuul travelled Kenya, the breakdown of

Singapore tulks; the refusal

Mr Minoff-all

comparatively little, even as piteille

1

In all of

Minister and most thes bad the makings of n Ministers manage a holiday serne in Parliament. abroad al the public ex. them Mr Bevar has participated. pense. He had no knowledge

at all of Afrien.

office the

th

Not Invest.

Secretary

Cokwini

+

in the latentely ranked high Only two Chipul Secretaries

But when all has been plasm saling, it has been left to the

More Rapefiant than those raws in the wind are the pro-

"drat Heutenant." Mr Creech posals he has submitted for re-

des comment.

of dones, to make some platitudin- visIOR the constitutional mac- considering conlul hnery for offoars. They may not be ac- reptable to the Government, but they show an intention to take the matter seriously.

in the last half renty have ever found their way to No o At one time the post WAN

entradation garded as

for hard-working Party Jarles

Fo extople, after n brush

Colzal Secretary ver Malta rrently, Mr Bevan gathered up his papers and left the Chamber He was not there to wish the West Indies "good luck when the non-contentious

Caribbean of British

Federation Bill came before the House,

But there is nothing like this today. The fi of Colistral Secretary is now of the first

11 has been filled portance. the last few years by men first-rate ability Stanley, Griffiths, Lyttelton, and Lemus Boyd men with the alniity be Prane Minister of England

tredi If

A tradition Has now

The Secretary created that State for the Colonies is a man who matters, bet exclusively in colomal althies but counsels of the dunet

As such h

the

He did not even stay for the opying sprech

When British policy towards The Gold Coast was announced, shin werthed in for the Opposi- 1,000

to express congratulations? 3 Bevno but hu No, L.

Mr

All this suggests

that

Bevan took on the colonies so as to mak

the utmost Parly eated out of them.

the

Yet, doen Nye really want the pubbe polites to be the bone in w the

Does clog Ag

he approach eye So are the colonies.

solely to

party

It was all this, nes doubt thus pants?

However

attracted Mr Ter

dignified or historie

48476*

the liver, There is scane evictemen

however much he "izeteived in thinking that,

113

Alve all was his plea in a recent debute on Kenya tur bi-parties colonial policy

"It is essential that as far as the constitutionul pissible

of the development

colonies should arise from common apree- ment is this House. It would be extremely undesirable if every there was a change of government L Great Britain there was also a change in the constitution of the colonies."

N, one who has listened to the violent exchanges between Mr Bevan and the Colonial Secretary would believe that the words are his.

They are far more reminiscent of Oliver Stanley. But if they were meant and there is do

doubt Mr ;

Bevan's sincerity- there is hope that the over the present party worldre

for problems of the colonies may Te- abate.

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To dodge the heavy blows of the British tax collector, Noel Coward has packed off to live in Bermuda... but the betting is he'll soon be back-the perennial small they can't hold him down boy with the peashooter.

AN ENGLISHMAN OUT

IN THE MID-DAY SUN

By LES ARMOUR

Last night

got

carful From a rather tearjul Clergyman we knew, When he turned the sobs

on,

We replied With

*#*

labouring in an mad Englishman

the mid-day sun, for the bank- their rupt scions propping up stately homes, for the Home Guard armed with "the Vienr's stirrup pump, a pitch-fork and

There space.

would have aspa been no fun in "Don't let's be beastly" but for the fact that the natural reaction of the Briton is the rush to the aid of he's to his

the enemy

minute the down.

knobs

!**! And the same to you!

T

men

HUS,

thumbs

noses, sang three fearful juvenile delinquents

No one satirised by Coward- unless he is very dense--can keep a straight face long enough 10 feel the sting.

it isn't a mere accident that Coward's satire doesn't hurt.

in Noel Coward's "Ace of Clubs." And thus, thumb to nose, Coward has saluted

In 1924, he appeared in his the world for forty yearR.,

own play, "The Vortex." Over- Critics have upbraided night, he rocketed from relative in the him for his inability to take obscurity into fame.

mishit who who life seriously for more than played "u neurotic

took drugs, made sharp, witty one play at a time. Clergy- the That label, he com- licensees,

That, too, is perhaps part of and was desolately ducers, manufacturers, licensers,

performers, agents, the Coward rebellion. have accused him of

to him ever consultants, distributors, renters, debasing the public plains, has stuck

con- In an age proprietors morality. Politicians have since, and hardly anybody ever printers,

since has been able to see tractors, exporters, Importers, people prepared to teach other people anything ол earth, implored him to stop through it.

