T
THE CHINA. MAIL, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1956.
FIVE MINUTES OF SHEER ESCAPISM
By David Lewin
The news lately has been wholly concerned with a world in crisis: today marvelling slightly at how large the world still is and how much of it is still controlled by the impervious forces of Nature Page Four prints a dispatch about a set turtles. The of men who have been wholly concerned with author has been in the West Indies covering the new boom in film-making there; in this story, however, POSITIVELY NO FILM STARS APPEAR. It is, as we say, SHEER escapism.
105
Bird Island About 207 Tobago, culled HE tartie famine is her west of the British Islanet
to be marked on Sisall over and there is full of Domines, Bird Island 139 tox netan again today on nije John Huston'x film, "Heaven Knows, Mister Alli- son."
to
But oh, what druma there has been about those turtles, In desperate endeavour find them and bring them to Tobago Robinson Crusoe Island
of the Alzo from unit. George Fowler, Woking, Surrey, was
~one
in Brith St. Lalo they ha been told about Bird Island, watch by # (262vil s.rip of zan (00 yards long by 100 yurus wid There is no habitation, no Treea,
nothing. It belongs
Venezuela.
a.
and once every two months a achooner from St Lucia arrivça to pick us up.'
On St Lucia the turtles are "processed and go for soup to be sold to Britain and the rest of the world,
Braithwalte'a yearly haul of The averago turtles is 3,000.
100lb. Ib.
of a turtio is weight
19 18. and the price Work that out, and Mr Brath- waite can collect the best part The Bonnie Bhel refused to of £15,000-tax free, pay £120 for a pilot to take them to Bird Island and made i nakled.
There they found an astonish-
sent the sight. For living on lind
His food
He also does a large trade in out on a tour of the Carillon is a one-time English- the deposits of the birds which circle squalling through the night.
bean.
man nanel Adam Braithwalle who says he is now American auf das spent most of the last Bird 'deserted
1WO Istarx1.
years
1.
ta
He salled in the bay, Thumb- nul-size Scots Deling hawler
2) Bonal
Ethel has racio, Just a compas, a
Pole called Stok skipper is a who brought the ship told these waters from North Irland wil a crew of one, another Pule
And
then the Bonnie Eh 1 on her turtle trip was meshg She was Wiree days overdag. and radio Mations through us the British West Indies put on urgent inessages asking ships to keep a look -m13.
I
His home
the WENT searching for Bonnie Ethel and found her off the island of Grenada, relling
from o
in the swell distant hurricane.
HE
His bed
E is about 40 years old, tall, und beurded-no shaving tackle and he wears old khaki shorts and an off-white singlet, He has no shoes on his feet uut
no hut in which to Itve.
With
Braithwallo hus no radio either
him
are two coloured boys. The boys live, * ltered tonl. Mr Braith- waite lepa in a nearby turite hole.
bit
jonel
"Doesn't here?" askert Fowler,
"Nolsy n night, perhaps," Faid Brathwaite, "and
you +on't get much conversation. We live on canned stuff and turtle meat, and sometimes we catch fish, but we have no boat,
stored in Water is
50-gallon drums.
"We have no worries except when the echooner is late pick- ing us up. Then the water rund and there is nothing but out turtle most left to eat."
For the two nights the Bonnie Ethel anchored off- Bird-Island
Braithwaite slept aboard,
When the ship anchored off- anet the dinghy landed shore him. Fowler raid, "What do you t
hot-too- here?"
of
Braithwaite epiled: "Collect Turtles. Pays well too. You can mike a pot of money out al Butler and bird deposit."
Captain Sieg and the mate Fowler Were out and
water and
living 011 fresh
Fowkr: "How does it work?" hotled bananas. Even the rum
Braithwaite: "Simple, Turtles had gone. But they had found They
In by come
hundreds to lay turtles-enormous QuCS.
on a dot of loon tggt. The boys and I kill them for the
Fowler old us: "He tried interest the skipper in joining the turtle and bird business. He sotmed to think there was a great future in It and there was certainly plenty of money."
