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THE CHINA MAIL,
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER~~ 4, 1950. **
No. 2
THE DUKES: BRITAIN'S 'GRANDEES
Not all fun being
To the left of the great
lawn of Blenheim Palace there is a sparse wood. In its thickets the Duke of Marlborough, 10th of his title, has created a garden which he feels will be his memorial to Blenheim.
It is a wild, romantic, English garden with in- fluences drawn from the 18th-century Italian KIT*-
dens which his ancestora.
head of the Churchills
BY DONALD EDGAR
anw in their Grand Tours. and still, through
Small lakes with mossy stones, rather sa shrubs, winding walks and the soft rustle of fallen leaves.
There is an atmosphere of sadness about it, And perhaps that expresses the true character of the pre- sent head of that great family of Churchills,
He is known as a lively,
irascible, opinionated man who at the age of 62 has few interests other than the pleasures of the table, of bridge and of preserving pleasants to shoot.
Only One
He has a noble Duchess who
her serve his family. His estate and money and influence, has the traditions of his family. an important part to play in the history of the Mari- boroughs..
Influence
It is as I, at any critical time for the Churchills, a woman comes to their aid. John Churchill may have
piays the family part in public aftales. Speaking for the Tories. Organising the Bed Cross in the
птер,
But the Duke's own life is Hike his garden....relatively in the shadows.
April
Hoaxed
Day, at the St
THE DUKE OF MARLBOROVOK
As a family grows older in its Secondly. and in complete tiles and hereditary honours, eo reverse, the angry head of the it becomes increasingly difficult Churchills looking resentfully at to sustain them with lustre. the crowds of plebs invading his Especially in an age when the inheritance. And cursing all the fabric of society is changing so impediments of lavatories and rapidly as it has in our century. car-parks.
well.
Difficult
His
son,
the
Mar-
ASSIGNMENT AFRICA · ·Rene MacColl meets a man who thinks he'll be boss in 5 years
Hot-shot Tom
says: We're ready to act
From RENE MacCOLL: Nairobi
TALKED in Nairobi to the man who thinks he will be boss of a sovereign and independent Kenya within five years. The name: Tom Mboya. The personality: charming. The titular description: President of the Nairobi People's Convention Party. The general impression of him in Kenya: the hottest shot in politics.
with
The weight of pressures
and
Africa are such that this is 20 extravagant
demand. surely not
Mboya, thirtyish, the build of a Rugby scrum-half, is the rarity changes now going on all over ing about among politicians a man who says what he means and eschews double-talk,
Said he, his face looking even more startlingly black in contrast to his immacu- late white collar and shirt: "We are quite prepared to take positive action f we do not get what we want
either get the Land they deserve."
QUESTION: "Are you talk- foreille expropria- tion?"
ANSWER: "Oh, people get scared by that word, Let's say that there will be acquisition of country land by Africans not necessarily on a voluntary basis-but with
the former owners."
Mboya has more shocks in store for the whites. He pro- poses to bring in new immigra- tion laws completely barring any European who intends to farm in Kenya in future.
to
There was that rather sad been able and victorious. hoax played on him this year on But he would have been James's. He was dealt a com-
Is, In one way, easier to bo destroyed without the in-plete hand of spades. And, I am born a plain Winston Church!!!, member of an illustrious family. fluence and drive of his told for some time did not Duchess, Surub,
realise that the hands had been but not involved in the burden who
fair and just compensation of tiles and the physical weight fixed. dominated
Queen Anne for so long. poor
of Blenheim Palace.
And, in this last century, I doubt if Blenheim Palace, even though now open to the public, would have survived without the dollars and common sense of Cunsuelo Vanderbilt.
Je is not only one of the country's grand dukes. He
I would not say the career of is a Prince of the Holy the present Duke has been bril Roman Empire and Prince liant. He has played no great of Mindelheim in Swabia part in the life of his country.
That has been left to his kins- titles he inherited from man, Sir Winston Churchill. John Churchill, the first But, probably, the Duke is Duke who won so many content to be a Duke and pre- battles, when he felt like it,
from the French.
But he is the son of a broken marriage. II is!
mother Was the great
"Echo Mike Romeo."
American heiress, Consuelo THE radar scanner in Vanderbilt, who brought the sound-proof con- millions of dollars, beauty, trol panel circles in- and a sense of unhappiness cessantly, sprinkling the to his father.
darkened screen with There was a divorce. But blotches of light. Consuelo, now 81, still lives voice drones
microphone.
|POCKET CARTOON by OSBERT LANCASTER
"If only he could sing what a splendid stand-in he'd make for Callas,”
London Eatrem Bervios.
into
A
а
"Q.E.F. One-zero-zero- Head left, left two-
four. eight-zero."
High over London, I Viscount approaches Lon- don Airport. On board the passengers are just finishing lunch. Their pilot bas contacted the control tower, to be guided on to a beam which will place him in position for landing.
