Who! reasons could
be strong enough to impel a prominent public man, in middia life, to tear up his roots in Britain and hood for a new life in Australia?
That is what Angus Moudo, M.P. for Esling South, the Tory who broke with his party over Suez, is doing. Today, in this searing statement of his boliots, he tails why
W
THE CHINA MAIL, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1958.
WHY I'M GOING
by ANGUS
MAUDE MP
HEN I became a member of Parliament eight years ago I thought it is a great honour to be elected to the House of Com- mons, and I enjoyed the business of politics. Now I am leaving it for good.
There will, no doubt; be plenty of people who will think I am leaving in a mood of bitterness, frustration, and resentment — and going unhappily to something which will for me be second-best,
This is nonsense. I have always been a journalist, and I was one long before I was
a politician. There is nothing second-best for me in becam ing the editor of the of the newimpers greatest world, the Sydney Morning Herald.
ת!
the
KNOWN TV PERFORMERS, NOBODY IN THE COUNTRY CARES A DAMN WHAT HE SAYS EITHER.
Angus Maude at kome with his four children (left to right); Charler (xx), Elizabeth (II), Francis (Jour), and Deborah (nine), Bising from this picture in wife Barbara; she is con- valescing in hospital.
In few constituencies are there
ñ Chon
thousand of mure two men and women who care who their M.P. is or how he 13 who are pre- chosen? Those pored to work for his return Should one blame the pubile can be numbered in lens rather chan hundreds. The remainder for this? I am not sure.
On the one hand it can be are content la grumble about argued that poilues be the Government and about the its supporters, and comes futie pastime for quality of
if
Of course 1 shall miss polities good rate men. politicians to make use of the services of as a sort of social 11 Omething that be- deserve the contempt in which their M.P.
And the party service welfare officer, eurne part of one's life. Yet they are hekl.
Until the people of Britain this departure will not be for machines are certainly rcspon-
up find do something me the Intolerable wrench that aible for degrading the back wako
will not It would be for many of my bench member to the 'contemp. about all this, things
If they don't care colleagues,
tible status of u lobby-walking improve.
who governs them they don' I have
able to robot, never been
they are governed. Te surrender myself utterly
But does not a country get cure how the pulticians it deserves? And if they don't care about politice. AS SUM men do.
would not be its that, they don't care about the have always thought that this Politics
their country, of miserable
if future of for present
state total absorption is bad
for his enough people really cared. themselves, and their children. man, and worse still
Cured not only about how Perhaps they don't. Perhaps It is also bad for politics they were governed but, also they have some sort of dreary and for the country lug, about the greatness and prus- death-wish.
Anyway, I am going to For plitics is not the most perity of their country.
Australia, There is no death- art important thing in life,
family.
tt ta not a
1L
It is simply system for gel- Ung certain things done, and A
it is not healthy when neu
to believe
COM machinery is more
that
Wasted Hours
Tpresent, members of Par-
of out
never
BESIDE A BED IN HAYMARKET
Mary McAlpine
DAMI
and
Edith Evans
life."
AME EDITH EVANS was in bed when I crifice a great part of your
called on her in her dressing room in London's Haymarket Theatre.
"I'm not ill," she said, seeing my concern. wish among the people there, "Just resting. I do this for an hour or two before
each performance. I always have."
only a great pride is incir country
tramenso and centis future
con-
The 69-year-old actress, who is unanimously acclaimed as England's—many say the world's greatest, looked frail and old lying there.
an
the
1 shore the hours at Westminster that are
that confidence, and important wasted in uile: futility-mostly I have four young children
sitting around waiting for who will grow up there. than the alms it is supposed divisions the result of which I don't feel at all like a rat
But when she started to talk woman; She has never been to serve.
were a foregone conclusion, because leaving a sinking ship. I've she was transformed. Her clear, criflelsed for hogging the lime- The alms, however,
everybly knows thal D9 done my best, As one of the vibrant valce, her kind and alert light, Her nearly unique Important to me. They st
Cvery 100 crew, to help keep ber afloat.
