THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, FRSDAY, MAY 7, 1937.
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In handy size aprinkler tina
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WELL KNOWN ANTISEPTIC AND HYGIENIC PROPERTIES IN CONVENIENT FORM FOR GENERAL USE.
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A. S. WATSON & CO., LTD.
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Estd. 1841.
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HONGKONG
HOTEL
CORONATION · CELEBRATIONS
WEDNESDAY
12th
MAY
1937
Early Dinner: $4.00 (from 7.00 to 0.30 p.m.) GROUND FLOOR
DINNER
SPECIAL
& DANCE ON FIRST FLOOR "GRIPPS" 7.30 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Dinner Dance; $6,00 Supper: $3.00
LOUNGE OPEN TILL Z AM.
ADDED ATTRACTION
SZITA & ANIS
SATURDAY
15th
MAY
1937
HOME DELIVERY
of the
now
1937
Vauxhalls
If you are going home on leave, this will interest you.
The
Pagan Month of
TO-DAY Cornishmen dance the Furry Dance, one of the most famous of Eng- land's ancient pagan cere- montes.
May
ciated with the arty crafty folki poles and the odd heathen cerc- By JOHN BETJEMAN ness that turns even a middle- monies not taken over by early
This is said to be a survival of brow sick. For, despite its half- Christianity became so licentious timbered associations, May is that the Puritans of Cromwell's the festivities of the goddess the month in the year when Eng- time made strong efforts to put Flora, who was ever young and land's original nature worship them down..
whose human frailty is well ex- comes uppermost to the surface. There are not the signs of plained in dictionaries of mytho. · NOW that there's so much cul-
Little girls dress themselves licence in these old Pagan core- logy. ture about we express the up in ribbons and flowers; hobby- monies that there used to be. Hobby Horses, which have same things differently. With horace, Jack-in-the-Greens, mor- The vigour of the Puritans and some connection with magic, something of a shock I read the ris dancers, tenzes, and furry the respectability of the 10th still survive. The best I saw following notice on an elegant dancers caper about. All sorts century put an end to them. was the one at the little fishing in Cornwall. We assist you in this connection piece of cardboard in a tailor's of people get a kiss who are not For instance, there used to be part of Padstow, without any trouble or complica window in the Strand: "There expecting one; the very churches a scouring of the White Horse in Here the first of May is herald- tion to yourself.. delivered is 1 definito psychological are decorated, and if Easter falls Berkshire (not, incidentally, a ed in a beautiful morning song to you at home and subsequently stimulus in well-tailored clothes late enough for May flowers, May Day celebration), when all sung at midnight in the streets In Hongkong.
-but never more so than during moss, cowslips and primroses the district used to attend re- of the town.
One of the many verses spring."
hide the font, pulpit and window- vels on the White Horse Hill.
You can arrango now to stop ashore at home and drive away in a now Vauxhall,
Catalogue & Full Particulars from
Hongkong Hotel if they are cultured enough to
Stubbs Rd.
The young men of Padstow they might if they would, For summer is a come unto
day,
I can hear the yokels in elm- sills of the most ill-attended This was stopped in the 'sixties haunts me still:
because it became so unrestrain- embosomed villages throughout country place of worship.
ed. the country croaking agreement
May ceremonies are almost all survivals of earth worship. Baal get the hang of the sentence.
In most places where May was the sun god worshipped on celebrations still continue there If we are still Spring wor- the tops of hills. Baalath was is a sort of official approval of shippers in the big cities, how the earth god, worshipped in the them. Phone 27778/9. much more are country people form of trees and flowers.
At Helston in Cornwall, to- Spring worshippers?" The pay- Naturally May, when the earth day's Furry Dance is run by a chological stimulus" is as definite seems to come awake again, is committee. The Furry Dance,
Garage
The
They might have built a ship and gilded her with gold In the merry morning of
May.
The tune, with its extraordi-
as the richest tailor could wish. particularly sacred to the earth despite its committee, has still nary rhythm, can never be re- It is unlucky that the merry god. The ceremonies connected plenty of life in it, and the dan- produced except by Padstow month of May should be general- with the earth god are also con- cers, in steeple hats, go in and people. It seems as though the ly written ye merric monthe of nected with fertility; indeed, the out of the open doors of houses pagan gods are looking down on
(Continued on Page 4.)