As the Bonnie Ethel pulled standing away Braithwaite, under
the iron flagpost flying the flag of Venezuela, woved his visiters goodbye, then turned to bis turtle-hole home.
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Can Selwyn Lloyd
rub the tarnish
off our name?
only
Iow days
after leisurely trip across the Atlante In the Queen Elizabeth, and has not made any news or expressed any views yet.
لم
. So it is up to Mr Lloyd.
The British today in the US are by no means as highly re- granded
when the para troopers were landing and the bombs were dropping on Egypt. The words being used about the Suez venture are "fiasco" "letdown," "backdown," "humi-
BRITAIN STANDS TODAY AT THE LOWEST
W
EBB OF PRESTIGE IN
THE
UNITED
He adds: "Can the West ex- East pect that in the Middle
attention wit be pata kny herscaforth to Briksh or French warninga?"
The American Press is spea ing with one voice, and so we the American people,
During the past few days my neighbours, my friends,
elevator maa gers at parties, and taxi-drivers have sold the same thing. "If you are going to a job do
do a
properly and don't stop half-way."
The same people who were shaking our hands ten days ago are now chasing their heads.
The
millions of Jews America. S disillusioned and despondent,
I cannot Imagine any Ameri- can writing in buch terms about his country to the London Press,
I tell you
we have hit rock boltem in this grotesque dis- play of lack of unily in the so-
Wo called United Kingdom. have disgraced ourselves in the eyes of the New World.
Our Socialists have not only stabbed our troops in the back but silt their throats from tar to car.
The Americans, just recover- ing from
their election,
and con- fused by our behaviour. completely bewildered
at my
Stove, the doorman apartment building, handed mo a newspaper
per clipping from his morning paper today and said: "What do you make of this? It is no 130 my saying. What's got into the British?"
STATES THAT I'VE EVER KNOWN although I go on doing so, that
New York, Tuesday, HO will speak for Britain here? Many are speaking against her. There are the Arabs and the Indians in their impec- cable Oxford English, the
American DINGKUTO COVOLJ to a great extent responsible for the
The clipping w a letter from Mr
Mr Alan Splak, of
Cam- bridge, England, and it read:
"May I be permitted to use French move in the Middle the columns of your paper to
Est.
and what the American news. llating fillure," "minious abrupt ending of the Anglo- papers are printing, he must retreat." realise that this crisis in eur prestige must be dealt with,
Sir Pierson Dixon, our per- U.N., manent delegate to the has done his polite best-quiet, elegant, unruffled, but lacking are and fervour,
Russians, a scattering of Only poise
South Americans, and
2
dispatches London:
to the US.
mis
Aroun
the
has
Is
Venomous
LISO
saying.
L
my absolute horror and at the overt action of by, the
committed
prosent I
British Government?...
My that I feel utterly
ashamed of being British today."
Even some of our best friends indict us.
Drew Middleton. Here is a close American friend of Bir Anthony Eden and a champion of Brilata for years In I although I go on saying, that And It ironical that such as Mrs crisis would never have hap- outstanding Antericans
Eleanor pened but for the bankrupt steverson, the
RooGevelt, Mr Adiat "Individuals
defeated Pres organisa palley of Mr John Foster Dulles, dential candidate who received and tions believe that ritali
The Americans know, and was
and MouSS mumber of alleged English- saw tim £t the United suffered a severe defeat in the men who have chosen their
Wagner, the chief exécu us, but that's old history now. Kingdom headquarters at Middle East and that her days know, that Dulles bamboozled 25,500,000 votes,
tive of country's travail to betray 99, Park Avenue when the crisis of military, political, and dipa
We
Now York City, are stand this day at the her in the American Press. first began and congratulated
championing the British action of prestige in in Egypt (or did until the humi drawing to a close."
