Literary, Sopremis Capri
Monday.
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
March 25, 1940.
MAGAZINE PAGE.
by the Rt. Hon J. R. GLYNES, M.P.
TP I say a word about myself,
it is not prompted by vanity; it is set down as the credential which entitles me back- to write with some ground of personal experience and knowledge of the subject.
I have spent forty-eight years in active service and leadership in one of the largest industria! organisations in Britain. In that period I have been a Member for thirty years and have served three times in a British Govern- ment.
The backbone of our Parlin- mentary Labour Party in pro- vided by the Trade Unions and, fortunately for us, these Unions are not established upon any sectional or denominational basis.
The procedure in the pursuance of the alms and objects is uniformly penceful, with a respect for the law, even when it may be unfair to us. That respect rests upon the fact that by our votes we can make the law, and if it la made badly the fault is ours.
The only general strike which has ever occurred in Britain was in 1020. It was not designed or plotted, but grew out of the conditions of prior lockout of the miners. Even then, breaches of the law were rare and trifling. In a few cases police- men and strikers played football to- gether, and amazed the people of other countries by their good humour.
The Communist Party in Britain hangs on the fringe of the Labour Movement and makes no headway. Communism is not resisted or ignored because there is an objection; to its doctrines of community ite; the objection is to its method' and policy leading to violence and force.
TO THE
THERE may be
changes
dhead even greater thon we have experienced in the last fifty years,
During that time, tiny or- ganisations having little in common, have grown into massive Societies possessing very large funds and an in- fluence and authority previ- ously unknown.
Staffs and officials are of a higher grade, and administra. tive methods tire as good us can be found in grent enpitul- ist organisations.
A long list of Acts of Parliament now restrain employers of labour from doing on the many objectionable things, and other hand compel them to do things, for the good of thele employees.
LAST
MAN
In our view a working-class dictatorship may well be as bad for a notion as any other dictatorship, and we prefer gradually to improve and in due time, by common consent, to transform systems by constitu- tional action through the medium of consent.
*
ཚ
M
THE chief material benefits scured by Labour effort are under the head of social services, They are health provisions, sickness benefits, unemployment, pay, compensation for. accidents and a score of definite personal and social improvement unknown forty years ago.
These gains have come, not as the gifts or im positions of dictators; they are the yield from sustained Labour demands.
We never contemplate that we can lose them, be- cause the Iberties from which they have sprung will be retained and the soul and spirit of Labour pre- served.
Amazing Improvements have taken place in the food, clothing and housing of the people.
The invention of cheap silk fabrics has made it almost impossible to distinguish the mistress from her maid..
The development of working-class flats with elec- trie equipment, refrigerators and bathrooms is one of the greatest revolutions of the age; and it is only be- ginning.
The wireless and the motor-bus have enlarged the horizon of the workers from the parisir pump to the ends of the earth. Why, when I started work, the fastest thing on the roads was the horse trami
In all these things the Trade Union Movement has played a leading, if not n decisive, part. It has worked for the benefit not only of a class but of the
country as a whole,
The workers to-day were making much better use of their leisure.
The tremendous Intellectual impact of many of our Friends and Leaders has been more felt in the homes of the poor than anywhere else and the growth of public libraries, drama leagues, study circles and evening classes in the industrial centres is one of the most important cultural factors of the present time.
BOOK REVIEW
.
Ilours are shorter, conditions gener- ally better, and we are advancing to a stage where workers get an annual holiday for which Industry must pay.
There are numerous Boards on which the workers are represented, to fix wages and regulate conditions in not large number of occupations protected by strong Trade Unions. These Boards have enormously im- of hun- proved the pay and labour dreds of thousands of wage-earners who previously were helpless to de- fend themselves..
knowledge of
a
In many cases the Trade Union wider range of expert displays
under the business discussion than the employer or the head of a State Department who may for conditions in responsible be
Government services,
In associations of both employers and employed there has developed in recent years a new method generally unrevealed for dealing with wage claims and disputes. This method is expressed through the Joint Industrial Councils.
These Councils are very little in the pubile eye. Millions of workers however, affected by their activi- ties. They exist as permanent bodies covering hun- dreds at different occupations,
They have to held regular meetings, and thereby asticlpate and ally much of the feeling which is engen- dered when joint meetings have to be arranged after friction has begun.