Hongkong Telegraph. Mate, and that it should be asso- fertility ceremonies round May- singing.
FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1937.
AN AMNESTY ?
There was a small item in the cabled news yesterday of which the Hongkong authorities might well take note. It was to the effect that the Rhodesian Government is declaring a general amnesty of all first of- fenders who are serving prison terms of three months or less on Coronation Day, and that the South African Government is expected to take similar action. It would be an appropriate ges- ture if the crowning of the new King and Queen could be marked here in Hongkong by an amnesty along the same lines. There are at the present mo- ment some 2,600 prisoners in the gaols of this Colony, a re- cord number. So congested have the prisons become that it is stated that Laichikolt Gaol, recently closed down, is to be reopened, both Victoria Gaol und the completed portion of the new prison at Stanley having their maximum number of inmates. It was the Govern ment's intention to make tem- porary use of Victoria Gaol us a market, pending rebuilding of the Central Market, but it would appear that this plan will now! have to be abandoned. To what extent an amnesty on the lines)
declared of that being
in Rhodesia would relieve the pre- sent congestion locally, we do not know, but it is common knowledge that the overcrowd- ing of the Colony's gaols is in large measure due to prison sentences being passed for pure- ly petty offences. It is to be conceded that an amnesty, how-
prisoners many effected, would only bring about a temporary relief in the posi- tion, but conceivably it would enable the authorities to Lide jover the situation to such
ever
were
an
extent as to permit the com- pletion of Stanley Prison with- out any necessity for re-opening Be the Laichikok institution. SUPPER
that as it may, the Colony's prisons are becoming so over- crowded that the time has come when tho Government should consider the whole question of Magistrates imposing prison sentences for the pettiest of offences. In this connection, the disparity in punishment so often revealed in the Police Courts suggests the desirability of drawing Magistrates solely from the legal side of the Government service, a reform which, we believe, is being undertaken in Malaya. To re- turn to the point of the declara- tion of an amnesty, it will be conceded that the majority of the short-term prisoners who would be affected thereby are not criminals; some are poverty- atricken parents of children whose lot, in the absence of their fathers or mothers, must be even harder than usual. It would therefore be a merciful
given their freedom on a day of} general rejoicing.
CORONATION
GALA NIGHT
IN THE "CRIPPS"
9 p.m. to 3 a..
Dinner Dance: Non-Diners
$7.00 $2,00
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THE HONGKONG & SHANGHAI HOTELS, LTD. gesturo if these people could be
D
66
BABES-IN-ARMS”
has now a new meaning
ICTATORS want more babies. They always have done.
Many people in this country also want more bables, although their motive is merely maintenance of the national population at or near present levels.
Authorities ponder gloomily over statistics suggesting that if each married couple do not have an average of 3.7 babies, the population of England is going to be about four million in a few decades' time.
If war comes perhaps that low figure may be reached fur earlier. But even if not, it is hard to see why everything a statistician says ought-to-be- taken as Gospel.
How many such statements have you heard before? My first Illusion-shatterer was in one of grandma's history books. Pub- lished when Queen Victoria was а "resoluto young tit" Creevey's words, not minet said that by 1850 London would stretch in one unbroken mass down to Brighton.
A bit before that, Malthus had prophesied that the growth of population was shortly to out- distance the supply of food, whereupon world famine was presumably to become due.
That manklad to-day should be starving in the midst of plenty would have astounded him. Many of us can remem- ber Mr. Sidney Webb's prophecy in the early days of the last war that dire unemployment would soon result, and that therefore public schemes would have to be pushed on with; whereas it be- camo necessary to concentrate nearly all the national energy upon war prosecution.
Prophets have a wonderful way of missing the target. Possibly the only prophecy cer- tain to be accurate is that if any future event, whether it be the end of the world or the name of the next Derby winner, be ut- tered with suficient prophetic cmphnals, there will be no shortage in the supply of the credulous
standing around ready to bolleve it.
It may be fairly safe also to guess, even in a world contain-
.................................... WORLD ARMS..