#the United States that
I have I hope Mr Selwyn Lloyd will him on his fist speeches befond matte influence in that area are lowest ebb
liating halt), while the Socialiste He United Nations.
wonder, Middleton and others point ever known. And no raise his voice and prove his the stature.
kept his nerve and his poise, out that the British and French when Englishmen write to the in England betray their own
country. unable to American
denouncing He has started well. He 19
Press
President Eisenhower halindelt resist the atticism of their their own country with venom said that it was the manifest here at the General Assembly, been missing. and if he has been listening to
but the righteous
Anger
Our new Ambassador,
what the Americans are saying, Harold Cacelo, has been
ROYAL FILM
NIGHT of
UNDER
has
has
Governments were
Sie friends or the throats of their and viciousness. here enemies.
SHOW FIRE!
By ROBERT ROBINSON
sented
„**. right"! of Britain and France to Since Mr Michael Foot, take military action in the lecturer at Keble College, Ox Middle East, although he dis ford,
had his infamous letter published in Sunday's Now York Times here, I have been deluged with messages. "What sort of an Englishman is this?”
Mr Foot wrote, and millions of Americans read: "If the United States is
irue friend of our country she will never con-
done what we have done,
THE
Puzzled
pursling thing to almost
everyone there except the Government officials who put
the pressure on Eden and "Without overtly moralising turned the screws hard, la why she must at all costa insist on wo bogged down in an operation
"Let them use their own Pre- the fact of, or aggression; on that fe not even a half-measure our absolute exclusion from any and fails to topple the dictator UN.
Namser #ent to inter police force my afore
between
Egypt and her Surely the Bulganin black- infor.pose law
three attackers, on our evacua- mail note or even the urgings tion of the Canal Zone, on of Mr Eisenhower on election
London. young actress whore talent has hundred teen confimed to the stage, Nor aident," said he,
does it accoemt for the absence A of others who
gave notable But listen to
mentioned anonymous performances on the ser#ENA
mant; As I see it, the show has two objects:
stars? Night of hundred jealousies:
I speak, of course, of Royal Command Film Per- formances, at which soma' One to make money for the
Cinematograph. 20 hand-picked stars aro volent d
Trade Beno- (£20,000 this presented to the Queen
Two, to boost the BRITISH
and considerably more than
molars in the background.
20 gnash their glossy nim industry.
"We get a lot of invitation
flahing from starlets who feel
How is the British Aim In... they ought to be on the Pre dustry, boosted i Britishim sentation List I was told by sorcoses are excluded, and one in close touch, who must HALF the places on the Pres remain anonYTDOUR "But if sentation List are awarded to they aik, they pro ruled out American stately
"The Royal Show is a com- sending any UN.. force to police day, should not have been suffl mercial venture" he explained, the desert border, and not a dis- cient to pull Sir Anthony up,
stars like Marilyn Monroe are puted British interest 100 miles the ones who people will pay inside Egyptian territory. 25 gutsess a seat to ste." :
Nansense, say I
'Rock bottom'
How
The US. today Is anxious to close ranks, but we are regarded.
very
Partner Junior over whom the super-Powers, America and the U.S.BR tower.
The
Blindst covers by
People pay their 25 guineas a
BOVE all she must insist his vast popularenajority stat for one reason only-the❝A
on completely separating been In one crisis conferenc Queen will be there the question of the management after another, but with Job
Queen of the Canal: from, the faredil- Forum Dullos And why not let the meet a few of the technicians Egyptian was which we have so successor viable, the plan
the cameramen whose artistry basoly exploited pretending the Middle East some to be contibuter zo much?
"It oppoare 10 us that unlaw have no plan, to stand pat,
(toʻaland: No mom for them? Then let our county now condemned the powder-joe
without qualification by show đ the moguls who are presented whose hands are still led to actiona
Fallig to repudiate our
who does got picked? japansk
Finch, star of the film every year volunteer to stan #Blacs who have done notable which was the. Quoon's cholen, down. film work over": the past/yEM PATHALIO of The į Rlyde: my backroom) friend, tõid
"with me. Which kiriked tha
Com-
Perb
Laby can
Cotar 13 Amer