her eyes, gave
aura of quality is her ability to keep the are, I have battled on in pur members
dare to voto But don't care to stay around
woman's own sult of them for eight years would
against their party once
too long with my family when strange, almost youthful, beauty, woman in
"It is difcult to shed myself place, and to make her serve as withoul, it seems to me, very
* lifetime,
see the rest of the ship's quickly," she explained. "And the tool intended by the writer much success. Now I expect
If a man wants to become company apparently
muking ind it I lie down I can forget to the advantage of the whole shall be accused of faim-
Minister with any speed, ne preparations to Scuttle her, the things I've left at home and work. heartedners, of abandoning the
I have never doubted that the worries, and concentrate on running must say and do many things.
So Dame Edith is remembered struggle too soon, of
which, if he has sense and MORY
integrity and no great powers of self-deception, he knows to be wrong or unwise.
I do not see it ke that. Futile Pastime
But every compromise, every
this country could have a future really start to live-the woman by those who have seen her as as glorious an tie past. But that! become on stage."
will involve rather a lot of Dame Edith Ilves alone in A work. Above all, it will demand small apartment off Piccadilly, the will to survive and prosper. She spends her mornings active- Mulions of people must really ly, but takes the afternoons to begin to care.
write letters "and slow down". le it as difficult to shed the ond stage-woman
retum to Edith Evans when the curtain
Struggle On
an article in the newspaper or
NOWADAYS, whenever I write falls?
"No," she replied, But,
39
Is it worth the sacrifice?
Y ca. Because It's unavoid- able. You are yourself. Your
work is a large part of your life. The same must be
a
true of o great surgeon, a great lawyer. They have to mako tho some sacrifices."
When Edith Evans was 37 she was quietly married, in London church, to a man whose picture has never been pub- ished and who was seldom scen. Nearly a year passed be- fore the news leaked out.
Immediately she was BUT- rounded by the press. What was his name? Dame Edith re- fused to give it.
"I can't tell you much about him," she said with amusement, "because I don't know a great deal myself,"
Не
מיי
the beautiful and fascinating Cleopatra. as the violent, In- dependent shrew Katharine,
Malaprop as Florence Mrs
趋紧 Portlo. Edith He was later described. Nightingale, Evans the woman of that name
was a 42-year-old petroleum is almost unknown.
engineer, George Booth, And because of this versatility small slight man with greying the greatest playwrights of the hair." who spent most of the times have wellfen for her. year abroad and who had a George Bernard Shaw wrole horror of publicity. He died parts particularly for her in suddenly 10 years later in Eng- "Back to land, when Dame Edith was "Heartbreak House", Methuselah", "The Apple Cart", playing in New York.
When "The Millionairess",
Christopher. Fry spent three bringing her the news, to
creating "one of my Evans left the theatre favourite roles," the gentle wise caught the next boat home. woman in "The Dark is Light Enough."
"Thot 1s know, onu you
В
Often he submits to this DS Australia a necessary prelude to THE interests, of
office, are not, of course, exactly convinced that when he gets the same as those of Britain, to the top he will be able to for his and Australians very properly work wholeheartedly resent the suggestion that the ideals. country should always tag along behind us. But the
greatness. evasion, and every sacrifice honour, and independence of the cause of "party unity" chips make a speech that is reported simple. the Commonwealth are as vila? a litle bit of his Integrity away, in the Press, I get letters from always feels bit like the
over so that when he gets to the top
the country to Australians as they are in
from wretched person, one's playing. I there
little left, people who agree with me and like that. I want the theatre to may be very
urge me to battle on.
be an extension of my life, To im truth has Indeed be come many sided.
That is encouraging, but six stretch and broaden me, to give independent Tory MPs are not me experience which life hasn't
given.' enough to win this fight.