RACE
is linked to a prospective baby race, and in this article women are given SOMETHING TO THINK OVER
~DIKTADEDGE-AUKIAKUNGERARENGURUNENSÆTLIRI
ing Marle Stopes, that there will still be a reasonably adequate population in the future-that is, always supposing the War Lords permiti
No doubt you recall what Napoleon said to the Marshal accompanying him-on-a-night- ride over the corpse-strewn plain of Austerlitz. "One night of Paris will replace all this!
But they are not quite so con- fldent nowadays, these War Lords. The supply of cannan fodder is running as short as the supply of tropical lands awalt- Ing imperialistic exploitation. Marriage subsidies, tres furni- ture and family allowances have done a little in Germany, but nothing like enough to supply sufficient future WERTOTS of Brown Shirts.
Family allowances, all kinds of beneficent distributions at the local
Fascio, donations to fathers of large families, medals and prestige by the cartload for wholesale progenitors-all these boons fall to alter the fact that the birthrate of Italy is declin- ing.
As contraceptives may not be vended there, and as Itallans naturally have a,high fertility rate, one wonders whether the abortions of which Juvenal com- plained in classic Rome are not as frequent nowadays as they were under Augustus in check- ing the number of viable births.
Japan plunges madly down the slope of colossal birthrate towards some disaster, whilst Russia with a quarter of the world to fill increases her birth-. rate perhaps not so unreason- ably..
But what is the sense of any new entrants, coming into
THOUGHT FOR TO-DAY-
When I was born, I did lament and cry, And now each day doth show the reason why.
-RICHARD WATKYNS
起
by Helena Normanton
Baby Race which can only be. looked upon as a parallel to the Armaments Race?
If the women of Latin States are alive to the advisability of proving Dictators' assertions concerning expansion of popu~ lation to be mere nonsense, why should British women go out of their way to alarm them into in-. Grease?
I can well imagine Hitler or Mussolini
to the arguing womenfolk of his nation: "Don't you be gulled by perfidious Eng- land once again!
"Just as they are going to spend £1,500,000,000 on arma ments, 50 their organised womanhood advises a sharp 'In- crosse in the birthrate, They say it is needed for Afty years hence. Now, German (or Italian) women, see that your cradles are full to meet this fresh British menacel. "
And so the weary struggle will go on.
The old truth can never com- pletely vanish that behind all the weapons there must be the human beings to use them or to direct their use. The shortage, present or prospective, of the human material, the making of life precious instead of super- fluous, is the only short-range and long-range answer which matters in a world so mad as to-day's 18.
It is the only reply which can be given internationally. A birth less in Italy cannot be re- placed easily by a birth more elaowhere babica cannot be purchased from abroad like
tanks or bombs. It is the only answer to war which is quite unanswerable.
How well does one recall the plan of Jaures and Koir, Hardie to damp down' war, by an international strike of labour, and the sad way in which the workers of all lands
·་
And it looks as though it ought
to be rather a nice world!
were caught in the nets, each of their own land's propaganda.
You can't catch unborn children: by Wer Lles-it scoms almost too obvious to say that they are not there to be trapped.
If every time a war-monger made a war-provoking speech, the national census authorities re- ceived a few thousand postcards, signed or otherwise, from mothers saying: "That means one child less that I bear for this State" there would, one feels, be a rapid dimi- nution in loud-mouthed war oratory.
If every budget where armia- ments rose had as an inevitable accompaniment a relative decrease. in the birth-rate, what could our politicians do? Buppose every bride on her wedding day
wroto
to the Prime Minister of her country and said: "So long as you keep this country actually and prospec- tively in peace, I will endeavour to bear a child every two or threa years until I have four or five, and Rs soon as the skies darken with war clouds I shall bear no more until the skies are clear again”-- what would worried Prime Minis- ters do?
Are not women who blindly sup- ply cannon fodder the biggest war makers of all? 'At any rate, they provide one of the biggest excuses for war. We must expand! We must have more room for our fast- growing peoplel. Foreigners—out of our way!
Think it over, women of alt nations.. The biggest stay-in striko in all history and the great-
est antidote to war lies within your power, Why not make the world safe for the fewer babies you do bear?