buyers, sellers, hirers, publish-

Coward

to do has preferred ers, exhibitors, dealers in and gentle, ers, ext he is real life playing havoc with national

than to things rather easy agents of mu relatively

of musical plays, dramas, institutions. The BBC has hard-working,

lyrics, novels, listen. of his going sort who was exceedingly concerts, songs, one even banned

musical his mother kind to

sketches, (she died scenarios, two years ago at 01), goes to compositions. motion pletures, bed regularly at eleven, gets up radio and television shows and

at 6.30, drinks little, and avoids performances, etc. most of the more obvious forms of dissolution.

songs.

But all to no avail,

MARCHES ON

una

Or so, at any rate, he stoutly maintains.

the evidence marches OWARD

is on his And perennial small boy with a side.

the He belongs, in fact, not to the peast poter ready to prick

of pom- roaring twenties which made over-inflated balloons

him famous but the Victorian era, and he has fought a one-

pority anywhere.

World War II brass hats shud-

dered and roared with laughter man war against the twentieth

strains of Colonel century.

(who "emerged

Montmorency

from his retirement for the war) and his struggle to prise a Bren gun from the War Office, ('We've got some ammunition in

a rather damp condition. Major

DISQUIETING

It did not say that he can also stand on his head. But he can. Cownrd is a one-man band in a day of symphony orchestras- and he can out-draw the sym- phony orchestra any day,

He made his name acting, Binging, and playing the plano -and writing plays.

But that is only the begin- ning,

He has a novel more than half written and he has recently proved that he can paint well

enough to sell.

overflowing with

sit and

The Lonely Woman On The Hilltop

FRAU HESS TAKES BUT

5 GUESTS

From

PETER DACRE

F

Kempten, Bavaria.

| RAU ILSE HESS, wife of Rudolf Hess, who was Hitler's Deputy Fuehrer until ho fled to Britain during the war, has opened a litle guest house in the mountains near Kemp-

ten, Bavaria.

She has a 300-year-old wooden farmhouse at the top of a sleep, at Gallen- winding cart-track

borg.

11 is called Gastho Bergherberg"Guest House on Lho Hill."

a

Here, for 4s. to 75. Od. night, guests dine by candle- light under a straw roof and sip wine served by Fruu Hess, once one of the first ladies of Germany

1 am slaying the week-end as Frau one of her five guests.

met me at the door. Hess

Her mass of fair hair was ted with

blue ribbon. She wore faded blue overall and black fat sonduis

a

B

It is very simple, but I hope you will be very confortable," she said. She led the way into pointed to the straw a hajl,

roof, and sald: "I could not afford nything else at 0110 time. But now everybody la enchanted with it,"

MEMORIES

The

of memory

Deputy Fuchrer Hess is everywhere in the house.

In my bedroom is a pleture of him with his wife and son. In the dining-room are Hess's books, some of them Inscribed

"To Relchsmarshal Hess."

In the hall is bust of a English girl bought by Hess before the war.

Ind

The gucaly use cutlery napkins with the monogram R.H.

Frau Hess does not like talk- ing about her husband-now in Spandau

criminal.

Prison ટીફ

war

"I have not spoken to him since he flew to England," sho "But we write regularly.

#usband Ls

sold.

"MY

mentally

never

or

has been.

not

is

Ho

physically.

"I want him to be released

but I have no great hope that It will be coOT When be is freed he will come here to live quietly.

"Everyone thinks we have a million in Switzerland but that

15

not true.

All we have is

in this house. That is why I

T

working to make A

home

for him as well as myself.”

Occasionally she

will

minisce about the old days.

SHE'S HAPPY

When she saw me looking at books about naval battles of the First World War she said: "That was one of my husband's hobbies, He had small models of ships and would reconstruct the battles.

"Once, long before the war, when your Prince of Wales [now the Duke of Windsor) visited us he and my husband disappeared into the cellar,

had

"When we found them they the ships and were fight- ing the Battle of Jutland. They were both getting very angry, about it," one The House on the Hill can

And he has never been pre- to sit and do any pared thing for long. Plays in which

ho

appears are regularly cut short so he can get on to the next thing. Every new medium is a new challenge.

his

The only thing he hasn't been able to do is to abandon "gracious living."