Calmly
From now on, pilot and passengers are in the hands
of the control.
men at approach
But in his own sphere, large and rubletard, he is very much s the Duke.
Though a large part of Blen- heim has been made open to the public, bis wing is splendid by any standards.
There is a butler and four footmen. The table is an duval
standards. The weekend parties ore graced with all the luxuria of Fdwardian days.
well.
He looks after his 15,000 acres His tenants have reasons to be grateful to him.
He keeps a small but elegant house in Mayfair.
Indomitable
That vast pile weighed down its architect, Vanbrugh, and the Indomitable Sarah Churchill.
In these days the weight la almost Intolerable-psychologic ally.
I feel that this Duke varies between two moods:
The practical one....5miling pictures of him and his Duchess showing the people round the treasures of the antique pile.
His daughters have married quess of Blandford, has settled down and married an heiress of the W. H. Smith concern.
The servants still move soft fooled along his carpeted cor- ridors. The ducal elegancies of life are preserved. The shooting is good.
But I do not think the pre- neni Duke of Marlborough is a happy, or very satisfied man.
It is dimeuït to be the inheri- tor of a dukedom and many titles-and feel the weight of their past-in the mid 20th cen tury.
-(London Express Service).
How Long Before
A Talk-Down
Man Cracks Up?
by MARK CHRISTIE
re-
soon.
QUESTION: "What sort of positive action?"
ANSWER: "Oh, civil dis- obedience,"
QUESTION: "Strikes too?" ANSWER: "No, not strikes. I don't approve of them."
Mboya went on: "The present Government of Kenya is stupid, scared, and having lost all self- confidence it is now rapidly los- ing control of the situation 投热 well."
You know, if I were a Euro- run leader in this way of these aspirations, because would certainly not stand in the
the inevitable to do so gives impression that it is the Eure-
obstacle frustration, hatred and arouses freedom, and this creates
racial, feelings.
pean who is
the
Surely is in the interests of that the European commamity. they accept these demands promptly and with good grace.
QUESTION: "If you ret what
Drastic
*This situation calls for and it is no drastic measures use tackling the problem piece- meal," he said.
can afford the purchase price of At present very few Africans a ferm£5,000 upwards. Mboya proposes to take care of that by introducing a big never never"
you want by next year, what of the long-range prospect?"
ANSWER: "I cannot think of Konya remaining a Colony for more than five more years at the very outside. Something will have to give before that,"
Now how about that question ing centres so that the Africans...
payments plan and farm train- of the "White Highlands" and can maintain proper standards allowing Africans and Aslans to on their new property. He means to see the newly start forming there in what has So there we are. A diramish
been Governor, Sir Patrick hitherto
all-white lookout for the White High- Renison, this week,
preserve of 5,000 farms?
landers if Mboya gets his hand Some very tough talk on that on the plough, you may be sure.
Speeches ban
arrived
"I shall tell the
Governor
an
that we are determined on two one-but still delivered in those It will be goodbye to the White things: ONE-sweeping Consti- Warm near-whispers. "The Highlands and here come the
ali
And
the multi-coloured mountains.
concerning tutional changes by next year; White-paper TWO an immediate end to the White Highlands is no good at
And among the people who present State of Emergency."
does not meet our are sure that Mboys will soon Mboya is especially irked by demands," said Mbuya,
become the Nkrumah of East the State of Emergency, which
"It is so much eyewash and Africa is certainly Mboya hirm- still drags on in spite
simply serves to perpetuate the self. There is no mistake as to fact that the last serious clash status quo, with the whites just who is No. 1 on Mboya's with the Mau Mau was nearly hanging on to their arms. hit parade. It's a lounge-suited to Luo tribestun with a low voice Under its regulations Mboya ensure that the Africans we whose first name is Tom. is not allowed to make speeches don't want the Asians up there
three years ago.
of the
anywhere in Kenya outside
Nairobi.
"Do you call this a demo- cratic form of government?" he asked me in his low drawl.
watches progress right on to the runway, breathing directions into his microphone and listening to It is this same State of Emer- replies through his earphones,gency that at present threatens A deviation of a degree could Mboya's liberty more directly. mean death to hundreds.
Under a magistrale's order he They now earn from £000
sign a bond In Grade 3 ronde to
is being asked to But sometimes the fog is so year
to be of £2,400 a year in saior posts.
goud bad that neither pilot nor con- promising
behaviour for three months. The award is a timely one, troller
can sec outside. On
He Bally refuses London year,
special screen,
siga Airport another
Why should 17").
Greater
ed "blind."
"If
a
'The obstacle'
"The Government has got
-(London Express Berview),
Just Fane That
London. THEN ushers were unable to find who was knocking
W overhead during a trial at Middlesex Sessions, the
chairman, Mr Ewen Montagu, said: “If It does not stop soon the man will be committed for contempt of court.” The unknown knocker stopped soon afterwards.
FIN
* * *
London.