* ✡
2
OUR attachment to the people of France has
strengthened with the years.
Much of our kinship has arisen from the fact that France is a land often menaced by a powerful and ambitious neighbour.
We are destined to sland together, and the recent words of M. Daladier, used with reference to Britain, so perfectly express our own feeling towards France that 1 will quote them here:-
"Never have the bonds with Great Britain been se strong and so compelling as they are to-day. It is not merely a question of community of ideals or corresponding interests. There has been through! this struggle for the same cause a complete fusion of the moral, military and economic resources of the two countries between France and her loyal ally." The present period of world-history (world-hys- teria some call it) shows very clearly how in times of of democratic habit surrender
stress and danger, self-government and their right of
criticism to
their freedom taliturkin State, placing their trust is sume small group of men who thrive on danger, who are masters of
of the art of manipulating publie crmation, and who have at their disposal on inmense apparatus for controlling It.
The British sense of freedom is u supreme posses- sion. Without it we would feel a loss of soul and self- respect. We may do things badly at times, but we cant endure that beller than having a band of tyrants to do them. Even good government is no substitute for self- government in a country where freedom has long been enjoyed.
We in Britain pride ourselves lint at any rate
We' we still keep our democratle traditions intact. will defend them to the last man.
[COPYRIGHT]
MATA HARI, the DANGER
MATA-HARI, the dancer and
most famous woman spy,
Is the subject of yet another story.
It is told by Robert Boucard, officer who a French navai served under Admiral Sir Re- ginald Hall, the greatest of Britain's war-time intelligence chiefs, in the "Mixed Bureau" at Folkestone, which consisted of British, French and Belgian officers.
In 1914 Mata-Harl followed the German army into Belgium, sailed for England in a cargo boat, and then went to France, where she lived under the name of Margaret Zelle.'
But the French Secret Service had known that she was in the pay of Germany as far back as 1905, and when she appeared in Parls carly in the War, and communicated with Berlin through the Dutch Lo- gation, she was closely watched.
"Sho may have been pretty at height of her youth," says Bou card, "but the woman who, in 1910, came to ask the Second Bureau for a permit to stay in Vitel, which was in the war zone, had suffered the inevitable
Ume.
eyes were puffy and blood- shot, her nuse was rather fattened, and her mouth, with is thick lips, stretched almost from ear to cur,
and uneven
revealing yellow teeth."
* * * SHE went to Vittel to be at the
beside of one of her lovers, a Russian Captain, who had been seriously wounded in Champagne- ("He's the only man I have ever loved," she said)--and to observe what was going on at a nearby aerodrome.
But, at the order of the Minis- try of War, she was shadowed all the time.
n
Yet her skill was more than match for all the traps that were set for her. She was the perfect spy.
In August, 1010, French G.H.Q. decided that she could not be allowed to continue to stay in the war zone.
She protested when she was ordered to return to Paris. "Why do you go on suspecting mo?" she cried. "In order to prove my good faith, I suggest you should let me serve France.
mo!
Crown
"Once I WIZLE the 'Prince's mistress-how he adored It's merely a mailer of my seeing him again, and Fil be able to get inside German General Headquarters.
She wanted to get there by way of Switzerland, but the French Bureau had other ideas, and insisted- that she should travel via Spain. She reached Vigo, and re-embark- ed in the Dutch mallboat Hollandia.
PRITISH destroyers stopped the
vessel on the way to Southamp- ton and found in Mata-Harl's lugg- nge documents which the French Bureau had given her to facilitate her task of winning over the Ger- Imans,
She was Interrogated by Scol Jand Yard, who asked Parks if she should be sent to Havre, Paris replied that she was to go to Spain, and she again found herself at Vigo.
Meanwhile, the enemy secret service in Spain sent messages which
Allled experis were able to decipher.
In one of them Madrid announced the return of agent 21, who re- vealed that she had succeeded in Joining the Frenchi Secret Service and demanded more money,
This message
ended with the piquant words: "Aristide Briand is on terms of greatest intimacy with a Greek princess,"
';
Berlin replied advising Agent.I 21 to call at a bank in the Champs- Elysees to receive 5,000 francs.
Mata-Hari turned up at the bank, and on the following day, February 18, 1017, she was ar- gested by a pollee olleer at the Hotel Plazza, where she was living under the name of 'Mar- garet. Zelle,
*The Secret Services of Europe," by Robert Boucard (Stanley Paul, 12s. 6d.)