FINAL DIG

#WWENTY years ago he said he

NWEN

would rather be happy than rich. This year he apparently thought that it was worthwhile

At 56 he entered the night And H

taste for what used to be club entertainment business with taking a chance on his happiness

to preserve his riches. called "gracious living" fed a bang and earned the biggest Huss has an Arquebus

in the United him to buy and occupy a 20-room fee ever pald

To dodge the heavy blows of that was used at Waterloo.")

mansion in Kent, States (£10,000 a week). At the British tax collector he has Then the peace-makers shook rambling

on sixteenth century 57, he tackled TV. Ho was paid sold up his stately home and his with rage at "Don't Let's Be built

added to ever £178,000 for the three shows. art collection and moved to. Beastly to the Germans." "We foundations and

Bermuda and since. must be sweet and tactful

And when they've discreet.

The same passion has made suffered defeat we musn't let him believe, firmly like his them feel upset..."). The BBC Victorian predecessors that

cong, but

even

banned the

BIG HIT

Of course, he has stately home, there--with some -of-the trappings.

new

you re Don't let's be beastly" became the nastier side of life should be' TN the flest he offered himself, homes: of England he' stately kept carefully locked behind;, Mary Martin, and a backdrop member, "though rather in the a national catch phrase all the thick doors.

consisting of one sofa. They lurch, provide a lot of chances same.

Long before, the empire build- ers had felt his sting and the war, a laughed themselves silly at signifionaco

plays.

ys. Now a hero must be a fabulous fee. "Mad Dogs and Englishmen."

juvenilo and the upper classes struggling tramp or a drunk or "to prove the upper classes have

Not long age he snorted: "Since song and danced and quipped. for psychical research. There's Vorrible pall of They were an instant hit and the ghost of a crazy younger son 1108 taken over no

Cowards who murdered in thirteen fifty-

1

ono

regretted In a medium choked with

or have terrible sex costly sets, fabulous gimmicks,

still the upper hand" paused # ̈

long enough to roar at The Stately Homes of England.""

VICTORIAN

one an extremely rowdy nun.......'

Well, Coward's now, home, of and millions of pounds worth of course, has a ghost, albeit the Coward's heroes display a assorted hochah, Coward dared ghost of what is described as "n

dlet of pure Coward

lovely young French girl." present sometimes disquieting lack of to

backed by a sofa“.

It was a And,

of course, he couldn't terrible sex complications - matter which has now and then triumph of man over machine leave without a final dig at the led him to cross swords with Alled him with high glee. English. His now play, "South various kinds of moralists.

He has always had a firm be- Sea Bubble," recounts the ter- colony. And he still prefers a gent to lief that the Coward talent is a sible tale of a British

match for any

Ha took under the mid-tiny sun in which

local

Conservative and a un another level, his rebellion only two music losons and then Labe ward's pon. Except, curious, On

musical... Ho Labour parties, nurtured by the ly, the British working class, for against the twentieth century, dared to write a

Colonial Office, are engaged in a nover took any more lessons. whom he has a marked regard. cuts deeper.

But there wag curious senti ment mixed discreetly with the

NOBODY quito escaped Co

aeld,

Coward had and hos-a deep and sentimental affection for the

His two music lessons are the fearful row over the nationallen Not long ago he applied for a licence to conduct: his business only lessons he has over taken tion of publle, conveniences.

Who wants to bet that Coward In Bermuda. The official legal from anybody about anything, notice said he proposed: ""To since the day he left school for won't be, back soon-tout collec

tors or not? carry on the businesses of pro- the theatre,

1

take five quests "No more, otherwise I have to pay tax," says Frau Hers.

Her son, now 18, is at school in Berchtesgaden. Later he will tution

udy, in Munich to be a con

engineer.

Frau Hess

Joking

la laughing and with her guests

this

week-end. After a spell of poor

weather the sun

that

sun is shining and means more visitors, As she carried a pail of water from a garden trough she said: "I am happy here. I would not like to live in a town again,"

FOOTNOTE.-Hess How to

Britain on May 10, 1941, In October 1946 he was sentenced Ute imprisonment at the Nuremberg war crimes trials. Ha is now 02,

POCKET CARTOON by. OSBERT LANCASTER

"Darling, do tell mamis Togliani a racing driver or that new soprano de Glyndebourne???

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