TAINED £5 for driving "when not in a position to
have proper control of his car," John Kelvin Bunner confessed to the court:
on his screen. Each presents a flight to Munich, a cargo to Amsterdam or a hundred American visitors. This
The pilot is told the expects to handle a record traine complete map of the runways height to fly, the number of 4,000,000 people, half a million, and the aircraft on it is used to more than in 1958. That means guide pilots arriving and leaving. of the runway he will use that about 133,000 airplanes will The whole operation is perform-
He comes up before the, and is given a weather re- land and take off in 12 months.
magistrates again in a few days,! port, Visibility is good to-
our radar packed up, Iand he maintains that he will day, and front the 130 ft.
don't know what we would do," "go inside" rather than sign. airport tower the dome of
says Bill Woodruff. "All our Back to the long-term pros
here is duplicated, pecia equipment St Paul's and the battle- It also means that the number and sometimes
"Kenyn
must have Calmly the controller in mented silhouette of Wind- of airplanes flying over Britain sets.
we have three responsible government by 1961. the darkened room watches sor Castle mark
Without it we could not meaning that we must be in
"I am not in the habit of driving with my arm the sky-
will be greater than at any time handle more than 15 airplanes charge of our country.”
around the girl in question, but I was feeling particularly the
progress of the blobe line.
since the war, so that the work an hour.
"The of the three air traffic control
new Government has happy that day."
universal "Hold it there. You're on Prestwick,
centres in Londen, Preston end In its present guise, air traffic got to be based on
airplanes control has only been in opera- big gold watch on his tracking
the suffrage," Mboya paused, deam. Two-siz-zero."
across a
wrist great sweep of sky tion since the war. from the Atlantic to the North
glistening in the sunshine, then Nobody is therefore sure fustuttered a threat, The pressure on the controllers how long the working life of a But it was delivered in so is correspondingly great.
Relax with Mr Brandyman
a long, refreshing drink with ginger ale or soda
Make the most of MARTELL. Make it a long drink-a long, luxurious, stimulating drink, with Ginger Ale or Soda--and ice, if preferred. You'll be glad you took the tip from Mr. Brandyman.
Make friends with
MARTELL
Sole Agents: DODWELL'S CO., LTD.
zero.
Sea and the Channel, is busier,
Birmingham. CORONER ruled recently that Violet Lawrence, 51, committed suicide because she had to have all her good contrciler is. "We are still silky a voice, in so mellow teeth pulled and "hated the idea
of meeting people mammer that at first I didn't) without them.” So is the strain of controlling Mr Woodruff with
And that out," says sound like one. trying to
smile. their work, Mr. William Wood-
* "Perhaps
we can go on until
I intend to tell the Governor that if we are not granted
Loughton.
The airplane comes in. Within five miles of the aerodrome, approach control hands over to landing control at the very top of the tower:
Again the plot is fed with facts.
"The time here is two-o-five, Ground wind speed two-eight- ruff, senior air traffic control the age of 60, perhaps we might
officer at London Airport, agrees, erack up at 50. Nobody knows." the new Government by next HRISTINE THAXTON, 4, strangled other day but he still would not like any other job, "It's exciting and responsible and there is always something happening. We take The men who perform this recruits between 23 and 25 years dally miracle of guiding dir- old with a background of air- planes from email radar screens crew work and a qualification in have been awarded recently a a second language.
That's eight knots." The Viscount lands smoothly, taxies to its berth, and disgorges Ita human cargo.
Another safe trip.
substantial pay rise. Most of "Training never really ends,
them will in future take home nearly six pounds a week more then they did, and in addition,
We begin by sending them to our centre at Humn near Bourne- mouth, Then they spend nine
will receive a sizeable slab of 13 months at an aerodromo then
months back pay.
TALKING
POINTS
'don't' think that creativity declines with age."
-FANNIE HURST,
Conceit 18 the finest arniour a man can wear.
→JEROME K. JEROME,
* *
The most exhausting thing in life is being in sincere.
-ANNE LINDBERGH.
back to Hurn again. Bui in this Jeb, you're learning all the time. New equipment keeps coming along."
The Strain
Because of the strain, no man is asked to do more than two hours at a stretch watching a radar screens, There are four complote teams of 15 men doing six hours a shift round the clock. They work in almost complete aflence, in darkened rooms with green-tinted windows.
In such an atmosphere two men might-handle as many až 50 airplanes in a peak hour: 25 landing, another 26 taking off. There is a compiliony, medical check-up every year. 36
In bad weather, things get even worse. „A “talking-down"
then comer, into ander screen use, which gives a complete picture of the alreraft, both from the side and top. The controller
Which makes the new pay year then it is going to be very, C after eating a tomato-sized balloon, police said.
rates doubly welcome.
very difficult to quieten the -(London Express Service). African
UPI.
CUMMINGS
"Of course you can co-exist
B Mr. Nahru-
Inside
London Buy