And because she Those ave remaining "rebel"
feels this whom of mine,
Iway, Duane Edith has turned leaving, will down inany good, as well as bad,
had just
15.
It
Bame
seems to
me, therefore, that I shall be following the objectives there that I have tried to fight for in Britain, Perhaps in
such in the end fluence as I can hope to have will prove to have been more effective there than in Britain.
all
she She told me
years
There is, Dame Edith cold. one quality which all great
have
every finished reading a play sent by actresses, or just actresses, must
Compromise
of course, often essential: but I must be compromise un methods, not on arms and principles. You must friends believe inflexibly in the central deeply regret core of your objective, and you suggle on. But the battle will plays. must be able trust your need to be taken up by many
to
thousands of people in lenders to hold fast to this.
We have now reached a state constituency in the land. of affairs in which no man of top quality is prepared to enter IS politics, EX- Yot the
Jan CEPT IN THE CASE OF «ppear to be quite prepared to in
ILANDFUL OF WELL- put up with it,
FOR LET US FACE THIS FACT. THE INFLUENCE OF A BACK-BENCH M.P, NOW IS ALMOST NIL. HIS IN FLUENCE ON GOVERN- MENT POLICY NEGLIGIBLE:
A
AND.
Prople of
I wish them well if they will do it. Perhaps they will some times spare a thought for me. For I too shall be battling or, Australia, for the things I think are right
LATE-NIGHT POLITICAL COMMENTARY....BY DEREK MARKS
Why I think Maude
ANGUS
is wrong
he has decided to quit.
her agent.
"And because of it you can "I simply couldn't do it, The
spot who will be good and who tension is such that I could do no good the second they walk After on stage. They must have a it for only one month,
that it would kill me,
communicative vitality. You "The woman in the play has can be a vital private person, a heart full of hate. When you but on stage you must become act if you really act-you must publicly vital.
be that person, All your different." muscles, every Aibre
body
woman.
It is quite
of your And has Dame Ellth found 10 controlled by that the life of the theatre a hard life?
¤
a
the cable
arrived,
Miss and
I asked Dome Edith if she thought acting and marriage went together.
"Yes, it can. But it is not a marriage the way marriages aro meant to be. You cannot travel with your husband on his busi- ness trips. It is not terribly satisfactory. But that does not mean it cannot be successful."
In a speech a few years ago, Dame Edith said she once asked her husband he would like her to give up the theatre.
He replied: "I would rather bove you 20 per cent alive then 80 per cent doad.”
I left Dame Edith with an hour to forget the interview and "It is a good part, 2 good "Very. I think it's such
herself,
and to become the play. But I couldn't stand it." mistake to build it
gardening - mad, up os
possessive Forty-five years 50 Edith glamorous life. You must be grandmother in Enid Bagnold's Evans was an obscure 21-year- strong. You must be willing to play, "The Chalk Garden," old working in London milliner. She had
ΤΕ great friend-"I've still got her"-who Occasionally produced experl- mental theatre on an amateur basis.
La
#
Shake-
One night, London spearean producer William Poel dropped in to see the show, saw Edith Evans, and offered her the, role of Beatrice in "Much Ado
That started her off on
MAUDE, the Armest of all the Suez rebels mighty. For him there is no About Nothing".
must place in the present set-up-60 clean, brilliant path to the top 45-year-old Tory rebel, in insisting that Britain
preserve her greatness. is making his final absten-
Now he is planning to quit. 1 think be is horribly of the theatrical world. tion-he is quitting for The man who once worked with mistaken, His is one of the Britain cannot Australia to become editor Mr Butler in the Tory Central emig.unts
to insc..