解
GRIN AND BEAR IT
By Lichty
SEDLITZ HEMHAW
ATTORNEY
AT LAW-
"I had a hunch old Rufus didn't leave much money when I heard he had written his will on the head of a pin!"
STAMPS COLLECTORS
NEW ZEALAND ISSUE
New Zealand has issued an at- of pletorial stamps tractive set commemorating the 100th anní- versary of British rule. There are 12 values to the set of stampa:
The d. (deep green) pictures the arrival of the Maoris In New Zealand, in 1350; the Id. (bright rose and brown) pictures Caplain Cook, the Endeavor, and Cook's chort of New Zealand made in and blue) 1709; the d. (purple shows the portraits of the last five monarchs of the British Empire;
brown the 2d. (dark
nad blue- green) shows a portrait of Abel Tasman and his ship with which
Zealand he discovered New 1042, and Tasman's chart showing his course along the of New Zealand; the 214d, (blue and green), plciures 'n group of natives and British signing the treaty of Waitangi, February 6, 1840; the 36. (rose and violet) pic- tures the landing of the main body of immigrants on Petone Beach, Jan. 22, 1010; the 4d, (violet and brown) pictures bullock teams, freighters, steam engine and train, and an airplane emblematic of the
West
ZEALAND
ZEALAND
"Progress of Transport"; the bd. (chocolate and light blue) pictures H. M. S. Britomart at Akaron on August 11, 1840; the Od. (green and deep violet) plctures the full rigged ship Dunedin, which car- ried the first shipment of frezen mutton to leave New Zealand on February 15, 1882, also a map of the world and the 12,030 mile route traversed by the ship on its way to London; the 7d. (deep red and Council black) pictures a Maori being held before one of the native meeting houses; Id. (orange and sage-green) pletures a group pan- ning gold in 1881, comparing this with modern dredging scene in 1040; and the is. folive-green and indigo) shows a giant Kauri tree trunk. The set of stamps is very pleasing and it is interesting to note that the highest value is only one shilling.
Pitcairn Island will soon have a set of stamps of its own. This will be u pietarial set of stamps, bi- coloured and of eight values. Each value will deplet some scene or personage of the interesting Island.
New Stamps Issued by New Zealand. “
Go Empress!
on your way.
Canada United States Europe
via
Shanghai-Japan-Honolulu
NEXT BAILING FROM HONGKONG THIS WEEK (Omiting Honolulu).
Due to existing emergency, the consistency of prompt departurer and arrivals of Canadian Pacific Steamships which has been main- Apply to Canadian Pacifie tained heretofore may be disturbed. representative for particulars of sailing dates.
Fast through trains direct from ship's sldo at Vancouver --or stop-ovar at Beautiful Victoria, thence by comfortable," fast B.C. Coast Services to Vancouver-In Canada's Evergreen .Playground -
Sco the Majestic Canadian Rocklos --- Lako Louise, Banff. Stop-overs if you wish. No extra rail fare in Canada for Drawing room or Compartment occupied by ono parson, In summer the scenic Great Lakes Route is an optional inland- soa trip for Trans-Continental passengers.
Canadian Pacific
Union Building-Telephone 20762
SPANS THE WORLD
BURNS PHILP LINE
Passenger & Freight Service To
AUSTRALIA
We havo a vessel sailing
for
Saigon
Madang
Salamaua
Rabaul
Sydney and
Melbourne
about the fourth week
in March
Excellent passenger accommodation with a largo
at
no supplement. number of single cabins Built-in Swimming Bath and Spacious Sports Deck.
Passenger & Freight Agents:
GIBB, LIVINGSTON & CO., LTD.
Tel. 28031
PRESIDENT LINER SAILINGS
P. & O. Bldg.
TRANS-PACific servicE
Fortnightly
To
SAN FRANCISCO & LOS ANGELES via Shanghai, Japan & Honolulu ROUND-WORLD SERVICE
To
NEW YORK & BOSTON
Via
Manila, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Bombay, Sucx, Port Said, Alexandria, Noplos, Genoa, and Marscilies.
** AMERICAN **
PRESIDENT LINES
"ROUND-WORLD SERVICE"
AGENTS FOR TW.A, AND UNITED AIK LINES
12, Pedder Street
Telephone 28171.