"I have had an easy time, dli Office reshaping the Tory Party, afford
Authority has of the Tory Sydney Morning the man, whose colleagues were never loved the rebel-and for my life, in the external ways of Herald.
the theatre. I've Macleod, the Labour six years Maude has been Why does a man leave Minister, and Regloald Maud walking reproach to many of out of work. My struggles have Westminster, turn his back what has happened?
ling the Paymaster-General. his Tory colleagues. He was a been with self-control,
reproach to broker pledges, to Line,"
on his home country in
middle age to start all over
again in the Antipodes? · There are many men
Iain
is true.
Unpalatable
To succeed one has to con-
д
never
idle boasts and garden party She suddenly broke off. flag-waggers.
'Conscience'
been
discip-
"I once sow a race horse," By quitting Britain now ale suld, "tum off the course Maude becomes merely and run back to the stable. at MORE and more the political reproach to himself-and every- After the race he was brought Wes master who will shrug IT world at Westminster has thing to which he has sacrificed out and forced to run the their shoulders and say only become the place where "itle his career and personal interest course. He couldn't get away -- "Well, that'a typical of
with that.... men Geek for themselves dis- for six years. Argus." For in recent
"I had friends-oh, such good years neaturable graves." It may be Maude has become the chief unpalatable. It may be 'un-
friends-in those early
daya. dissident of the parly, the man pleasant to my so.
They used to whack at me. But there who would not agree that black are few who would deny that It
They would cringe when I came was black.
THERS remain, Hinching-on stage. They'd shield their He has become typlied as an
breuke still atands undaunt-face with their arms as though erubittered man. Office, the goal form. One has to accept the ed below the gangway on the the Impact were terrifle." And of all politicians. cluded him. idea that Britain is no longer Government banchos. Now oven Dame Edith laughed. Each promotion
lesser great Power, of
Bilence That Empire in the Socialists listen in
I asked her if she'd over persons became a cause for In- an unmentionable come would when he speaks.
experienced stage fright. creased bitterness....50 they eay an obsceno-word.
For 10 weary, frightening "No. Never. That's what I say, the mea who
To succeed one has to praise years before the war the "con-mean. I feel so at home on the talk in
the foillee of incompetence as if science of Britain" was left in stage I must struggle, against Ortors.
You that Is not the whole they were indeed the triumphs the mole charge of one man- being free. I must viso pontrol.” story. For Maude is a man who of genius.
Winston Churchill,
Dame Edith seems to have bellaves in Britain, He was a Maude bellover in the Empire. If the Angus | Maudes run succooded. prisoner of war. He has raised He will not trucklo to pway today in whose keeping Thare is no such thing as an a family and a large one by incompetence masquerading in is it to be left in the, droary, "Edith Evana role". The woman modern standards. He was the the outalco breechica of the frightening years shood?"
i always an individual, a new
as
I don't fool át áll like a rat leaving
a sinking ship. I've done my bost, one of the crow, to help keep her afloat. But I don't care to stay around too long with my family when I see the rest of the ship's company apparently making preparations to scuttle hor.
WEEKEND Friell
PRIME MINISTER" OFIMAN FOLL
"It's funny how his popularity rites when he's not here—perhaps wo should have a ganaral election while he's away."
"I'm quite aware we are slithering from crisis to crisis, my dear, but you might at least give me a vote of confidence."
FURNITURE EXHIBITION
"I would like to exchange a TV chair for a safe
seat.
興
"I couldn't understand Dr. Fuchs's attitude, either, I suppose there are some things men must do to full their destiny.“
ICING
ASTER
CASTE
BARBADOS
FINE GRANULATED
GOLDEN SYRUP
CASTER
DEMERARA
HALF CUBES
SOFT BROWN
ICING
TAIKOO SUGAR
SOFT BROWN
BARBADOS
MOLASSES
ICING
HALF CUBES
GOLDEN SYRUP
FINE GRANULATED
ICING
CASTER
REFINED SINCE 1884-
Damo. Edith Evans. She likes to rolax for
·least an hour before a performance, to concÈNITEÏE OR the part shoʻls toʻplay 'on'the stags.
DEMERARA